X9 Launches Open PKI Forum to Guide New Financial Industry PKI Products

The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) today announced that it has established an open, international PKI (public key infrastructure) Industry Forum for all interested parties. This follows the execution of an agreement with DigiCert, a global provider of digital trust, for that company to produce, market and sell X9 PKI solutions to the financial industry. X9 will control the policies that define these solutions, and the new group will serve as a channel for stakeholder engagement.

The X9 PKI Industry Forum is intended as a platform for current and potential users to provide feedback and receive updates from X9. The forum will facilitate communication between X9 and industry stakeholders, enabling the exchange of concerns, requests, requirements and suggestions. It will also promote the adoption and understanding of X9 PKI solutions. The forum will not have the authority to create or edit X9 standards or policies; it will act as an advisory body to the X9 PKI policy committee.

Membership in the X9 PKI Industry Forum is free of charge, but participants must sign a participation agreement. Proposed participant categories include certification authorities, certificate consumers, service providers and other interested parties. Potential participants can register their interest on the X9 website.

About PKI
A PKI is a set of roles, policies, hardware, software and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates needed for authentication, and manage public-key encryption. The purpose of a PKI is to facilitate the secure electronic transfer of information for activities such as e-commerce, internet banking and confidential email. A PKI is needed where simple passwords are not enough and more rigorous proof is required, both to confirm the identity of the parties involved and to validate the information being transferred. The public key can be published widely, while the private keys to open the messages are held as confidential. Until now, the available PKI solutions have been geared toward browser-managed applications, which has been problematic for other uses.

X9-DigiCert Agreement
Within X9, a study group worked for several years to research and document the issues around using browser-focused PKI within the financial community. DigiCert was a prominent member of that effort, and the company was chosen to develop X9-branded PKI solutions for the financial industry. More than 30 potential use cases have been described, which will define the X9-branded DigiCert PKI products. A joint webinar will present the details of the partnership and the PKI solutions on April 2, 2025.

The fact that the X9 PKI products will be tailored to the particular needs of the financial services industry is a very welcome development. The offerings will not be exclusive to the United States, and it is expected that there will be global interest in these solutions and in the forum.

"The availability of PKI solutions specifically geared to the worldwide financial services industry is a potential game-changer," said X9 Executive Director Steve Stevens. "The forum initiative and the DigiCert relationship align with X9’s commitment to industry collaboration, transparency and the continuous improvement of X9 offerings. The forum also addresses the business needs related to delivering the X9 PKI Solutions. We look forward to a long and mutually advantageous collaboration with DigiCert and the forum’s members."

"This X9-DigiCert partnership is a reflection of the financial sector’s commitment to developing secure and scalable PKI," said Mike Silverman, chief strategy & innovation officer at the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). "We look forward to supporting the collaboration between stakeholders to ensure post-quantum cryptographic agility and resilience across the financial sector."

About the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc.
The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. is a non-profit organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop and maintain national and – through ISO -- international standards for the financial services industry. The subjects of X9's standards include: retail, mobile and business payments; corporate treasury functions; block chain technology; processing of electronic legal orders issued to financial institutions; tracking of financial transactions and instruments; financial transaction messaging (ISO 8583 and 20022); quantum computing; AI, PKI; checks; cloud; data breach notification and more.

X9 acts as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO TC68 (Financial) and TC321 (E-Commerce) and performs the secretariat functions for ISO TC68. Please visit our website (www.x9.org) for more information.

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