Day: September 10, 2002

BMO’s response: no Linux support (not that the OS matters, it’s the browser), and due to the unsecured nature of email they could not respond to previous inquiries (which were, by definition, more secure than most mail that goes through their servers). A word to the wise: it’s just about impossible to send viruses as text/plain (even if you use Outlook). It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Citizens is the only bank left on the list, but they’re also the only bank that hasn’t responded to my questions.

Why are things that should be easy always so hard?

To whom it may concern at the University of Waterloo:

Inbox marketing? Nope. Opt-out? Nope. Forward this announcement to a friend? Nope. Alumni affairs office? Nope. Fundraising? Nope. University of Waterloo? Nope.

Yours most sincerely,

Peter Janes

Answers from two of the online banks as of today. ING states that they don’t support transaction download, while President’s Choice doesn’t answer specifically; both support “the current version” of Netscape, but only ING specifically mentions that Mozilla hasn’t been tested; neither support encrypted e-mail communication; and President’s Choice wins the award for the longest message with the most material unrelated to my questions (like an explanation of what 128-bit encryption is). (ING also included a plug for their interest rate, but did have a sense of humour about the blatant marketing.)

I’m disappointed that I haven’t received a reply from Citizens Bank yet, although one’s been promised at the beginning of [this] week. I like the approach they take, particularly their ethical policy (for example, they will not invest in or do business with any company that manufactures tobacco products or derives significant revenue from tobacco-related production). All things being equal–and I can’t judge that yet–they’re probably first on the list.

No answers yet from BMO.

It surprises me that no financial institutions, particularly virtual banks, support encrypted e-mail; it seems a natural progression from requiring strong encryption for transactions. I’m more surprised that signed mail seems to be completely ignored–even an overzealous virus filter that strips off attachments (like an S/MIME signature) should still allow the text portion of the message through.