In October 2005, the five federal banking regulators (under the FFIEC umbrella) issued guidance to the financial institutions they supervise. The guidance recommends that financial institutions deploy security measures to reliably authenticate their online banking customers. The guidance requires that banks assess the risks of their online banking operations, and implement multifactor authentication, layered security, or other controls reasonably calculated to mitigate those risks.

Compliance with the guidance is expected by the end of 2006.