New Site! FBAL.bank

Effective February 1, 2023

FIRSTBANKAL.COM IS NOW FBAL.BANK

This small change can make a big difference when it comes to your security.

At First Bank of Alabama, we’re committed to protecting our customers’ personal and financial information with the most advanced security tools available. And now, one of those tools includes the ‘.bank’ domain.

CYBER CRIMINALS COMMONLY TARGET BANKS AND THEIR CUSTOMERS.

As you can imagine, banks and their customers are prime targets for cyber scammers and hackers. This includes sending customers fake emails and messages designed to look and sound like their trusted bank and directing them to websites that also look like their bank’s site. Because anyone can buy a domain that ends in ‘.com’, it’s easy for digital criminals to send these emails and create these fraudulent sites.

ONLY BANKS CAN USE ‘.BANK’

Unlike ‘.com’, which can be used by anyone, ‘.bank’ is exclusively reserved for verified banks. This means the bank has been confirmed as an eligible organization and met very specific security requirements. Banks using ‘.bank’ are monitored for compliance with these security requirements on an ongoing basis.

HOW ‘.BANK’ HELPS PROTECT YOU.

‘.bank’ is a visual confirmation that the website you are visiting is authentically First Bank of Alabama. It really is that simple. If you see ‘.bank’, it’s legitimate. If you see communications from us with ‘.com’, they are not. As you can see, ‘.bank’ is a simple yet powerful tool for protecting our customers from fraud.

THIS CHANGE IS GOOD. AND WE’LL MAKE IT EASY.

This is a very positive, important change that will help give you a more secure banking experience. And, for the time being, we’ll make it easy by automatically directing website traffic from ‘FirstBankAL.com’ to ‘FBAL.bank’.  However, we encourage you to update your bookmarks with our new ‘.bank’ domain.

WE KNOW YOU’LL HAVE QUESTIONS.

That’s why we’ve prepared a comprehensive set of FAQs for you. We hope you’ll take the time to review them.

FAQs ABOUT ‘.BANK’

WHAT IS. ‘.BANK’?

‘.BANK’ is a gated domain, like ‘.gov’ or ‘.edu’, but for verified banks. Replacing ‘.com’, which can be purchased by anyone, ‘.BANK’ quickly verifies that the website authentically is our bank, so you can interact with confidence when you see the ‘.bank’ at the end of our website URL.

HOW IS ‘.BANK’ MORE SECURE?

All banks are verified and authenticated by FTLD, the ‘.bank’ administrator, prior to registering their ‘.bank’ domain, and re-verified annually thereafter. This ensures everyone using a ‘.bank’ domain is an eligible organization. Hackers and bad actors can’t get a ‘.bank’ domain to create lookalike domains for phishing and spoofing, as they can in ‘.com’ and other publicly available domains. With the ‘.bank’ visual authentication cue in place you can quickly confirm our website is real, and avoid interactions that could lead to identity theft and financial fraud. This authentication is also an additional layer of protection for our internal and vendor communications, helping us to further secure against potential breaches. All banks within the ‘.bank’ domain must also implement additional Security Requirements to help secure their sites and email, and protect them, their vendors and their customers from phishing, spoofing and other cyberattacks. All banks using ‘.bank’ are monitored for compliance with these security requirements on an ongoing basis.

DO I NEED TO DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY NOW THAT YOU’RE IN ‘.BANK’?

Our website URL now ends in ‘.bank’. From now on, before interacting with our website, and before you enter your username and password on our website, simply look for the ‘.bank’ to authenticate that the website is ours. Our ‘.com’ website redirects to our new ‘.bank’ site, but over time you should update your bookmarks for the new site domain.

YOU’RE THE FIRST ‘.BANK’ I’VE SEEN. WHY HAVEN’T ALL THE OTHER BANKS MOVED?

The move to ‘.bank’ is a business decision every bank must make, and plan for, based on its own priorities and resources. We decided it was a priority for us to enhance our security and provide our customers with an easy way to authenticate our website so we’ve made the move to ‘.bank’. For security purposes, our website URL now ends in ‘.bank’ instead of ‘.com’; look for the ‘.bank’ before interacting with any website of ours