M News: What's New With Us. What Matters To You.

New changes to our bank URL

In order to provide you with even greater online security, “merchantsbankal.com” is now “merchantsbankal.bank”. Only our URL has changed, but with this simple change comes additional security features designed to keep your personal and financial information safe.

With our transition to merchantsbankal.bank now complete, you can be assured that when they visit our website, or communicate with us electronically, enhanced security and verification requirements are in place in order to reduce the risk of cyber threats and enable us to continue to build on our highly-trusted secure environment.

I don’t see many other banks moving to .BANK, why did Merchants Bank of Alabama, a division of SouthPoint Bank?

 We believe our customers deserve the best online security! We take the security of our customers’ information very seriously and therefore chose to take this extra step to give Merchants Bank of Alabama customers peace of mind when banking with us online. We believe that the .BANK domain provides an additional layer of security that the other top level domains such as .com do not.

Why is .BANK more secure?

 .BANK domains signify that a company has been verified as legitimate and is committed to implementing the additional and mandatory security requirements that go beyond existing standards.  Only verified banks are allowed to use the .BANK domain. Therefore, when you see a domain which ends in .BANK, you can be assured that you are dealing with a legitimate, verified financial institution.

Because of the additional security measures taken in the verification process, cybercriminals can be identified and denied the right to obtain a .Bank domain name. Therefore, the .Bank environment provides an enhanced level of security against imposter sites and peace of mind for our customers and business partners.

What are the enhanced security requirements in .BANK?

 Mandatory verification of charter/licensure for regulated entities ensures the organization requesting the domain is legitimate, the person requesting the domain name is authorized by the company and that the name requested by the company complies with all policies.

• Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) to ensure that Internet users are landing on participants’ actual websites and not being misdirected to malicious ones;
• Email authentication to mitigate spoofing, phishing and other malicious activities propagated through emails to unsuspecting users;
• Multi-factor authentication to ensure that any change to registration data is made only by authorized users of the registered entity;
• Strong encryption to ensure security of communication over the Internet;
• Prohibition of Proxy/Privacy Registration Services to ensure full disclosure of domain registration information so bad actors cannot hide.

Please Note: Our old “merchantsbankal.com” URL will continue to redirect to “merchantsbank.bank”, but be sure to update your bookmarks accordingly. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about our transition to “merchantsbankal.bank”.

Keep Your Family Safe Online With Our New Cybersecurity Awareness Course

Identity theft? Cyberfraud? Email spam? Take defensive measures to protect yourself and your family. Because internet attacks are a growing and costly problem, Merchants Bank is making a free online security course available to our customers right here on our website. This course will help to educate you about safe online banking practices, and also about passwords, giving out personal information, protecting children online, protecting your identity, securing your computer and home network, spam viruses and more such as opening up email and attachments.

Being informed about how to protect yourself against cyber-risks can be a key defense against fraud and identity theft. This course is for all members of your family who are regularly on the internet and is based on real-life stories. It is taught by Kevin Mitnick, an American computer security consultant, best-selling author and known as the world’s “most famous hacker”.

Click here to start the course.