New extension
.bank domain name
What you need to know about .bank: who can register it, which details are required and how transferring works.
Specifications
The key details of .bank
- Registry
- register.bank
- Registration period
- 1 to 10 years
- Renewal period
- 1 to 10 years
- Domain name length
- 1 to 63 characters
- Time to registration
- immediately
- Transfer time
- 5 days
- Renewal on transfer
- yes, transferring renews the domain
- Transfer lock available
- yes
- Number of nameservers
- 0 to 13
- Renewable after expiry date
- 35 days
- Quarantine after deletion
- 30 days
Features
- DNSSEC: yesYou can secure your domain name with DNSSEC.
- IPv6: yesThe nameservers for this extension can also be reached over IPv6.
- Special characters: yesDomain names with letters such as é, ü or ø (and sometimes other scripts) are possible.
- Whois privacy: no
- Trustee: no
Requirements
Who can register a .bank?
- Only organisations in the banking sector may register a .bank domain name. The domain name must be related to your organisation.
- State, regional, provincial and national banks that hold a licence and are supervised by a government regulator are eligible.
- Licensed savings institutions supervised by a government regulator may also register.
- Associations whose members are mainly such banks or savings institutions may register, as may groups of such associations.
- Service providers that are mainly owned by such banks or savings institutions, or that mainly support them, are eligible if the registry's board approves.
- Government regulators of banks and savings institutions, and organisations whose members are mainly such regulators, are eligible if the registry's board approves.
- Bank holding companies may not register, as they aren't banks and don't provide banking services. A bank holding company can, however, be listed as the administrative contact.
- If your bank itself offers services such as mortgages, leasing or investing, registration is allowed. If those services are provided by a separate legal entity that isn't eligible itself, it isn't.
- Read the .bank eligibility policy and security requirements carefully before you apply, so you avoid being rejected.
- Your domain must meet the registry's security requirements, including DMARC for email and encryption for website traffic, email traffic and file transfers.
- You can't register names on fTLD's list of reserved names. You can check which names are reserved on the registry's website.
- If you want a reserved name to be released, you can file a formal challenge with fTLD under the reserved names policy.
Additional details for registration
- You need a registration token, which fTLD gives you once your application on the .bank website has been approved.
- You provide the details of your organisation and of the registrant's contact person, including phone number and address.
- fTLD asks for the name of the government regulator that supervises your organisation, plus the registration number with that regulator.
- You also provide contact details for your HR department and for a manager, so employment and authority can be verified.
Documents
- If you challenge the reservation of a name, you use the fTLD-Reserved-Names-Challenge-Policy-BANK form and send it to fTLD.
- With such a challenge, you provide proof that the domain name matches your trademark, trade name or service mark. The form states what proof is required.
Good to know when registering
- You first fill in an application on the .bank website. Once approved, fTLD gives you a registration token, which WebOké uses to register the domain name for you.
- On registration, extra security is set up that is mandatory and can't be turned off. Every change to the domain requires a code that is sent to the registrant's email address.
- Your details and your organisation are fully verified. You may be asked to confirm employment and authority as part of this.
Transfer
Transferring a .bank
- Request the transfer code from your current registrar and give it to WebOké to start the transfer.
- Make sure there's no transfer lock on the domain; you can see this in the WHOIS. You can ask your current registrar to remove a lock they've set.
- Once the transfer has started, your current registrar is notified through the registry.
- Your current registrar sends an email to the registrant and possibly the administrative contact, sometimes with the option to approve or reject the transfer.
- If you neither approve nor reject the transfer, it will be completed automatically after 5 days.
- A transfer includes a renewal. If your last full verification was more than 20 months ago, a new full verification takes place first; otherwise the renewal is processed straight away if nothing has changed.
The transfer code
- A transfer requires a transfer code. The registrant or the administrative contact can request it from the current registrar.
- The code is 8 to 32 characters long and contains at least one letter, one number and one special character.
Owner
Change of registrant
Change of registrant
- A transfer to a different owner follows ICANN's transfer policy.
- If the organisation's name changes, a new full verification takes place.
- Changes to the domain are only possible with a valid security code sent to the registrant's email address.
Renewal, cancellation and quarantine
- Your domain must be re-verified at least every two years, or sooner when it's renewed.
- On renewal, a new full verification takes place if the previous one was more than 20 months ago. If it was 20 months ago or less and nothing has changed, the renewal is processed straight away.
- If your domain has been registered for more than two years, a full verification takes place every two years, even if your details have stayed the same.
- Keep your details up to date, such as organisation details, contact person, phone number and address, so the re-verification goes smoothly.
- Let your HR department know that a request to confirm employment and authority may come in, so they respond quickly.
- If no one can be reached, the verification party leaves a security code on the voicemail. You need to give that code when you call back to complete the verification.
More information
Registry rules and links
- Registry website register.bank
- Dispute resolution policy register.bank
- Registry terms and conditions ftld.com
Related extensions
View all domain extensionsCompiled from the registry's rules. Registries sometimes change their rules; if in doubt, the registry's terms take precedence. Updated on 11/11/2026.