ING Direct Rewrites The Book On Check Security

For the first time in its 11-year history, ING Direct is sending customers checkbooks. But the checks are useless until they pass a gauntlet of security measures the online bank designed.

ING Direct's patent-pending process requires customers to first go online to activate each checkbook, much like they would activate credit cards by phone before their first use. Customers cannot order checks with custom images (no pictures of family members or Snoopy), because the design of each check is also part of ING Direct's security.

The checks are available only to holders of the Electric Orange account, which ING Direct introduced in late 2006. The product was conceived as a "checkless checking" account; the bank hoped customers could make all payments online.

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