GTA Vision
The acceptance of risk is a fundamental requisite of those providing e-commerce schemes. The banks, traditionally, are in the business of accepting risk. In order to map this traditional role onto the emerging virtual market for banking services, it is important that the financial sector take an active part in the creation and usage of certificates. In undertaking this role the financial sector is able to base its proposition on five sound, well-established pillars of stability; namely integrity, security, liability acceptance, the use of standards, and trust. The Global Trust Authority (GTA) is seeking to provide an infrastructure of trust that can be used, by all sectors, to conduct cross border e-business. The co-operative, not for profit model for an umbrella body, is one that has served the financial sector well in the past. The virtual market that is emerging has many unknowns and it is intended that the GTA will take a lead in ensuring that integrity is maintained during the period of transition.

The GTA is proposed as a limited liability, not-for-profit organisation whose members, in the first instance, come from the financial sector and are regulated. The GTA provides an environment whereby transacting parties have confidence that each party can be authenticated, one to the other irrespective of the type of transaction mechanism being used, and that there is a facility for redress if a loss arises as a result of a failure in the identification and authentication mechanisms.