Swedish regulator PTS has today notified IIS.SE (the .SE ccTld registry) that use of the word “bank” in domain names is illegal in Sweden from here on in.
The press release announcing the change in rules can be found on the PTS website here (text in Swedish, thanks to Patrik Fältström of CircleID for the translation).
Obviously, PTS aims to reduce the number of scams being pulled with folks impersonating banks online or cyber squatting on bank domain names however this is quite short sighted from the regulator considering the various legitimate uses of the term bank within a domain name – think “sperm bank” or “knowledge bank” etc.
It’s just suggestion/recomendation. They (PTS) have no real say in this. There are a lot of “bank” domains registered as of now with fully legit business so the suggested ban of the word bank should only apply for new registrations. Nevertheless, this news, is just a read and igore ’cause it’ll never become a reality.