A system and method for integrating the Internet front end sign on
processes of the various systems of a financial institution which allows
a customer to view and access its various financial accounts with the
institution. During the initial sign up for the online access to its
accounts, a customer creates it's User ID and password online during the
same session. Once the customer has signed on (password) and verified
ownership of at least one account, the system displays all of the
customer's accounts that are available for access via the Internet
website. The online ownership verification uses only a single account of
the customer and the ownership verification criteria associated with the
account. The account used for verifying a customer is first determined
based on the accounts selected by the customer for accessing online. From
the selected accounts, the system of the present invention creates a
verification hierarchy with respect to the accounts. When determining the
verification to use for the single ownership verification, the present
invention selects the account from the hierarchy with the most stringent
requirements.