.bank: Restricted to Verified Banking Institutions
.bank is the most restricted extension in this slice. It was delegated to the root zone on 26 November 2014 and is sponsored by fTLD Registry Services, LLC. The registry describes it as a verified namespace with security requirements designed to reduce cyber threats such as phishing and domain spoofing. The idea is straightforward: the address itself states that the institution behind it has been checked.
Registration is limited to government-regulated banking organisations: retail banks, savings associations, national retail banks and their holding or parent companies. Associations whose membership consists primarily of such institutions, and their government regulators, may also qualify subject to fTLD board approval. Outside banking the extension is closed to you, and you will need another route via domain name search.
.BANK Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation fTLD Registry Services, LLC
- Delegated to the root zone 26 November 2014
- Eligibility Government-regulated banking organisations
- Name rule Must correspond to the legal name or branding
- Document Requirement View required documents
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
Related Domain Extensions
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
.bank Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$1,169.14 /year -
Transfer
$1,169.09 /year -
Renewal
$1,259.09 /year -
Restore
$1,000.00
Included With Every .bank Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.bank Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .bank domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .bank address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .bank domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .bank returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.bank Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.bank Domain Registration
- Document Requirement View required documents
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.bank Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Documents Required for a .bank Domain
Organization (Registrant) Eligibility
To become a .BANK Registrant, your organization must be one of the following government regulated entities:
Retail bank
Savings association
National retail bank
Retail bank or savings association holding or parent company
Frequently Asked Questions About .bank Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Registration is limited to government-regulated banking organisations. That covers retail banks, savings associations, national retail banks and their holding or parent companies. Associations whose membership consists primarily of such institutions, along with those institutions' government regulators, may also qualify subject to fTLD board approval. A business outside banking cannot obtain this extension.
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The application enters fTLD's mandatory verification process through the registrar you choose. The order is the reverse of other extensions: the organisation's eligibility is verified first, and only then is the name registered. Verification covers not just the nature of the institution but whether the selected name corresponds to its legal name or branding. You can inspect the records of an already registered name with a whois search.
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No. Meeting the eligibility condition is not sufficient on its own; the domain you select must correspond to your organisation's legal name or branding. Trademarks, trade names and service marks fall within that. The rule keeps generic and sector words from being locked up and keeps names matched to real institutions — which is exactly what the extension's trust function rests on.
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Because the problem it targets is specific: in banking, phishing and domain spoofing translate directly into financial loss. The registry presents the extension together with security requirements designed to mitigate those threats. The practical result is that every institution entering the namespace meets the same baseline, which is what lets the address act as a verification signal on its own.
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If you cannot meet the eligibility condition, you need an unrestricted extension instead. Where institutional trust is the priority, .com remains the most familiar address. In fintech or advisory work, other endings describe the business more precisely. Using a name that implies banking when you do not qualify is both misleading and a regulatory risk.
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