Earlier this year, the Digital Identity Systems Certification (DISC) – a pilot scheme created by the government to enable digital identity service providers (IDSPs) to certify themselves against an agreed framework – announced that it would accept expressions of interest for IDSPs to become certified under the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF).
Since then, formal applications have been made and several IDSPs are now certified under the DIATF.
What is the DIATF framework?
The DIATF framework establishes a set of requirements for IDSPs that enable people to prove who they are easily and securely. According to the British Assessment Bureau, the framework supports certification of IDSPs, the aim of which is to increase adoption of the technology and ensure that it develops so that it can be easily adopted across all industry sectors while providing a secure, streamlined and convenient experience for users.
How is this relevant to conveyancing?
Identity verification requirements differ across sectors, and conveyancing is no exception. Within the home buying and selling process, there are requirements that conveyancers, brokers, lenders and new build developers require over and above just a customer’s identity verification.
Different sectors have different schemes to ensure compliance for those IDSPs working to meet scheme standards.
One example is the MyIdentity scheme, which has been created to test the DIATF and understand what other requirements are needed to support the home buying and selling process.
Parliament has also scheduled digital identity legislation, which is going through its second reading on the 5th of September, into the next session as part of a data reform bill. This will ensure that digital identities, however they evolve, will be trusted and secure. Today’s Conveyancer reported the rationale for this in May:
“Identity proofing is often a frustrating part of the home buying and selling process for a consumer, who might have to repeat the verification process up to five times, providing similar information each time.
The MyIdentity scheme is intended to put the consumer at the heart of the process by providing a single comprehensive identity check, which can then be used by other parties.”
What is meant by a “scheme”?
The recent DCMS update offers a useful definition:
“A scheme is made up of different organisations who agree to follow a specific set of rules around the use of digital identities and attributes. These organisations might work in the same sector, industry or region, which means they will build products and services for similar types of users.
A scheme might help organisations work together more effectively for a number of reasons. For example, it could make it easier for them to comply with the rules of the trust framework or comply with broader rules and regulations specific to a sector(s). The scheme owner sets the rules for their own scheme.”
Note that schemes themselves do not certify IDSPs/AML providers – this is done by government-approved accreditors.
Has this proved successful so far?
Stuart Young, Managing Director at Etive – the coordinators of the scheme – offered his thoughts:
“Industry feedback to the MyIdentity scheme is proving very positive now, and we are finding that the sector is very much in favour of this approach as it creates a set of standards that they can all work towards and most importantly trust.
They understand the friction that customer’s go through having to do multiple IDV’s in different ways, which can often be confusing which leads to many problems when onboarding a new client.
Empirical evidence confirms that this causes delays in the process and incurs operating costs for firms who are unable to onboard a client quickly and efficiently.”
One Response
This article is misleading as support for schemes was essentially dropped in the latest version of the framework. With the DIATF still in its infancy its important that the information given out by publishers is correct.