UK Finance is supporting Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander to develop a financial services-led digital verification service that could be used to verify property transactions through banking apps.
The service aims to provide a simple and secure way for customers to verify personal details digitally through their banking apps, reducing the need to share physical documents or other information to confirm details such as their age or address.
Based on the relationships banks and building societies have with their customers, the relevant verified information would be shared securely with a third party to enable the completion of transactions or allow access to a service.
Examples of how such a service could be used include making purchases online, verifying age and identity through online platforms, property transactions or opening an account online, UK Finance said.
This would be done without needing to share physical documents such as a passport or utility bills, and would be voluntary and based on explicit customer consent, with customers remaining in control of what data is shared and when.
The initiative is being undertaken separately to the government’s ongoing work on digital identity, but is aligned with the UK digital verification services trust framework and focuses on private sector commercial and retail use cases. It is not intended for public sector use cases, but would complement wider efforts to make services more effective through secure digital verification.
The service has four main aims: to provide trust, control and privacy, with customers choosing what information to share, when, and with whom, with explicit consent required each time; fraud reduction, with secure, bank and building society verified credentials could help tackle scams, fake accounts and synthetic identities; convenience, so customers can confirm their identity quickly and securely without repeatedly providing documents, and efficiency for businesses to help organisations verify their customers more reliably while reducing costs and friction.
Jana Mackintosh, managing director, payments and innovation at UK Finance, said: “The financial services sector is ideally placed to deliver a secure and trusted digital verification service. Using already verified information, shared only with the customer’s explicit consent, could help make digital transactions safer, quicker and more convenient as well as ensuring customers have full control over how their data is used.”
The project has completed proof-of-concept work, using synthetic data to explore the technical, legal and operational requirements of a digital verification service. The next stage will involve a live pilot in a controlled real-world environment to further test the service, which is scheduled to take place in the coming months.
UK Finance and the firms involved are working with Select ID, which is leading the technical design and delivery work. Nick Mothershaw, CEO of Select ID said: “We are pleased to support this industry initiative to explore how trusted, bank-verified information can be used to make digital verification more secure and convenient for customers and businesses.”
UK Finance welcomes expressions of interest from organisations interested in participating in future pilot activity or exploring how the service could support their customer journeys. This includes retailers, digital platforms, other organisations within the digital verification ecosystem, and businesses looking to streamline how they verify customers online.
