Editorial

Digital Identity: Global Roundup

Digital identity news from around the world

Posted 30 January 2023 by Christine Horton


Nigeria

SMEs have been charged to embrace business growth opportunities offered by digital identity and consumer analytics to scale their operations and unlock growth within the ecosystem.

Esigie Aguele, co-founder and CEO of VerifyMe Nigeria  said: “One of the biggest impediments to the growth of SMEs in the country has been the absence of a trust infrastructure that will stimulate sustainable growth within the space. This void not only hinders SME entrepreneurs from accessing financial and other services critical to their growth but also stifles their prospects of scaling due to the lack of credible consumer insights.

“For example, VerifyMe’s B2B platform, QoreID, connects businesses to trusted identities and consumer analytics, enabling financial institutions like banks, fintechs, and credit lenders to provide loans to SMEs faster and more securely. Our Know Your Business (KYB) verification platform provides lenders with accurate reports on businesses so that these businesses can get assessed easily. We also give reports to our customers on those businesses.”

United Kingdom

Onfido has achieved certification for high confidence profile H1A under the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework.

The certification serves use cases “where a higher confidence level in digital identity verification is required.”

The trust framework is part of the UK government’s wider plan to make it easier and more secure for people to prove their identity online. It provides a set of rules for organisations to adhere to in order to provide secure and trustworthy digital identity.

Global

The global digital identity management solutions market is expected to reach $70.8 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 15.4 percent during the forecast period of 2023 to 2030. The growth of this market is mainly attributed to the increasing frequency and sophistication of authentication and identity fraud in the BFSI sector, government initiatives encouraging the adoption of digital identity management solutions, and the integration of biometric capabilities into mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the Europe decentralised identity market is expected to witness market growth of 77.8 percent CAGR between 2022 and 2028.

France

IDnow has announced Bertrand Bouteloup as its new chief commercial officer (CCO). Based in France, he will assume the group-wide commercial end-to-end responsibility.

For the past six years, Bouteloup held the position of Vice President of Sales at ARIADNEXT, which was acquired by IDnow in June 2021.

His previous position of VP of sales within the IDnow group will be filled by Cyril Patou, who most recently held the position of regional director for France, Alps and Southern Europe at Clear Skye. Patou has more than six years of experience in the digital identity sector, having worked for One Identity and Ping Identity in France.

India

The Union government has set up India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development. The task force will be co-chaired by India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant and Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani.

The task force will “oversee and facilitate achieving India’s G20 Presidency agenda and priorities on digital public infrastructure, financial inclusion, promoting digital identity, improved and innovative technology-based services including digital payments system like UPI along with the governance frameworks.”

An order was issued by the Ministry of Finance for the constitution of the task force on January 21, 2023. As per the order, the task force is expected to “create a detailed map of India’s digital infrastructure across sectors (finance, health, education, skilling, data, taxation, digital commerce, mobility, and beyond) & shortlisting key digital infrastructure to be presented by India within the individual G20 tracks.”

Brazil

Digital identity start-up Caf has announced the launch of its global Know Your Everything platform, which it claims will “enable businesses to protect their users, create optimal digital experiences and ultimately drive revenue.”

The company says that in a world of embedded finance and “everywhere commerce,” businesses cannot rely solely on KYC and KYB standards to create seamless on-boarding experiences for customers whilst effectively managing risk and compliance. Instead, they “must know everything about every user that interacts with their business on every digital platform, whilst maintaining data security and protecting user privacy. To do this effectively, businesses need to re-think processes and implement new technologies.”

In 2022 Caf opened offices in the USA, UK and Canada, and ended the year with a 250 percent increase in revenue, 80 percent increase in customers and doubling its staff.

United States

Rep. Bill Foster is planning to reintroduce his bill meant to spur government action on digital identity, he said on Tuesday.

Foster has backed the proposal in the last two Congresses meant to push the government to take a more active role in digital identity verification by allowing agencies to provide opt-in identity validation services, for example. The proposal would also set up a task force to come up with recommendations on digital identity.

Foster said during keynote at a policy forum hosted by the FIDO Alliance, Better Identity Coalition and Identity Theft Resource Center that the bill was “darn close” to passing in the last Congress, coming down to a “single member” with objections.

Foster initially introduced the proposal, the details of which have changed over time, in 2020 and then again in 2021. Last year, Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and former representative Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) cosponsored the measure in the House. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced the bill in the Senate last year.

Australia

NSW minister for customer service and digital government Victor Dominello has suggested that the state will have a functional digital identity pilot up and running before the March state election, with online alcohol sales again firming as the launch pad for the ambitious project.

Brandishing an unopened, no-name bottle of red wine in a LinkedIn post, Dominello said “details of a digital ID pilot — where you can verify that you are over the age of 18 without having to provide primary documents” would be forthcoming over the next few weeks.

The recent series of prominent Australian corporate hacks, followed by huge dumps of sensitive personal data on the dark web, has acted as a catalyst for state and federal agencies to revisit verification processes that store huge volumes of copied personal identity data.

Southeast Asia

Element Inc has formed a strategic partnership to build additional security based on digital identity into the open finance technology of Brankas.

Element will provide biometric liveness checks and identity verification technology to support digital KYC checks by Brankas clients in Southeast Asia. Element’s technology will support customer onboarding and authentication.

“Element has the most comprehensive eKYC offering in the region, localised for specific markets,” said Brankas CEO and co-founder Todd Schweitzer. “Their liveness check products and connectivity central databases for identity checks can make Brankas’ Open Banking products more fraud proof.”

Ukraine

Identomat has partnered with Ukraine-based compliance and business intelligence technology provider YouControl to offer secure remote identity verification and digital KYC checks.

Under the partnership, Identomat will supply selfie biometrics and iBeta Level 2-tested liveness detection for KYC, anti-money laundering (AML) and politically exposed persons (PEP) checks. The integration is intended to provide efficient and affordable remote identity verification amid Russian fraud attempts and otherwise challenging circumstances.

The move unifies what had previously been an identity verification process carried out with two separate solutions, according to the announcement.