United Kingdom
New research from ID Crypt Global reveals that the number of businesses operating in the UK’s digital identity theft protection market is set to increase five percent despite market revenue struggling to match pre-pandemic levels.
The data shows that in 2021, pandemic pressures saw the digital ID theft protection market’s annual revenue slump to £331.2 million. In 2022, however, the market showed good signs of recovery by increasing revenue to £324.6 million.
ID Crypt says now that, by the end of 2023, revenue is expected to rise again to £331.9 million. While this post-pandemic recovery is promising, market revenue is yet to reach its pre-pandemic highs when, in 2018, revenue totalled £360.5 million.
Bhutan
Bhutan — a small Himalayan nation with fewer than 800,000 people — has decided to roll out a national digital identity system for all its citizens.
“National digital ID is the platform on which digitization and online services of banks to hospitals to taxation to universities, everything can come online with 100 percent assurance,” Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holding and Investments, the commercial and investment arm of the government which developed the system, told Rest of World.
The national ID system has been built using blockchain technology, which will provide each individual a self-sovereign identity, meaning it can only be controlled by the citizen.
The country’s seven-year-old crown prince, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, was the first to enroll in the new system, and it is expected to reach the rest of the population within the year, Dahal said.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Technology Kanaka Herath says the government is taking measures, including the planned enactment of data protection legislation, to ensure the privacy and security of personal data to be collected for the country’s digital ID project.
Herath said the government had already obtained the accord of parliament for a Data Protection Act, Economy Next reports. The official added that they also hope to put in place a Data Protection Authority this month.
Data privacy concerns have been raised by stakeholders in Sri Lanka over the decision to award the contract to an Indian firm, Madras Security Printing. The project will involve the collection of biographic information as well as face, fingerprint and iris biometrics to be stored and managed in a centralised database.
United States
Socure is provide its identity technology to fantasy sports gambling platform PrizePicks.
The company says the partnership has helped PrizePicks experience double-digit growth in new member approvals. Its solution verifies new player identities in real-time with selfie biometrics, including know your customer (KYC) verification and identity fraud identification.
PrizePicks is available in 31 US states, Washington DC, and most of Canada, as per Biometric Update.
Canada
Sumsub has reached a partnership deal with AML Incubator, a Canadian anti-money laundering (AML) and regulatory compliance outsourcing company.
UK-based Sumsub will help AML Incubator streamline the onboarding of the regtech’s fintech clients, verifying users and legal entities. The onboarding integration includes face biometrics and document verification for know your business (KYB), KYC and AML checks, transaction monitoring and more. AML Incubator provides services to clients across the US, EU and Canada.
Elsewhere, verification and authentication provider VeriFast is partnering with fellow Canadian company Inovatec Systems, which makes cloud-based software solutions for lenders.
Inovatec automates lending processes for customers across North America. With VeriFast’s selfie biometrics and aggregation of applicant data from disparate sources, its clients will be able to digitally verify the identity and income of applicants, while adhering to all data privacy.
United Kingdom
Embedded finance platform, FutureBank, has partnered with digital ID verification company IDVerse (previously known as OCR Labs Global) to accelerate customer onboarding through digital identity verification (IDV).
New FutureBank customers can access the IDVerse software as part of its offering. IDVerse customers looking for a middleware platform can connect their API credentials to benefit from FutureBank’s platform.
United Kingdom
UK-based digital ID verification firm OneID has obtained £1 million in new funding from ACF Investors, a venture capital fund, to enhance its online authentication solution.
“The investment from ACF Investors is a coming together of similar interests and visions. As the world increasingly becomes digital-first, we aim to minimize fraud, enhance online experiences, and make the world a safer place,” said OneID Chief Executive Officer Paula Sussex, who was appointed to the role in April.
“ACF is our second institutional investment, and it is a vote of confidence in our efforts to make digital identification accessible and available to more UK citizens.”
Philippines
Organisations in the Philippines may face fines if they refuse the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Identification Card (PhilID) as a valid proof of identity
There have reportedly been complaints from low-income residents that some government offices and financial institutions have refused to accept their national IDs.
Those that refuse to accept it face sanctions under Section 19 of RA 1105 with fines reaching 500,000 Philippine pesos (US $8,820).
Italy
Signicat has integrated the Italian e-identity system, SPID (Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale), into its electronic identity portfolio. Being the first international aggregator to offer SPID, Signicat enables companies and public administrations across Europe to interact with SPID users for customer onboarding and authentication purposes.
There are more than 35 million Italians already utilising SPID.
The integration of SPID, which is eIDAS compliant enables European corporates to offer SPID in their Italian onboarding journeys. Italian citizens residing in other European countries can use SPID for services such as opening bank accounts, renting cars, or signing mortgages, provided the service providers accept it.