A consortium of leading European private and public sector organisations has announced it will begin a ground-breaking pilot into the use of a citizen’s national digital identity from France to open a bank account in the UK.

The consortium comprises HSBC, Barclays, the UK Government Digital Service (GDS), Orange, OT-Morpho and the Open Identity Exchange (OIX UK).

The Project is co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility, which is a European funding instrument that supports the development of interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services.

The consortium will carry out the work using eIDAS (Electronic Identity and Signature) standards, which is a set of official standards for electronic identification and transactions in the European Single Market, built for the public sector and this project will test how these can be used for the private sector. The Consortium will utilise the Mobile Connect authentication process allowing the user to request a digital ID that is validated via eIDAS, further attributes will be collated and shared with the banks.

This project will develop and test a prototype as well as building the service design, infrastructures and operational framework that leverage eIDAS to enable a more trustworthy and efficient account opening process for EU citizens.

Trista Sun, HSBC Global Head of International and Cross Border, said:

“As a leading international bank, it is part of HSBC’s DNA to make a meaningful difference for people with international needs. We are embracing digital and technology innovation to do more for our customers.

We already have a world-class international account opening service. However, currently, customers often have to produce a separate set of identification paperwork when they open a bank account in a new country. The use of recognised, trusted digital IDs across borders will revolutionise this process.”

Jessica Westerouen van Meeteren, OT-Morpho, EVP of Government Identity Solutions Division at Morpho, said:

“As consumers, we have to prove our identity every day, one way or another, and we will be doing this more and more in digital form, primarily through our smartphones and tablets. There is a huge need for technologies to enable remote authentication solutions that are fast, simple and safe. In this innovative project, we are proud to leverage our expertise in digital identity to accelerate the development of identification solutions across borders for users and banks”

Read more: http://openidentityexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CEF-First-Pilot-Testing-ID-for-Cross-Border-Banking.pdf

More information:

For further information, please go to: http://openidentityexchange.org/opening-a-bank-account-cross-border-id-authentication/

This project is the recipient of the funding from the CEF: For more details https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility/cef-telecom