Major Australian banks, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank (CBA), National Australia Bank Limited (NBA), and Westpac, announce their support behind Australian Payments Plus’ (AP+) development and establishment of an open, standards-based national identity infrastructure called ConnectID, to protect customer privacy and drive productivity in the digital economy.
What do the executives think about ConnectID?
Lynn Kraus, CEO AP+ said “This is a major milestone for the Aussie industry’s adoption of digital identity, aiming to securely and deliver a seamless online identity verification to solve real world issues. This includes proving your identity online for age verification, setting up phone plans, employee onboarding, travel bookings, loan applications & insurance pay outs.”
“In Australia there is a need to facilitate identity verification methods to reduce costs & enhance compliance outcomes for businesses, help reduce the hassle as well as instances of fraud & identity theft for Aussies, also improving ‘digital trust’ between customers & vendors.”
“Customer trials are expected in late 2022 then a market launch next year. ConnectID is already accredited under the Aussie Govt’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF). We are excited that AP+ can deliver innovation, security, and convenience to Aussie consumers and businesses through ConnectID, a national digital identity ecosystem,” Lynn Kraus also added.
NAB Chief Digital, Data & Analytics Officer, Angela Mentis, said the bank was proud to play an integral role in bringing digital identity to the Aussie market, with customer empowerment top of mind for the bank throughout the process. “NAB’s priority in helping bring digital identity to life has been to empower customers with choice – to verify their identity how & when they want, whilst ensuring privacy & personal data is protected,” she said.
“We think that digital identity will be the most crucial enabler of safe and secure interactions in our future economy, and are certain that customers can have trust in this solution,” she added.
Andrew Black, M.D at ConnectID AP+ said, “Aussies trust the security & reliability of their banks & payments providers, for that reason developing a robust, standards-based digital identity ecosystem that works for banks & trusted Aussie organisations is a natural extension for AP+.”
“ConnectID is committed to help Australian banks, businesses and local retailers protect the sovereignty and security of Australian payments and identity data,” Andrew Black also added.
CBA’s General Manager, Open Data, Katherine Sleeth said: “We are pleased to help our customers have more control of their data and privacy, enabling them to share their personal information with approved merchants, backed by the security of the Commonwealth Bank app. The quick online process will save customers time and also help keep them safe while online.”
What is the product offering of ConnectID?
For customers this means they will verify their identity online simply & safely using ConnectID, an Australian digital identity network. ConnectID makes it easy to verify who you are online, using the organisations you already trust. It also allows you to share only the information that is required, at the time it is needed, giving customers complete control over how their personal information is used and peace of mind knowing their data is being kept safe at every step.
A strong digital identity ecosystem as envisaged for ConnectID, not only provides more control and security for customers, but recent global reports have estimated the economic benefit and value for countries like Australia, equates to around 3% GDP by the year 2030 and more after.
Delivering more control and better privacy protection for consumers to share verified personal identity info online, the participation of some of Australia’s largest banks in ConnectID would provide the scale and trust needed to drive widespread consumer and business adoption.
What are the terms of the Partnership?
AP+ brings together digital identity initiatives of BPAY and eftpos in a combined best-in-class proposition demonstrating the benefits behind the recent consolidation of Australia’s three domestic payment organisations, BPAY Group, eftpos and NPP Australia into the one entity.
The ConnectID team is collaboratively working with gov’ts, businesses, online merchants, banks & other identity providers with a view to building identity into our national payment infrastructure, as well as other commercial apps for all Aussies & their businesses.
ConnectID is taking an inclusive, economy-wide approach, working with organisations from sectors like banking, telecom, online retail, government, insurance, and very many others.
AP+’ ConnectID facilitates an ‘exchange’ between identity providers, organisations that securely hold identity data on behalf of their customers, and merchants or gov’t departments that need to verify who they are dealing with or receive identity information that they can trust. AP+ is uniquely placed to offer this service, particularly interactions requiring a payment.
While ConnectID securely facilitates the identity verification or data exchange, it does not see or store the identity data. Identity service providers store consumer identities and take responsibility for providing this secure information only under the consent of the customer.
As interoperability is key to the ConnectID solution, it is designed to complement identity and credential-related services provided by gov’t and work within the Federal Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) financial industry privacy & security frameworks, as well as emerging international standards in distributed digital identity credentials for Aussies.
