Customers of ANZ Plus will now have access to industry-backed digital identity solution ConnectID, which promises to take away from businesses their need to collect personally identifiable – and cybercriminal-attracting – data for ID verification.
Developed by payments authority Australian Payments Plus (AP+), the real-time, reusable identity verification solution enables users to confirm their identity to participating businesses using an authorised and trusted party’s – such as a bank’s – confirmation.
Effectively, this means that rather than providing proof of identity documents, ANZ Plus customers can now ask a participating business (seeking identity verification or proof of age confirmation) to verify them using the identity information already held by their bank.
By obviating the need for customers to upload sensitive identity documents and have data from them stored by smaller, less well-resourced businesses, the solution serves to increase the protection of customer data, thereby decreasing opportunities for identity theft and fraud.
“Importantly, ConnectID does not see or store personal information. Rather, it acts as a bridge between an organisation that wants to verify someone’s identity and the organisation providing that verification, and only when the customer authorises it,” AP+ wrote in a statement.
ConnectID provides an alternative to the Australian Government’s own identity scheme, MyGov, currently used to access online government services.
ANZ becomes the third of the big four banks to join the digital identity scheme, with NAB and CBA having signed on in October 2023.
The service also provides a modest revenue stream for banks, which can request a fee from merchants to validate customers’ identity information or date of birth.
ANZ general manager, customer and identity services, Gabriel Steele said the bank was “pleased” to join the scheme, adding that it would help customers of its digital-only banking service, ANZ Plus, “keep control of their identity and minimise the sharing of data for services where this is not necessary”.
“Not only do we see this better protecting our customers from the evolving threat of cybercrime, but we believe there’s an equally significant opportunity to reduce the risk our business customers face in holding more data than required.”
In September 2021, ConnectID became the first non-government operator of a digital identity exchange to be accredited under the Australian Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF), which sets standards, rules and guidelines for digital ID based on international best practice.
In May this year, the Government saw the successful passage of its Digital ID Bills through parliament, providing legal protection for the existing voluntary Digital ID accreditation scheme for providers of these services and building on the existing TDIF standards.
