Reusable digital ID promises improved customer experience

A new Reusable Digital ID Network partnership to serve UK financial services providers has been announced by Select ID, SQR, Luciditi and Australia-based ShareRing.

The strategic partners will work to improve remote customer onboarding for financial services and adjacent regulated sectors with robust identity verification and seamless customer experiences through reusable ID. They will promote the adoption of reusable IDs to comply with KYC regulations, just as enabling legislation is being passed by the UK’s government. They are also looking ahead to refining and implementing Select ID as a reusable ID network service in collaboration with industry stakeholders, regulators and financial institutions.

Luciditi has been notably active in age assurance since becoming the first Digital PASS credential in the UK in 2023, but its reusable digital identity wallet app can be used to re-supply identity information to financial institutions or any other relying party on request.

“This partnership aligns with our mission to create a safer, more efficient and interoperable digital ecosystem and we are excited about the growth that this network will bring to the UK digital identity landscape,” says Luciditi CEO Ian Moody.

SQR has operations in the UK and the Isle of Man and provides tokenized ID proofing through selfie biometrics and pubic data monitoring.

Like the UK companies, ShareRing is Digital Identity and Attribute Trust Framework (DIATF) certified, and provides self-sovereign digital identity in the form of a mobile identity wallet after completing a biometric video selfie check.

“The launch of the Select ID Network will enable UK financial services and other sectors to access reusable Digital ID providers through a single contract and technical connection,” says Select ID CEO Nick Mothershaw. “Acceptors of ID information can now come to one place to access a wide range of inclusive ID proofing methods and ready-to-go reusable IDs through our partner ID Providers, improving customer experience and success rates.”

Mothershaw explained why financial services are the first use case tackled by Select ID in an interview with Biometric Update at the end of 2024. Select ID also added BankID Norway to its advisory committee just weeks ago.

Inspiring confidence with biometrics and VCs

There is no sector in which even half of consumers trust that their personal data will be protected, according to Thales’ 2025 Digital Trust Index.

Thales says the decline in trust for digital services has been nearly universal, and is due largely to greater awareness among consumers of the consequences of their data security being compromised.

Brands or services adopting emerging or advanced technologies like biometrics and passwordless authentication inspire greater confidence in 64 percent of consumers, according to the report. Verifiable credentials are not explicitly mentioned among those advanced technologies, but surely could have been.

The combination of biometric binding and verifiable credentials was examined in a recent webinar hosted by Dock and featuring Daon VP of Customer Success EMEA and APAC Paul Kenny and Youverse CEO Pedro Torres.

These technologies enable reusable ID, and the three executives debated whether reusable ID is the “killer app” for VCs. Even if not, Torres suggests that business models around traditional KYC checks are not sustainable, and “will be completely disrupted because KYC should be reusable.”

The interoperability of VCs makes that change possible.

Amazon explained its motivation in leaning in to digital credentials, mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) and EU Digital Identity Wallets in another online event from Dock.

Amazon Principal Product Manager for Identity Services Paul Grassi says the company plans to accept verifiable credentials from trusted issuers as part of a plan to move from verifying identity to accepting standardized digital IDs.

For Amazon, ID acceptance is about more than buying and selling. It is also about meeting regulatory obligations for age checks, regulated areas like healthcare and prescription services, and deliveries. Left unsaid is that people in areas where they are not issued an mDL or wallet-based digital ID credential will be accepted through third parties, or will have to go through the same ID document and biometric selfie process as they do now.

Article Topics

Amazon  |  biometric binding  |  Daon  |  Dock  |  face biometrics  |  KYC  |  Luciditi  |  reusable digital ID  |  Select ID  |  ShareRing  |  SQR Group  |  verifiable credentials  |  Youverse