A message from OneID®’s new CEO Paula Sussex

I am delighted to have been appointed CEO of OneID®.

Verifying our online identities is now coming of age and I passionately believe that efficient and seamless identity verification is a big missing part of the UK’s digital infrastructure. OneID®’s ability to solve this issue was a huge driver behind my decision to join the firm.

As a consumer, convenience and security should typify our end-to-end online experience but unfortunately this currently isn’t the case. We painfully and repeatedly fill out our name, address, email, phone number and passwords, scan documents, take awkward selfies, and share sensitive, personal information to verify our identity online. Worst of all, we largely don’t know and have little control over how this information is stored or used.

For businesses, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to verify customers’ identities online without adding hoops for customers to jump through, potentially losing sales. And then they face the cost of handling and storing our sensitive data and the increasingly strict regulations that govern that. Further, fraud is a very real cost to business – and to consumers - so it’s vital they get identity verification right.

By securely verifying identity using data held by the banks, OneID® enables people to safely and easily prove who they are online while providing them with complete control of their data. It’s a streamlined process, enabling businesses to reduce costs, increase sales and improve customer experience while also preventing identity fraud and abuse.

Looking to Europe, we know that bank-verified digital identity works at scale.

Sweden’s BankID is now a near-ubiquitous service. It was used over six billion times in 2021 for everything from tax returns to paying invoices, signing documents and booking theatre tickets. That’s 17 million times a day, or 200 times every second.

Today, 4.3 million Norwegians have a BankID and it’s used by all the country’s banks, public digital services and an increasing number of businesses.

Belgium’s itsme highlights the speed at which the market is now moving. Itsme recently announced breakeven and that is now used by 6.7 million Belgian residents, or around 80% of the 16-74 population, as well as 900 companies. It took just five years to achieve this level of adoption, compared to the 15+ years it took Sweden and Norway to achieve ubiquity.

We in the UK clearly have a bit of catching up to do. But OneID®’s recent partnership with NatWest indicates that, like elsewhere in Europe, bank-verified ID is poised to go mainstream.

OneID® is registered with the FCA and accredited by DSIT (formerly DCMS) as an identity service orchestrator. The system is built, live, operational and integrating with businesses and banks right now.

I am thrilled to have joined a business built on a robust, operational platform, with a culture and values that seek to drive positive change in everything it does, as evidenced by our B Corp certification.

We are aligned to our mission of creating more secure and trustworthy online experiences and are determined to continuing growing this brilliant business.