Six major UK banking groups are preparing to test a voluntary digital verification service that would let customers use information held by their bank to prove details such as their name, age or address online.
The service would let customers confirm selected personal details through their banking app when dealing with another company, reducing the need to repeatedly upload passports, utility bills or other documents.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander are working with UK Finance and digital identity technology provider Select ID on the project.
The concept builds on information banks have already verified while opening and maintaining customer accounts. With the customer’s explicit consent, selected details such as a name, age or address could be shared with a third party to complete an online transaction or access a service.
Banks explore a wider role in digital identity
The proposed service would give participating banks and building societies a role as identity providers beyond their own financial products.
Potential uses include age checks, online purchases, property transactions and opening accounts with other organisations. A customer journey published by UK Finance shows an individual selecting their bank from a retailer’s website, confirming their identity through the banking service and approving the exact information to be shared before returning to the retailer.
Customers would choose whether to use the service each time and remain in control of the information released. UK Finance says explicit consent would be required for every exchange.
For businesses, the model could provide access to credentials that have already been checked by a regulated financial institution. UK Finance believes this could reduce verification costs and friction while making it harder to create fake accounts or use synthetic identities.
Jana Mackintosh, managing director for payments and innovation at UK Finance, said banks’ existing customer relationships placed the sector in a strong position to support digital verification.
“Using already verified information, shared only with the customer’s explicit consent, could help make digital transactions safer, quicker and more convenient as well as ensuring customers have full control over how their data is used,” she commented.
Proof of concept used synthetic data
The completed proof-of-concept phase tested whether participating banks could meet the technical standards needed to exchange verified information through a shared platform.
The work used synthetic rather than live customer data and examined the service’s technical design, legal structure, operational requirements and potential commercial model.
According to UK Finance’s progress report, participating firms completed the planned test scenarios and checks designed to confirm that their systems could exchange data in the required format.
Select ID is providing the technical platform and scheme support. The company is certified as an orchestration service provider under the UK Digital Verification Services Trust Framework, allowing organisations to connect with multiple identity providers through one system.
Nick Mothershaw, chief executive of Select ID, said the project would explore how bank-verified information could make digital checks more secure and convenient for customers and businesses.
Live pilot will test real customer journeys
The next phase will move into a controlled live environment involving participating banks and selected organisations that rely on identity information.
The pilot is intended to examine how customers experience the process, how third parties use the verified information and whether the proposed governance, contracts and commercial arrangements work outside a synthetic testing environment.
Bank participation in the initial live tests is planned, while UK Finance is seeking retailers, digital platforms and other organisations interested in taking part or assessing how the service could support their customer journeys.
The wider project runs from summer 2025 to spring 2027, covering design, proof-of-concept testing, the live pilot and evaluation.
No launch date for a wider commercial service has been confirmed. The pilot will first need to establish which use cases provide sufficient value to customers, banks and the organisations receiving the information.
Separate from government digital identity work
UK Finance says the initiative is separate from the government’s wider digital identity programme, although it is aligned with the UK Digital Verification Services Trust Framework.
The banking project is aimed at private-sector retail and commercial uses rather than public services. It could therefore sit alongside other government-backed and commercial identity schemes rather than replacing them.
Questions around liability, customer redress, competition and the commercial terms for businesses using the service will form part of the work ahead. The pilot will also need to establish how easily customers understand what information is being shared and how consent can be withdrawn or challenged.
UK Finance is now inviting potential participants to join the pilot as the project moves from technical feasibility towards real-world testing.
