Australia's eftpos Group has rolled out its new digital identity service as a standalone fintech subsidiary.
The new venture, dubbed connect ID and developed in conjunction with SecureKey, is now live, with the aim of making it easier for Australians to share, store and receive personal identity information online.
ConnectID acts as ‘broker’ between organisations that securely hold identity data on behalf of their customers, and merchants or government departments that need to verify who they are dealing with or receive identity information that they can trust.
Designed to work within the Federal Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) and the financial industry’s TrustID framework, the business has applied to become the first non-government accredited operator of a digital identity exchange in Australia.
“For the connectID business to keep advancing and growing, it needs to keep running like a nimble fintech at an operational level to pursue its goal of creating a national identity infrastructure for all Australians,” says eftpo chief Stephen Benton. “ConnectID is collaboratively working with governments, businesses, online merchants, banks and other identity providers with a view to building identity into our national payments infrastructure, as well as other commercial applications for all Australians and Australian businesses.”
The go-live is a significant endorsement of SecureKey's blockchain-based digital identity framework, which had its first major outing in its home market of Canada back in 2019.