“Building trust in the online world is crucial to accomplish the Digital Single Market. Coupling mobile authentication credentials with the identity security provided by eIDs under the eIDAS Regulation, is the way towards this goal.”
“The EU eID will make it easier for people who need to deal with authorities in another EU country. It could be applying for a course at a foreign university, planning a wedding or filing tax returns. We also expect a boost in online business, now that there will be an improved system for companies and their clients to know that the documents they receive on line are legally valid.”
“To seize the opportunities brought by digitalisation, in particular for financial services, we need to provide a high level of security, convenience and protection of personal data. In the EU, we have the means to ensure this: by using and relying on trustworthy electronic identification (eID) and trust services.”
More than 315 million Europeans use the internet every day, yet less than 4% of online services are offered across national borders. In the financial sector, the change in expectations and behavior of customers in the digital era and the uptake of online and mobile services represent a new challenge, as well as an opportunity to reach out digitally to millions of new customers.
Today, electronic identification (eID) represents one of the tools to ensure secure access to online services and to carry out electronic transactions in a safer and more efficient way. It constitutes the process of using personal identification data in an electronic form which uniquely represent either a natural or legal person, or a natural person representing a legal person.
In order to allow citizens and businesses to fully benefit from the digital single market, a cross-border interoperability of national eIDs should be pursued. The unambiguous identification of a person and the possibility to get domestic and cross-border services delivered to the person who is really entitled to it can only be achieved through a common acceptance across Europe of eIDs issued in other Member States.
eIDAS Regulation
The eIDAS Regulation enables the use of electronic identification means and trust services (i.e. electronic signatures, electronic seals, time stamping, registered electronic delivery and website authentication) by citizens, businesses and public administrations to access on-line services or manage electronic transactions.
The EBF believes that the eIDAS presents huge opportunities in terms of rapid onboarding of customers as well as the capacity to engage cross-border, contractually, with new customer markets in a secure environment and reduce fraud and operational costs. For banks and other players in the financial services, it is critical to improve the customer experience by developing innovative products and services adapted to customers’ needs while preserving trust and security.
A sufficient uptake in the private sector is one of the critical elements for ensuring the success of the eIDAS Regulation. By defining the electronic identification schemes and the terms of access to the online authentication of government eIDs by the private sector, Member States should ensure the cross-border interoperability of national eIDs.
Observer of the European Commission e-Identification expert group to facilitate the cross-border use of eID
The EBF participates as an observer to the European Commission e-Identification Expert Group aimed at facilitating the cross-border use of eID and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) portability based on identification and authentication tools under eIDAS.
The group is composed by members comprising regulators, supervisors, identity experts, financial institutions as understood for compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, as well as consumer organisations. Thanks to its expertise, the European Banking Federation (EBF) and its representatives are supporting the work of the expert group and are liaising with the main public and private actors for pursuing new solutions to boost economic growth and removing the barriers to e-commerce and electronic banking across the EU.
OFFICIAL SOURCES
German eID:
In August 2017, the Federal Republic of Germany has notified the German eID scheme in accordance with the eIDAS regulation to the European Commission.
The German eID was peer reviewed by a group of expert of almost all EU Member States. As result of the peer review, the Member States adopted the opinion that the German eID fulfills all requirement of eIDAS Level of Assurance “high”.
France Connect:
The identification and authentication system used for services on Service-public.fr, known as “France Connect”, is intended to improve the security of France’s eID solutions. The web service will allow users to continue to use existing eID solutions such as the ones from the tax authorities, La Poste or Ameli, the national health insurance organisation. These and other approved eID solutions will be federated.
Development of France Connect started in 2014. The first applications to test the new generation of eID tools were made available in 2015, alongside a software development kit. In July, a hackathon was organised, to test the eID solutions and to come up with new services for using them.