EU digital identity regulation reaches full effect

The European Union’s electronic identification, authentication and trust services (eIDAS) regulation has come into full effect, with all EU countries obligated to recognize official national eID systems.

Germany and Italy have already completed the notification process, establishing systems for identity verification checks in line with the eIDAS rules to enable their citizens to carry out online transactions with entities throughout the region.

“Using eIDs across and between countries will cut red tape thanks to the ‘once only’ principle, one of the main elements of the EU’s Single Digital Gateway,” notes European Commissioner for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip in a blog post. “This will mean that people could save more than 855,000 hours and businesses more than €11 billion – every year.”

To support the widespread adoption of eID, and promote interoperability, a number of European associations and industry groups have formed the go.eIDAS initiative.

“Once the rules and infrastructures are in place, it will make easier for the private sector to accept and implement similar processes, which will allow for more efficient AML [anti-money laundering] compliance and KYC [know your customer] regulations across borders,” Trulioo General Manager Zac Cohen told Computer Weekly.

The UK’s Gov.uk Verify identity program will be excluded from direct inclusion in eIDAS once it is no longer an EU member state, though it could join the “Global Trust List” of the EU’s FutureTrust project, which is in development, and will certified schemes to be used with others, including eIDAS.

Many identity verification providers have launched products to support eIDAS compliance, including a recently announced identity-verification-as-a-service platform with facial biometrics from IDnow.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  EU  |  KYC  |  secure transactions