Taiwan issues new identity verification rules for financial industry

Taiwan has issued fresh guidelines for digital identity verification that should make it easier for financial institutions to verify customer identities and reduce risk.

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) guidelines instruct companies to self-assess appropriate identity authentication methods according to risk and apply to regulators for trial implementation.

The new guidelines represent a departure from previous security control regulations which imposed strict rules on adopting new technologies for digital identity verification, trade publication Regulation Asia reports. In the past, each part of the financial industry had different security control benchmarks, and introducing new verification methods and scenarios meant formulating new standards for each one.

The FSC will now allow for more flexibility, so companies can implement new verification technology without waiting for standards or regulations to be revised. The decision to relax the rules will accelerate innovation in the financial industry, the agency said. Financial industry associations should also provide flexibility for businesses to establish their internal standards for digital identity verification

Financial companies using digital identity verifications should still ensure that they have a risk management mechanism in place. The industry is also required to pay attention to consumer rights and consent during personal data collection, according to the guidelines.

The island country is also currently debating its national digital ID scheme with the potential to introduce new laws on data protection.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  financial services  |  identity verification  |  standards  |  Taiwan