Know your APAC digital ID regulations to take advantage of evolving market

BixeLab and FIDO Alliance explain how in Biometric Update webinar

Dec 11, 2024, 5:36 pm EST | Chris Burt

One of the major trends in the digital identity landscape in 2024 has been the enactment of a series of new regulations by countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and consideration of regulation in others. These regulations present a wide range of opportunities for digital ID and biometrics providers, which were discussed by executives from BixeLab and the FIDO Alliance in the latest Biometric Update webinar.

BixeLab CEO Ted Dunstone and FIDO Alliance Certification Director Paul Heim delved into the standards that underpin the new policies and regulations in “Navigating the emerging APAC market for digital ID,” and the testing options for digital identity providers looking to find a niche. BixeLab is the only testing laboratory accredited for FIDO certification and NIST compliance testing in Asia.

The webinar reviewed developments in nations including Indonesia, where the government is in the process of contracting biometric registration kits, and ABIS and other tools. Malaysia has made changes to its KYC policy as part of a broader government digital transformation. In Vietnam, policy changes by the state bank are aligned with the government’s “Project 06,” which includes civil registration and digital ID systems. India’s RBI changed the rules for authenticating digital payments earlier this year, and the Philippines is planning a universal digital ID registration project for next year, having revised its KYC rules last year.

While these developments tend to focus on enabling remote KYC checks to improve people’s access to financial services, but there are several areas that the digital ID systems could soon be expanded into, which were discussed during the presentation.

Understanding the differences between the different countries’ regulations is necessary to finding market share, but Dunstone expressed optimism that they will become more harmonized over time.

The standards put out by the FIDO Alliance are specifically referred to in some countries, but not in others (at least so far), but FIDO standards are also connected to important ISO standards, such as for biometric presentation attack detection (PAD) and bias.

The discussion proceeded to a lively audience question-and-answer session, which reflected the surging interest in the dynamic developments in digital identity across the APAC region.