Australian bank Westpac has stumped up seed funding for the development of an industry-wide customer identity management service, dubbed The Trust Centre.
Ben Forrest, chief operations officer of The Trust Centre, told delegates at an industry summit that the independent entity will provide banks with electronic customer identity verification services in a bid to combat phishing and identity theft.
The new unit will look to capitalise on customer identification requirements that are being introduced with Australia’s new anti-money laundering legislation.
It has been reported that St George, National Australian Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have already signed up to The Trust Centre. ANZ is thought to be the only major bank not to have agreed to participate.