NatWest Group is making its new Customer Attribute Sharing service available to businesses as an embedded digital ID after signing a deal with identity service provider OneID.
Built upon the foundations of open banking, Natwest's API-based Customer Attribution Service provides businesses with access to personal bank data for e-document signing, quick onboarding and age verification requests.
The service is being offered as a way to speed up customer online experiences, reducing the need to fill in lengthy online forms or scan and upload documents.
The bank is rolling out the service in collaboration with OneID, across a wide range of use cases, including e-document signing and digital onboarding.
Martin Wilson, CEO of OneID, explains: "Our partnership with NatWest will help businesses streamline their customer service and reduce costs, for example when registering new customers or setting up direct debit payments.”
In the months ahead, the bank says it will sign deals with more providers for a wider range of use cases - for example, by embedding the service in e-commerce journeys for easier online payments.
Claire Melling, head of Natwest's Bank of APIs, comments: “We recognise that our customers are spending more time on digital platforms and so we’re focusing on embedding our services in our customers’ daily lives. Moreover, as a trusted institution, we have a key role to play in the emerging concept of digital identity.
"Our new Customer Attribute Sharing service will provide our customers with a safe, secure and convenient way to verify their identity online, while enabling businesses to speed up and streamline customers’ online experiences.”
The bank-backed Mobey Forum in February urged banks to stake out a role in the evolving digital identity space or risk being left behind. The Mobey Forum report identified opportunities for banks to leverage their position as custodians of personal data to become brokers of trust in the digital economy.
Earlier this month Lloyds Banking Group invested £10 million in digital identity company Yoti, to support the development of a new reusable digital identity proposition set to launch later this year that will give users a more private and convenient way to prove their identity.