Both uPort and Onfido’s vision is to offer consumers access and control over their own data. The companies applied to and were accepted to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority Regulatory Sandbox (Cohort 5) to test how decentralised identity can enable fintech ecosystems in the UK. PwC’s UK team believes that such technology can promote more open financial ecosystems, thus it is partnering with them in this pilot.
Through this collaboration, the teams plan to allow users to have control over managing their personal data, and to reintroduces trust and privacy into transactions between parties via decentralised identity. Onboarding frictions makes customer identification efforts costly, while data silos and privacy regulations prevent the seamless mobility of customer data between financial institutions and the ability for customers to create more holistic, open financial reputations. Thus, the three teams are exploring how portable identity verifications can facilitate customer onboarding journeys and reduce compliance costs for financial firms.
The ability for customers to use their digital identity to onboard with financial companies is meant to open up access to financial services, to help reduce fraud, and to drive more competition into the UK banking ecosystem. One area of exploration is how a portable identity ecosystem can transform the way UK financial institutions collect and use information to verify customer identity and satisfy customer due diligence/KYC obligations.
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