Banking on Identity

Authors:

David Goodman, D. Phil, Principal Consulting Analyst

Rhomaios Ram, Principal Consulting Analyst

Abstract

Over the last few years policy makers, service providers and software vendors have come to realize that data is a business asset that would not be out of place on a company balance sheet. It is also becoming apparent to many individuals that the data held about them by governments and businesses both has value and is increasingly at risk from being mishandled, deliberately or otherwise. Ironically, as the volume of online social and commercial transactions increases exponentially day by day, the level of trust in sharing personal data online is falling equally fast due to concerns about privacy intrusions and the potential consequences of identity theft.

With the emergence of data protection, privacy and related regulations, opportunities will arise for trustworthy organizations to act as identity service providers or identity brokers. Banks are already custodians of sensitive personal data, have established processes for validating customer identities and are – arguably – trusted: so why not make a business out of managing these identities and protecting that personal data? Could this fuel the next generation of banking services; or is it more likely to be a regulatory nightmare?

In this document, we argue that the increased importance of identity data and the increasing regulation surrounding it create a set of opportunities for someone to provide an identity management service. We look at a sample of the new regulations the banking community from a holistic perspective and demonstrates how they can be transformed into a new set of business opportunities as well as what the next steps for TechVision Research clients should be.

The report covers:

• • The emerging regulatory landscape as it impacts the banks
• • The opportunities for banks to become identity service providers
• • Six steps a bank should take to leverage this potential