Why eIDs are the keys to digitalisation

This blog was written by our guest blogger Salim Sayed

“The whole identity is the enabler of doing everything!”

So says Viktor Wrede, Scrive’s CEO, in a discussion with Jonas Brännvall of BankID. The two companies shared the stage at Money 2020 Europe last month, discussing the importance of electronic identification for the future of a digital Europe but in case you missed the presentation at the event, we’ve got a short video above, outlining some of the points discussed there.

But what does Viktor mean when he says that eIDs are the enablers of everything? Well, in an increasingly digital world we’ve seen growing interest in going cashless, digitalising services at all levels of society and more, however if you want to ensure everyone has secure access to these and reduce risk of fraud, our best bet currently is a digital way to verify identities quickly and easily. We’ve all seen news stories about people losing passwords to their digital currency wallets or losing money to identity fraud but if we had reusable digital identities and wallets tied to those identities, we would significantly reduce the risk while also simplifying the process of catching potential fraud.

Although eIDs are nothing new in Scrive and BankID’s homeland of Sweden, with BankID being used more than 700 million times per month, digital identities haven’t become quite as established in most of Europe. There are a handful of countries that have rolled out eIDs at various stages but with eIDAS 2.0 on the horizon and the European Union Digital Identity project alongside it, this could change drastically in coming years.

If you’re not familiar with how widespread BankID’s use cases are within Swedish society, those 700 million uses per month include everything from logging into banks and signing agreements to logging into your local gym or even buying bus tickets with Swish, the app that drove early adoption of BankID. 

Even with BankID being so ubiquitous in Sweden, there was still one element that, for the longest time, hadn’t been solved digitally: the initial onboarding of customers. You still had to go to a bank to get properly onboarded and get access to BankID on your phone and other devices. Recently however, BankID rolled out their digital ID cards, enabling you to scan a Swedish ID card into the app, verifying your identity on your own device. This was one of the things Jonas showcased at Money 2020, showcasing how simplicity and security are not mutually exclusive.

Want to know more about how you can use eIDs to streamline and secure your business? Reach out now.

Want to learn more about eIDAS 2.0 and the EUDI project? Keep an eye out for more content around this soon and in the meantime, why not check out our eBook on the subject written in collaboration with BankID?