Aim
To reduce friction and delays in the home buying and selling process by enabling a consumer to have their identity asserted once and enabling this identity to be shared with all the relying parties.
An assured digital identity is the identity of a person that can be trusted and relied upon in the transaction process. There is a clear difference between an authenticated identity and a verified identity and for a house sale to go through we need to work to a verified identity.
The problem we have is that there are many companies providing authentication services to the sector and others providing verification services and this in itself creates disparity in the system, lack of trust and ultimately reliability. The core of the transaction is built around proof of identity and ownership, but the different parties involved in the home buying and selling process will not, or indeed, cannot trust the identity verification carried out by another.
This causes friction for the client and introduces greater delays and costs into the sales process.
How it Works
Currently, a consumer has to prove who they are, their identity, up to five times in the home buying and selling process. This causes a great deal of frustration for consumers.
The conveyancing transaction is based on a high level of trust between trusted parties. The core of the transaction centres on proof of identity and ownership and currently organisations will not trust identity verification carried out by another organisation. This is causing a continuing increase in time to complete the transaction with poor consumer experience and ample opportunity for identity and subsequent property and financial fraud.
Current Progress
The Digital Identity Group (DIG) is working to help resolve this challenge and to identify ways in which to set up a Digital Identity Trust Framework (DITF) enabling a consumer to have their identity asserted once, and be able to share this through the sales process.
The common view is that the introduction of a standards based digital identity assurance process, backed by regulators, should be adopted by the industry and this would lead to significant reduction in the time to complete, without adding cost to the process and a reduction in the risk of fraud. The reduction in time to complete is seen as the most pressing issue and the most important deliverable of the introduction of a DITF.
A DITF proposal has been published based on work carried out in 2020. This report proposes a framework for an assured identity to be created and shared amongst relying parties.
View the white paper here.
The DCMS published their Digital Identity: Call for Evidence Response (1/9/20) which looks at digital identity for the UK economy.
View the response here.
The DIG is holding their first meeting on the 1st October 2020 with key stakeholders from the Home Buying & Selling Group, Government, legal and estate agency sectors, identity providers and finance sector to discuss and agree a set of standards, aligned to both HMLR and DCMS requirements, for a trust framework.
Interested in getting involved in the DIG? Register your interest in participating in the form below:
