The rise of digital identities

Financial services organisations (both traditional and challenger) across Europe are facing a battle for consumers' business, thanks to technology evolution, changing consumer behaviour and regulations such as PSD2.

In order to meet this threat, it's vital for banks to focus on digital-first services. These services, as well as reducing costs, are a must to head off the challenge from services that do not have to deal with legacy systems and are launching as online and even mobile-only propositions. Challenger organisations, while digitally capable, must still stave off the threat from incumbents and each other while continuing to provide best in class user experience.

The creation of digital-first services demands digital on-boarding, where both banks and non-banks offering financial services must comply with KYC and AML requirements. Without the ability to onboards customers 100% digitally, organisations risk losing digital-first, highly demanding customers due to frustration with the process. The methods employed to comply with regulation vary across Europe, with some countries more advanced than others in their use of digital identity.

Unfortunately, while much of the onboarding process can be completed online, often customers are required to visit a branch or send original documentation to be fully onboarded.

This is time-consuming for the customer, leading to frustration, anger and eventually abandonment. But does this have an effect on whether or not customers actually sign up for a service?

The 2016 Battle to Onboard report from Signicat found that in the UK:
- 40% of consumers have abandoned bank applicationsn
- More than 1 in 3 (39%) abandonments were due to the length of time taken
- A third (34%) were due to needing too much personal information

Has anything changed in the time since the last report? How does the rest of Europe fare? At this exclusive event, we will reveal our new research from across Europe and hear from senior management about the business drivers behind Belgium's digital identity platform It's Me.