Two banks join RealMe; another thinks about it

Two banks sign up to the government's RealMe service which aims to help issues with customers' identity verification.

Friday, August 2nd 2013, 5:40PM 1 Comment

Minister of Internal Affairs, Chris Tremain announced that TSB Bank and Kiwibank have signed up to use the RealMe service. Both banks plan to allow customers to prove their identities online using RealMe within the next few months. Westpac Bank also signalled that they will be using RealMe shortly.

“RealMe will give people a quick and easy way to join us. We’re really excited about the convenience benefits this will provide,” TSB CIO Marie Collins says.

The RealMe service will allow banks and financial institutions to comply with new rules that came into effect at the end of June. These rules require people to prove their identity more frequently than they have in the past and Kiwibank sees RealMe as the perfect solution to this.

“Using RealMe means our customers can access more services completely online in a way that’s easier and safer for them and ensures the bank is fully complying with new regulations. We are looking at which services these will be and plan to begin offering RealMe in the very near future,” Kiwibank head of online channels Peter Fletcher-Dobson says.

Westpac says that they are well underway with their project to integrate RealMe.

"We are excited by RealMe’s possibilities. We hope that RealMe will help in allowing customers to access a wide range of products and services completely online," says Westpac Chief Information Officer Peter Fletcher.

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Comments from our readers

On 8 August 2013 at 10:35 am AFA Muggins said:
One has to question if biometric I.D.ing of the population, controlled via Government initiative, then driven by third parties is a good idea.

It seems to have come out of the Electronic Identity Verification Act 2012 and the FATF recommendations. Already the same type of initiative in India, which has 97% of the population already with biometric I.D. is being used by the police there to try to link it to SIM cards and other activities. The banks and credit card issuers have already jumped on it there.

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