The identity verification market was valued at $11B in 2022. It’s anticipated that in the years to come an increased awareness of the security and customer service advantages of digital identity technologies will further scale the market to a value of nearly $40B by 2032. So, what is driving this rapid growth and investment?

Travel and tourism, crossing borders, financial transactions, and online account onboarding activities are different experiences than they used to be. Globally, there is a greater need for businesses and governments to adopt identity verification technologies as online and mobile transactions become part of our daily lives.

The global pandemic intensified the debate on the digitalization of identity management and led to innovation in identity verification. Identity verification provides more precise outcomes with high levels of assurance (LOA) and trusted risk assessments to create a seamless solution.

Let’s understand the main factors affecting the market:

1. Global growth of digitization

The race to digitize interactions has led to great innovation and economic growth. On the flip side, it has also provided ample opportunity for fraudulent activities on intellectual property rights. Companies are looking to implement various security measures to minimize risks. Look at what my colleague Rajan Barara has to say to better understand citizen IDs and access management.

With businesses and governments around the world moving toward digitization, identity verification is a critical piece of the pie. When we say digitally verified identification, it is not just your passport but all your ID cards, health cards, credit cards, and much more. This will give more power to citizens to control their identity data and only share specific aspects of their identity when needed. In the near future, using verified readable identity will become the standard.

2. Increased government funding for digital identity

As I mentioned earlier, government services such as border controls and seamless travel are adopting electronic IDs (eIDs)/digital IDs. Nearly 160 out of 200 countries are already issuing ePassports (i.e., merely a readable chip in your passport that can extract essential pieces of information digitally to prove your identity).

Digital identity will become the new way travelers prove their identity. With thousands of people moving through customs each day, it takes numerous resources to ensure strong border security. As a result, digitally enabled smart borders and airports have emerged rapidly. With 1.2B ePassports now in circulation and a strong push behind biometrics (particularly facial recognition​), authorities are offering travelers a taste of cross-border movement that is as secure as it is swift and seamless.

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2.9M fraud reports were filed as of 2022 and identity theft was the No. 1 category for consumer complaints.

FTC Infographic

As we step into the future of identity verification − a truly digital-first approach − here are some best practices:

  1. Secure authentication of Identity documents with high LOA
  2. Compliance with international security and privacy standards
  3. Advanced biometric technology – such as facial matching – to link the person to their document
  4. Built-in monitoring and reporting tools for performance and usage
  5. Easy integration

Entrust offers a robust identity verification (IDV) solution that validates the user you are interacting with is a real person linked to the genuine ID document that proves their digital identity. Entrust IDV offers remote, scalable verification services at the highest level of identity assurance for crucial government-to-citizen programs. With the choice of best-of-breed technologies, IDV has the flexibility and secure processes to meet each government’s policy, technical, and budget requirements. Our innovative process utilizes smartphone reading and validation of electronic machine-readable travel documents (eMRTDs) – ePassports or eIDs – combined with ICAO-compliant and ISO-quality biometrics matched to the individual that remotely verify they are a real person and are who they say they are.

How close are you to achieving a robust identity verification solution that caters to your business needs?

Learn more about how Entrust can enable identity verification for your government-to-citizen interactions.