The pandemic has helped drive a surge in Canadians using digital identity authentication platforms to get access to government programs; with the shift to digital likely to stick there will be an increased usage in ID verification for banking, real estate, insurance and health care; Concierge from SecureKey Technologies and GCKey from 2Keys were the main providers allowing people to verify their identity; “In April 2020, we saw 1 million new users and a 549 percent increase in total logins for Employment Insurance and state pension benefits via our service” said Tara Bailey, VP of Service Delivery at 2Keys; SecureKey also has a Verified.Me federated identity network which runs on a private blockchain and is supported by Canada’s biggest banks and telcos; Verified.Me works with Equifax, Onfido and EnStream to help verify the various pieces of the transaction; “We think there will be a permanent shift to using remote authentication methods after the lockdown, as people who weren’t digital are now more comfortable using digital,” Greg Wolfond, SecureKey’s CEO, said to American Banker. “So we’ll see a lot of industry sectors adopting digital authentication, for example for identity verification for large online purchases.” American Banker.
