The City of London Corporation is the local government authority for the City of London (aka the “Square Mile”), which is the historic core and financial district of London. It dates back to 1067 when William the Bastard issued a charter confirming London’s existing rights and customs shortly after his illegal invasion and regime change (although the City often treats 1189 as the real starting point because that was when Henry FitzAilwin, the first recorded Mayor of London, took office).
Talking of things that have ancient roots, the Corporation has called for support from UK technology firms for a “digital verification network” to combat fraud. The firms are being summoned to support the construction of this network to enhance security in financial institutions amid the rising fraud crisis. In essence, the digital verification network would set up a system of shared security among providers, in that once a trusted provider verified a person’s identity once, then those credentials could be used across financial institutions.
This is, in essence, the financial services passport idea that was subject of a joint TechUK/APACS working group that I co-chaired aroud the time when the London Olympics were still a warm memory. Such a passport was at the time an aspirational digital identity, issued by regulated UK financial services providers, and mutually recognised across the financial services industry. Something like Identrust but built on newer technology. As far as I can remember, we came down in favour a federated solution (ie, what would now be labelled “verifiable credentials”) rather than a blockchain-based approach, but I’d be open persuasion that other approaches could work.
The point of such an interoperable digital identity was that it could be utilised to correctly identify and authenticate end-users with appropriate security in a wide variety of circumstances and across a wide variety of channels. The need for such a service has only escalted over the years.
Snippings 