eftpos collaborates with Australia Post to pilot ‘connectID’

By Edil Corneille

eftpos is working with Australia Post to pilot a new way of securely identifying consumers making payments in the digital world. The eftpos digital identity solution, currently dubbed connectID powered by eftpos, aims to help Australian consumers protect their identities, avoid fraud, and safely connect with merchants and government services using the ubiquitous eftpos payments network.

eftpos CEO Stephen Benton said the company was partnering with Australia Post to trial connectID. He said that connectID used eftpos like a “broker” between identity providers such as Australia Post and merchants or government departments that need to verify who they are dealing with when making payments online.

“It’s great to have other iconic Australian brands like Australia Post onboard to trial this identity solution, which fills an important gap in the market at a time when Australians are going online to transact more often following the COVID-19 pandemic,” Benton said.

“We are collaboratively working with businesses, online merchants, banks and other identity providers with a view to building identity into our national payments infrastructure for all Australians and Australian businesses before the end of the year.”

Benton said eftpos had been working with almost 20 businesses across the country on the connectID Proof of Concept since early in the year and was now ready to move to the next stage. He added that the solution could be used to verify a consumer’s identity for a range of different reasons such as proof of age, address details, or bank account information. This could be used to identify individuals for eCommerce transactions or to ensure government payments are made to the right person during crisis situations like a bushfire – with the potential to transfer the money much faster than existing arrangements allow.

Australia Post’s Head of Digital ID Margo Stephen said, “We’re really excited to be working with eftpos to grow both the awareness and adoption of digital identity in Australia.

“This collaboration has enabled eftpos to prove out its model rapidly by leveraging our existing, interoperable technology. In turn, eftpos’ connectID, will offer even more places for those with an Australia Post Digital iD on their smartphone, to prove who they are when interacting online with both business and government.”

Interoperability is key to the connectID solution. It is designed to work within the Federal Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) and the industry’s TrustID framework, as well as emerging international standards. “This is an exciting development because connectID reinforces eftpos as an important player in the digital ecosystem as a central identity broker for Australia and leveraging our payment network rails,” Benton said.