Digital ID Trust Scheme on trial in 11 locations

Digital ID Trust Scheme on trial in 11 locations

Estate agents, licensed conveyancers, solicitors and mortgage intermediaries operating in Battersea, Chiswick, Clapham, Putney, Wimbledon, Richmond, Kew, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Harrogate and York are to be the first to benefit this year from trials of a new digital identity trust scheme to make home buying and selling a quicker and more secure digital process. These geographical areas have been agreed by the trial participants from the residential property industry from October this year. Further areas will be added next year.

The digital identity trust scheme, called MyIdentity, is set to become the central hub for consumers, to help them prove who they are, once, in a more secure digital way. Under the scheme, home buyers and sellers should no longer be repeatedly asked to provide their identity details to all the parties involved in the chain of transactions. The move means quicker completions and more control over how consumers share their identity details and who they share their identity details with.

The residential property industry, made up of estate agents, solicitors and conveyancers, financial intermediaries and mortgage lenders may recognise MyIdentity as an acceptable source of identity verification because everyone will work to one set of Government-backed standards. For the residential property industry, the combined effect of reducing the number of identity verifications, that a consumer must go through, means happier customers and lighter administration processes together with a better way of mitigating the risk of property and mortgage fraud.

Housing Minister RT Hon Christopher Pincher MP said:

“It is good to see the progress being made on rolling out this scheme. We know that buyers and sellers are confused and frustrated by the current process where they have their identity checked multiple times. A single check which can be relied upon by multiple parties will help us to deliver a modernised and better home buying experience.”

Stuart Young, Director of Etive Limited, the technology company delivering the trust scheme, said:

“We are really pleased that the residential property industry has come together on this to work and improve such an important aspect of the home buying and selling process”.

“Working with MHCLG and DCMS, as well as all the necessary regulators and representative bodies, we expect to be in a position to run real live customers and transactions through the new scheme from October of this year”

The scheme will be known as MyIdentity and the web site is www.myidentity.org.uk, making it easy for both consumers and the sector to understand how the new scheme works.

Trials have started and are expected to run until August 2022. The following organisations are assisting this MyIdentity trial project:

Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, Bold Legal Group, Building Societies Association, Cifas, CILEx Regulation, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Conveyancing Association, Guild of Property Professionals, Home Buying & Selling Group, HM Land Registry, Home Builders Federation, Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, the Law Society of England and Wales, National Trading Standards Estate & Letting Agency Team, Propertymark, RICS, RPSA, Society of Licensed Conveyancers, Solicitors Regulation Authority and UK Finance.

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