Six of the UK’s largest banks and building societies have joined forces behind an industry-led digital verification service, a collaboration that positions the financial sector to claim a central role in digital identity at a moment when the government is advancing its own competing program. Coordinated by the industry body UK Finance and unveiled on 25 June 2026 at its Digital Innovation Summit, the initiative has the backing of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander.
The strategic rationale rests on an asset the banks already hold. Financial institutions have carried out rigorous identity checks on their customers to meet know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules, leaving them with a store of verified personal data and a trusted relationship that few other organizations can match. The proposed service would put that to wider use, letting customers confirm a single detail — name, age or address — through their banking app and share only what a transaction requires with a third party, on explicit consent. Jana Mackintosh, managing director of payments and innovation at UK Finance, framed the sector as ideally placed to deliver a trusted verification service, arguing that using already-verified information could make digital transactions safer and more convenient while keeping customers in control of their data.
The decision to act collectively is itself a strategic statement. Rather than each bank building a proprietary product, the six have chosen to develop a shared service through their industry body, an approach that gives the initiative the scale and interoperability a single institution could not achieve alone. The technical design and delivery is being led by Select ID, whose chief executive Nick Mothershaw welcomed the effort as a way to put bank-verified information to use, and the collaboration reflects a recognition that a verification standard is only valuable if it is widely accepted — a goal better served by a common platform than by competing individual schemes.
The competitive positioning against the government’s plans is the sharpest dimension of the move. UK Finance has been careful to present the bank-led service as separate from, and complementary to, the government’s own digital-identity program, which has drawn sustained public opposition, confining the sector’s service to private-sector commercial and retail use rather than public-sector applications. That framing lets the banks occupy a clearly defined and commercially attractive space — verification for retailers, platforms and online services — while sidestepping the controversy attached to state-led identity. For the institutions involved, it is a calculated bid to shape an emerging market on their own terms before others define it for them.
The commercial prize behind the collaboration is considerable. A widely adopted, bank-backed verification credential could embed the lenders in a broad range of transactions across the digital economy, from retail to platforms to other businesses that need to confirm customer details, creating a durable position in a fast-growing area of digital commerce. UK Finance has invited retailers, digital platforms and other organizations to take part in future pilot activity, indicating an ambition to build an ecosystem around the service rather than a narrow banking tool. With payment fraud having cost £1.28 billion in 2025, a trusted verification layer also addresses a pressing security need that strengthens the commercial case.
For the boards backing it, the initiative is a bet that the banks can convert their trusted-custodian status into a new line of business and strategic relevance. The project has completed proof-of-concept work and a live pilot is scheduled for the coming months, the point at which the strategy will be tested against real-world adoption. Whether the collaboration succeeds will depend on how many businesses accept bank-verified credentials and on whether customers trust the banks to manage the exchange — but the willingness of six rival institutions to build a shared platform indicates a sector that sees digital identity as too important to cede to government or to technology entrants, and is moving collectively to secure its place in it.
More From CEO Today: Starling Set To Hand Chair Role To Colin Bell
