In reply to Shamil.
BankID is similar to GOV.UK Verify in that it involves using a 3rd party to access a range of services using a single account. However GOV.UKVerify is being built for central government services first, with the potential to expand to the wider public and private sector, and our certified companies come from a range of sectors, not only banks. GOV.UK Verify is a federated model - there is no single database containing everyone's data - users can choose which certified company to use.
Once GOV.UK Verify is live, you'll be able to use you account to access a range of government services. We're exploring the potential use of GOV.UK Verify for health and local authority services too, through the Open Identity Exchange (oixuk.org). The Open Identity Exchange is also doing some work to explore the need for identity assurance in the private sector in the UK, which will help inform our thinking on whether some or all of GOV.UK Verify should become available for use in the private sector, too. Finally, we're working to make sure that UK services will be able to accept identity assurance from other European Member states, like BankID, and that other countries will be able to accept GOV.UK Verify identity assurance.
