Press Release
"Financial FIDO Alliance" formally established to accelerate security and convenience of digital financial service
2021-06-15
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) affiliates with the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC), the Financial Information Service Co., Ltd. (FISC) and financial institutions (including financial holding companies, banks, insurance companies, securities and futures merchants, etc.) to form the "Financial FIDO Alliance" on May 4, 2021 to accelerate the development of a standardized mobile identity verification mechanism for financial services.
Given the evolving innovation and development of FinTech and digital financial services, the demands for fully remote account opening and transactions via mobile devices/internet are surging. However, the current identity verification for digital account opening and transactions still primarily rely on physical credentials such as Citizen Digital Certificates, credit cards, and debit cards, etc; where if not verified by physical identities, the account types opened and the transaction conducted are limited.
To solve the aforementioned problem, the FSC has incorporated the measure “Develop a standard mechanism for mobile identity verification (hereafter referred to as Financial FIDO)" into its FinTech Development Roadmap released on August 27, 2020. The Financial FIDO mechanism plans to introduce international FIDO standards which allow users to first bind mobile devices, physical cards and biometrics and leverage the bounded devices and biometrics (instead of the physical identities, user account names and passwords) for subsequent financial service identification and authentication. In addition, per the standards, the FIDO server only retains the public keys; while there are no user passwords, private keys, or personal biometrics stored, the concerns over personal data leakage can also be assured. Furthermore, it is also scheduled to provide cross-institutional identification and transaction functions, allowing financial institutions to provide secured services corresponding to customers’ risk attributes.
The introduction of the Financial FIDO mechanism, for consumers, can solve various problems arising from the use of account name and passwords as an identity verification method and enhance the convenience and safety of financial services; for financial institutions, it can lessen repeated customer identity verification processing, and if functions are subsequently expanded in the future, data may also be transferred across institutions to further improve customer service efficiency and reduce related operating costs.
To develop the Financial FIDO mechanism, the Roadmap delegated the Data Governance workgroup of the FinTech Co-creation Platform to invite financial institutions to jointly form the "Financial FIDO Alliance". To facilitate the formation of consensus and the subsequent promotion, the FSC has consulted and collaborated with the JCIC, the FISC, the members of the Data Governance workgroup, the financial institutions that have pioneered in FIDO applications, and the Bankers Association since the second half of last year. The key points are as follows:
1. Responsibilities:
(1) The JCIC serves as the convener of the Alliance to coordinate with the members over the functions, governance, development and operation of the Financial FIDO mechanism.
(2) The FISC supports the formulation of technical specifications and standards.
2. Alliance members: any interested financial holding company and its subsidiaries of banks, securities and futures, and insurance. Other banks, securities and futures, and insurance companies that are not under financial holding companies are also welcomed to participate.
3. Development approach: the mobile APP will be centrally developed, introducing FIDO standards and binding with ATM cards to provide cross-institutional customer identity verification. Meanwhile, each financial institutions may still retains its option for self-development and cross-institutional cooperative negotiation.
4. Preliminarily scheduled enabling functions: it is preliminarily scheduled to enable cross-institutional identification and transaction functions to allow financial institutions to provide secured services corresponding to customers’ risk attributes.
5. Technical Standards and Business Trial: Once the alliance has completed the development of the preliminary enabling functions and technical standards, a business trial will be applied and conducted by the Alliance participating financial institutions to verify its feasibility.
The Alliance convener, the JCIC, has invited financial institutions through industrial associations, the FISC and Taiwan-CA Inc. to join the Alliance on April 8 and the Alliance was formally formed on May 4, during the 2nd Data Governance workgroup meeting as Alliance members reached 100. As of May 31, 2021, there are 121 institutions participated.
The FSC is very grateful to the Alliance convener, the conveners of the three Alliance sub-committees and various financial institutions for their support and assistance. Subsequently, the Alliance will discuss over the development details including binding credentials and the ranges of the biometric identification, jointly develop the mobile APP, and formulate application standards and specifications for transaction processing tailoring respective industrial requirements. In the future, the FSC will adjust relevant laws or regulations referring to the results of the business trial by the industry and the achievements will be shared as soon as there are specific ones. The trial is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter of the year.
Digital financial services have become even more critical due to the pandemic. Dematerialization and mobilization of financial service identification is the first step for the general public to enter digital finance. The FSC will continue to integrate the expertise and strength of peripheral organizations and financial institutions to accelerate the development and promotion of the mechanism. It is hoped that the members can actively participate in the Alliance and accomplish it with joint efforts. Through industry standards, it is aimed to simplify the customer identification for various financial services in a diversified manner which will further facilitate the development of domestic digital financial services, uplift the competitiveness of domestic financial market, and provide consumers with more efficient, quality digital financial services.
Contact: Financial Technology Development and Innovation Center
Telephone: (02)8968-0088
If you have any questions, please send an email to:FSCMAIL
Given the evolving innovation and development of FinTech and digital financial services, the demands for fully remote account opening and transactions via mobile devices/internet are surging. However, the current identity verification for digital account opening and transactions still primarily rely on physical credentials such as Citizen Digital Certificates, credit cards, and debit cards, etc; where if not verified by physical identities, the account types opened and the transaction conducted are limited.
To solve the aforementioned problem, the FSC has incorporated the measure “Develop a standard mechanism for mobile identity verification (hereafter referred to as Financial FIDO)" into its FinTech Development Roadmap released on August 27, 2020. The Financial FIDO mechanism plans to introduce international FIDO standards which allow users to first bind mobile devices, physical cards and biometrics and leverage the bounded devices and biometrics (instead of the physical identities, user account names and passwords) for subsequent financial service identification and authentication. In addition, per the standards, the FIDO server only retains the public keys; while there are no user passwords, private keys, or personal biometrics stored, the concerns over personal data leakage can also be assured. Furthermore, it is also scheduled to provide cross-institutional identification and transaction functions, allowing financial institutions to provide secured services corresponding to customers’ risk attributes.
The introduction of the Financial FIDO mechanism, for consumers, can solve various problems arising from the use of account name and passwords as an identity verification method and enhance the convenience and safety of financial services; for financial institutions, it can lessen repeated customer identity verification processing, and if functions are subsequently expanded in the future, data may also be transferred across institutions to further improve customer service efficiency and reduce related operating costs.
To develop the Financial FIDO mechanism, the Roadmap delegated the Data Governance workgroup of the FinTech Co-creation Platform to invite financial institutions to jointly form the "Financial FIDO Alliance". To facilitate the formation of consensus and the subsequent promotion, the FSC has consulted and collaborated with the JCIC, the FISC, the members of the Data Governance workgroup, the financial institutions that have pioneered in FIDO applications, and the Bankers Association since the second half of last year. The key points are as follows:
1. Responsibilities:
(1) The JCIC serves as the convener of the Alliance to coordinate with the members over the functions, governance, development and operation of the Financial FIDO mechanism.
(2) The FISC supports the formulation of technical specifications and standards.
2. Alliance members: any interested financial holding company and its subsidiaries of banks, securities and futures, and insurance. Other banks, securities and futures, and insurance companies that are not under financial holding companies are also welcomed to participate.
3. Development approach: the mobile APP will be centrally developed, introducing FIDO standards and binding with ATM cards to provide cross-institutional customer identity verification. Meanwhile, each financial institutions may still retains its option for self-development and cross-institutional cooperative negotiation.
4. Preliminarily scheduled enabling functions: it is preliminarily scheduled to enable cross-institutional identification and transaction functions to allow financial institutions to provide secured services corresponding to customers’ risk attributes.
5. Technical Standards and Business Trial: Once the alliance has completed the development of the preliminary enabling functions and technical standards, a business trial will be applied and conducted by the Alliance participating financial institutions to verify its feasibility.
The Alliance convener, the JCIC, has invited financial institutions through industrial associations, the FISC and Taiwan-CA Inc. to join the Alliance on April 8 and the Alliance was formally formed on May 4, during the 2nd Data Governance workgroup meeting as Alliance members reached 100. As of May 31, 2021, there are 121 institutions participated.
The FSC is very grateful to the Alliance convener, the conveners of the three Alliance sub-committees and various financial institutions for their support and assistance. Subsequently, the Alliance will discuss over the development details including binding credentials and the ranges of the biometric identification, jointly develop the mobile APP, and formulate application standards and specifications for transaction processing tailoring respective industrial requirements. In the future, the FSC will adjust relevant laws or regulations referring to the results of the business trial by the industry and the achievements will be shared as soon as there are specific ones. The trial is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter of the year.
Digital financial services have become even more critical due to the pandemic. Dematerialization and mobilization of financial service identification is the first step for the general public to enter digital finance. The FSC will continue to integrate the expertise and strength of peripheral organizations and financial institutions to accelerate the development and promotion of the mechanism. It is hoped that the members can actively participate in the Alliance and accomplish it with joint efforts. Through industry standards, it is aimed to simplify the customer identification for various financial services in a diversified manner which will further facilitate the development of domestic digital financial services, uplift the competitiveness of domestic financial market, and provide consumers with more efficient, quality digital financial services.
Contact: Financial Technology Development and Innovation Center
Telephone: (02)8968-0088
If you have any questions, please send an email to:FSCMAIL
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- Update： 2021-06-22
