CFIT unveils Digital Company ID plan to tackle UK business fraud
The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), a UK organisation focused on advancing the country’s fintech sector, has unveiled its Digital Company ID plan to ease the “burden of fraud on businesses”.
CFIT’s Digital Company ID coalition involved over 70 organisations
CFIT’s Digital Company ID initiative, developed in collaboration with over 70 organisations including Lloyds Bank, Monzo, and Mastercard, aims to create virtual business passports to make “securing finance and conducting day-to-day business quicker and less vulnerable to fraud”.
According to a CFIT statement, the coalition has “demonstrated that the solution to countering economic crime lies in the widespread adoption of Digital Company ID”, claiming that the service will “significantly reduce regulatory and administrative burdens for businesses, particularly SMEs”.
The coalition’s findings, which also indicate that enterprise IDs will help reduce the UK’s annual fraud costs, are supported by “quantitative analysis of bank onboarding and KYB processes”, as well as “extensive industry consultation and research”, CFIT continues.
CFIT has proposed seven key recommendations to “unlock the full potential of Digital Company ID”. These include appointing a lead authority to oversee its implementation, forming a multi-stakeholder taskforce, developing a Digital Company ID prototype, enabling secure and reciprocal data sharing, promoting interoperability standards, reviewing the regulatory framework, and building market confidence through government adoption.
Charlotte Crosswell OBE, CFIT Chair, comments: “Fraud stifles economic growth by burdening businesses and banks with unnecessary costs, slowing access to setting up bank accounts and the loan finance needed for businesses to invest and grow.
“These challenges must be addressed if we’re to support the government in its mission to deliver economic growth and safeguard the UK’s reputation as a safe place to do business.
“Access to verified, authenticated and centralised data sharing through Digital Company ID would help dismantle these systemic barriers, close the loopholes exploited by fraudsters, reduce compliance costs for banks and transform the business landscape in the UK.”
