Australia Post and NAB are launching a new identity security venture

Alongside with the National Australia Bank, Australia Post has confirmed to be working on a new digital identity and fraud protection business, in order to reduce online fraud. Between these two large companies, this start-up called ‘TrustCheck’ is going to be launched as a commercial joint venture.

The product Digital iD was previously well promoted, but its progress became unclear after Australia Post’s chief executive left. In 2018, Andrew Walduck, transformation and tech chief of Australia Post was replaced by the head of product and innovation, Ingo Bohlken. The corporation, which is government-owned, now has the official line: “TrustCheck is complementary to the DigitaliD service.”

DigitaliD

Australia Post’s spokesperson said: “We continue to grow our Digital iD service through external organisations and its use across Australia Post services, with close to a million users using the service each year. TrustCheck is focussed on finding new ways to reduce identity fraud for businesses and retailers online.”

After Banking Day offered a job advertisement for “a rare opportunity to operate in a start-up environment with the full support of both Australia Post and NAB”, lots of questions started circling in the financial sector.

Even though there are many other identity fraud solutions available, banks receive pressure regarding CNP (card-not-present) fraud, which means that stolen credit cards are being used for online transactions. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, CNP fraud losses have expanded up to almost 500 million dollars per year.

This number of online fraud has increased by 78% since 2016, and accounts for 85% of all local card frauds. One option that is on the table for regulators, is to have banks solve these problems themselves by banning them to pass online fraud losses through.