NZ's RealMe may help online banking

The New Zealand government will next week launch a new official electronic identity service that will allow banks and insurers to verify customers details safely online.

The 'RealMe' service launches on July 1 and is being jointly offered by the Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Post.  

RealMe spokeswoman Mandy Smith said RealMe would help financial institutions deal with the Anti-Money laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism Act, which is due to apply from July 1.

"Currently, the most an organisation usually knows about its online contacts is that they have a valid username and password. You still can't be sure that they are who they claim to be," Smith said.

"There's a massive amount of business that would happen online if only the service could be certain of the identity of the person on the other side of the online transaction," she said.

People who already have an iGovt logon will automatically be able to use RealMe from Monday.  Over 800,000 taxpayers already have an iGovt logon.

The Department of Internal Affairs has yet to announce which private sector organisations have signed up to the service, which would allow customers to sign up for mortgages and insurance contracts completely online.