eKYC & IDA Working Group - Overview

The eKYC and Identity Assurance (eKYC & IDA) WG is developing extensions to OpenID Connect that will standardise the communication of assured identity information, i.e. verified claims and information about how the verification was done and how the respective claims are maintained.

eKYC & IDA Working Group
OVERVIEW

eKYC & IDA Working Group
CHARTER

eKYC & IDA Working Group
SPECIFICATIONS

eKYC & IDA Working Group
REPOSITORY

eKYC and IDA News

The OpenID Foundation membership has approved the following three OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance specifications as an OpenID Final Specifications:

What is the eKYC & IDA Working Group?

The eKYC and Identity Assurance (eKYC & IDA) WG is developing extensions to OpenID Connect that will standardise the communication of assured identity information, i.e. verified claims and information about how the verification was done and how the respective claims are maintained.
  • Ambiguity and implicit assumptions regarding claims assurance
  • Complex and costly custom solutions for communicating assured identity
  • Inconsistent implementations
  • Proprietary interfaces
  • In-person proofing is now a challenge due to COVID-19
  • Emerging regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and AMLD V
  • Huge costs of implementing and operating these services
  • Built on top of a set of widely adopted open standards
    • OpenID Connect
    • And optionally the Financial-grade API security profile
  • OpenID Connect is increasingly used in scenarios requiring higher identity assurance levels. Some examples include:
    • Anti-money laundering
    • Telecommunications
    • eGovernment
    • Access to health data
    • Risk mitigation
    • Fraud prevention
  • OpenID Connect already provides for specific user authorisation and exchange mechanisms of the data being shared
  • Implementers can build upon the broad tool set available for OpenID Connect to implement high assurance use cases
  • Existing implementations can be enhanced to use verified claims
  • Creates a standardised interface for communicating how verification of a user was performed
  • Clearly differentiates verified and unverified claims thus removing ambiguity and allowing to represent both types of claims in the same assertion 
  • Simplifies integration of remote high assurance identification processes
  • Allow purchase of vendor solutions that will interoperate with other standardised identity verification components
  • OIDF will provide a testing framework for standardised eKYC software and implementations
  • The specification adds a way to express information about how the identity claims were assured and how they are maintained
  • Defined flexible data schemas for request and response as well as communicating information relating to the assured identity data including:
    • Which data are required
    • How identity was verified
    • Which entity performed the ID verification
    • What evidence was presented
    • When identity was verified

 

Papers and Presentations

Working Group Chairs

  • Torsten Lodderstedt
  • Anthony Nadalin
  • Naohiro Fujie
  • Mark Haine

Participation

To monitor progress and connect with working group members, join the mailing list.
 
To participate in or contribute to a specification within the working group requires the submission of an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) contribution agreement.  You can complete this electronically or by paper at openid.net/intellectual-property.
 
Be sure to specify, in the working groups box, the exact name:

Meeting Schedule

Weekly Meetings

Meeting Minutes

  • Meeting minutes are available here