UK organisations and consumers are ready to embrace a new era of digital identity according to a new report from Curity, an API-focussed identity and access management company. 

63% of UK organisations either currently use digital identity or have plans to incorporate digital identity solutions into their operations, with 61% of those planning to do so within the next year. Additionally, 52% of UK firms have plans to incorporate new and emerging decentralised identity solutions. UK consumers are also displaying a growing familiarity with digital wallets, with 58% of consumers currently using them and half of consumers that don’t currently use digital wallets considering them in the future. 

The report entitled “Plotting the Roadmap for Digital Identity” surveyed 200 IT decision makers (ITDMs) in the UK and US as well as 1000 consumers to better understand the rapidly changing digital identity landscape. This report comes as the UK government introduces a new trust framework for digital identities.

The new report reveals that 60% of organisations surveyed expect digital identity to have a transformative impact on their industry, with financial services (89%) and health (86%) seen as industries set to benefit most from latest innovation in this area according to ITDMs. 

Finance (62%), retail (61%) and travel (46%), were the most popular services used by consumers with digital wallets. Financial institutions (38%) are current leaders in public trust when it comes to storing personal data in digital identity wallets, followed by medical providers. (35%), whereas the government (22%) and transport providers (17%) were the least trusted, according to the research. 

Other key findings include: 

• Among UK consumers that currently use digital wallets, 77% use it weekly and 30% use it daily 

• 60% of consumers in the UK & US highlighted data privacy risks and fraud as reasons they would be hesitant to store personally identifiable information in a digital identity wallet. 

• Top security challenges posed by digital identity for ITDMs are hacker sophistication (39%) and lack of appropriate infrastructure (37%). 

Travis Spencer, Curity CEO, commented on the findings, “As consumers demand seamless digital experiences and organisations face increasing pressure to protect customers’ data, continued innovation and development in the digital identity space could not be of greater importance. While there are encouraging signs that businesses are adequately prepared for the paradigm shift that decentralised identity will cause, the winners after the move will be those that cultivate trust among consumers. The question of how digital identities are managed and by who will continue to be a key question over the coming years. To keep up with this pace of change and consumer expectations, digital identity must be on the priority list of enterprise architects and strategy makers.”