The City of London Corporation is inviting technology companies to contribute to the development of a digital verification framework designed to combat financial fraud and strengthen consumer protections across the UK.
The proposed Digital Verification Orchestrator (DVO) is envisaged as a voluntary system that would connect identity providers with financial services firms requiring identity checks. Under the model, individuals would complete a single identity verification with a trusted provider, which could then be securely reused by other financial services organisations.
An orchestrating layer would manage the transmission of that verified data between parties, cutting down on repeated checks and the administrative burden this places on both businesses and consumers.
A key function of the system would be fraud detection. By leveraging cryptographically verified identities, the network would be able to flag suspected fraudulent activity and alert other participating firms, narrowing the entry points available to bad actors across the financial system.
The City Corporation estimates that a functioning verification system could generate up to £5bn in economic benefits over a five-year period, attributing those gains to fraud prevention and improvements to digital infrastructure.
The DVO initiative forms part of the City Corporation’s broader effort to address fraud at a systemic level. In its role as police authority for the City of London Police, which leads the national policing response on fraud, cyber and economic crime, the Corporation is working to strengthen prevention, improve reporting and better protect fraud victims across the UK.
The Corporation has stated its commitment to a whole-system response, bringing together financial services, technology, government and policing to disrupt criminal networks and protect the public.
City of London Corporation policy chairman Chris Hayward said, “Fraud is a plague on banks’ balance sheets, costing them over £1 billion last year. To help mitigate this – we need a digital-first economy that instils trust in the system and delivers clear benefits to consumers through faster, safer, and more seamless access to financial services. It’s this conviction that has motivated our work to champion the development and introduction of a digital verification service. Innovation enables new dangers – but it also solves them too. We’re asking companies who can provide this infrastructure to step forward and lead the sector’s fightback against fraud.”
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