BankID is the leading electronic identity in Sweden. Signatures with BankID are legally binding in the EU. BankID has been developed by a number of large banks for use by members of the public, authorities and companies. The first BankID was issued in 2003.
The company, Financial ID-Technology, provides the service of electronic identities to banks in Sweden. At the moment 9 banks acts as issuers (Certification Authorities) of BankID to their customers. Together they represent about 5.6 million online bankers (Sweden has about 7.3 million citizens in the age of 18 or above). BankID is the leading digital identity in Sweden with a market share of 75%.
At this point we have approximately 2 million active customers. Nearly 170 organizations provide 400 services were citizens can use their BankID for digital identification as well as signature. The services vary from online banking, e-trade to tax declaration and are provided by government, municipality, banks and companies. BankID is used both for identification as well as signing. According to the Swedish law BankID is an advanced signature and a signature with BankID is legally binding.
The customer's identification is guaranteed by the bank issuing the BankID. Authorities, companies and other organizations must check the validity of the customer's identity and signature, using software developed by certified specialist companies. BankID is available on smart card and as soft certificate.