Banks could become the guardians of their customers’ digital identity if a pilot being run by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) is accepted by its members.

A group within Swift has already agreed the basic architecture and business model for a service that banks could offer customers that will protect their digital identities against fraudulent activity.

The service would be like a digital vault which the bank would sell to customers. Swift would host the services and be the gatekeeper. The service would mean that when a customer pays for something online using their bank card, for example, they would not have to enter their card number. Rather the merchant would be redirected to the digital vault where, after approval, it would receive confirmation that the payment will be made. No details change hands.

Continued atSwift proposes identity management system to banks – 8/15/2011 – Computer Weekly.