The OpenID Foundation is pleased to sponsor the Identity, Unlocked podcast. This week’s episode “eKYC with Mark Haine” features host Vittorio Bertocci and special guest Mark Haine. The episode focuses on the work of the OpenID Foundation’s eKYC & Identity Assurance Working Group. Mark Haine is the Director at considrd.consulting and one of the Co-chairs of the eKYC & Identity Assurance Working Group. Among the many dots Mark is connecting on behalf of the OpenID Foundation is work with the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, the Open Identity Exchange Trust Framework Initiatives and the Open Banking Implementation Entity. The working group is named for two processes that are largely the same but represent different industries. eKYC or Electronic Know Your Customer is a process most closely tied to the financial industry, whereas identity assurance is the more generic counterpart present in most other sectors. Identity assurance is the process of establishing the Identity of someone you’re interacting with within a very reliable fashion, and while it was historically often carried out in person, the rapid transition to new technologies and options for remote engagement have created a need to find ways of moving identity assurance online and allowing for it to be done in a standardized fashion. The working group charter, in summary, explains the group’s aim to deliver a tech solution that communicates "verified claims" and information about how they were verified. The metadata about the "verified claims" answers questions of how and when claims were established. The working group represents many countries and industries and was launched in the context of the OpenID Foundation because of the natural connections between the foundation and the group’s initiative. Offering further detail on this project, Mark comments on the choice not to mandate but strongly encourage the use of FAPI, the level of adoption of the working group’s spec thus far, and - with regard to deliverables - what specification documents and definitions the group is working with. As the conversation winds to a close, Mark explains the danger of using scope, the benefits of the TXN claim within the working group’s specification, the PKI analogy for the trust framework, and ways listeners can help by fostering awareness of the program and its many less obvious use cases.   About Mark Haine Mark is an engineer and entrepreneur who has focussed his career on building solutions that enable business and mitigate risk in financial services. Most recently Mark founded considrd.consulting and (with his team) is providing strategic security consultancy to a range of clients. He has also taken on a leadership role in the OpenID Foundation as Co-Chair of the eKYC & Identity Assurance Working Group. Acting as senior security architect on a strategic IAM programme at a European bank, Mark has provided technical direction involving streamlined customer journeys, employee access, mobile app security, web security, and third party access for PSD2. Mark was close to developments in Open Banking and has been directly involved in Open Banking UK as senior security architect and identity product owner. He has also helped a number of other organisations navigate the complexities of opening up access to their data via APIs. Mark’s goal is to help businesses succeed by influencing projects in a ways that improve business outcomes. Specialties: IAM Architecture, Access Management design, Network Security, and communicating technical complexity to people To Learn More About the “Identity, Unlocked” Podcast To learn more about the ‘Identity, Unlocked,’ podcast and host, Vittorio Bertocci, visit identityunlocked.auth0.com   To subscribe to the latest podcast updates and episodes, visit Apple Podcasts and Spotify.