Three in Four UK Financial Services Firms See Digital Trust as a Key Strategic Focus – Do You?

Guest blog from LexisNexis as part of our #UnlockingDigitalID campaign week 2024.

Digital trust is not just a byproduct of good business, it's a cornerstone of business success.

As firms increasingly shift their services online, their ability to successfully authenticate users whilst safeguarding customer information and upholding privacy rules is becoming fundamental to their values and governance. Trust is now embedded in every interaction between businesses and customers, far beyond simply preventing breaches or data misuse.

This evolving concept of digital trust is central to The Future of Digital Trust: Authentaverse, a 2023 report by LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, developed in collaboration with leading market research and intelligence specialists, The Future Laboratory. The report offers a forward-looking perspective on digital trust from a 'citizen-first' lens, outlining the key principles shaping trust and identity authentication today. It introduces a future where trust is seamless and integrated across industries, achieved through effortless authentication and cross-sector collaboration.

Imagine a world where consumers move seamlessly between online services—whether transferring money, shopping, booking tickets, or streaming videos—without needing to repeatedly sign in. This vision of a future “authentaverse,” as described in the report, hinges on invisible, instant identity authentication operating in the background. However, this utopia depends on a new trust charter, built on four foundational pillars: empowerment, protection, understanding, and respect.

In this article, we explore the key findings from the Authentaverse report and introduce upcoming research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which will provide an industry perspective on digital trust.

The Shift to a Collaborative Trust Ecosystem

The challenges of building digital trust extend far beyond the scope of individual organisations. According to the report, which draws on expert interviews and quantitative research, trust cannot be established in isolation—it requires the creation of an interconnected ecosystem of trust. No single business, government, or institution can address this issue alone. A collaborative, cross-industry approach is vital, with stakeholders working together to embed trust at every level of digital interaction.

Trust in government leaders, institutions, and the media continued to decline in 2023, with businesses being the only globally trusted institution, according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, which places them at 62%. This year shows a similar trend, with businesses remaining the most trusted institution overall. However, a closer look at the UK data reveals that businesses still have significant work to do to regain public trust. The UK has shifted from a neutral stance on trust last year to now falling into the distrust category, a status it shares with only one other country. Despite this, there are encouraging signs that businesses have the potential to lead the way in fostering a more trusted ecosystem.

The report highlights that despite a society-wide endemic lack of trust, most companies still don’t understand what true trust looks like, with significant disparity between how trusted they think they are and how trusted they actually are.

For financial institutions, in particular, digital trust is not just a compliance necessity but a business imperative. Research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions shows that 70% of consumers aged 55 and older trust banks more than any other sector, compared to just 43% of Gen Z consumers. This trust gap highlights the need for a broader and more inclusive approach to digital trust, one that addresses the expectations of different demographics.

Why Digital Trust Matters More Than Ever

Society finds itself at a crossroads. From AI and machine learning to Web3 and the metaverse, fast accelerating technologies are fuelling systemic change for all industries – driving a new wave of digital experiences redefining how we engage with the world around us.

And at the heart of all of this is trust – and increasingly digital trust.

The report explores the fact that digital trust is fast becoming the most valuable cultural currency of our time. With digital experiences now central to almost every interaction, transaction and relationship between businesses and consumers.

Almost half (47%) of people in the UK would withdraw trust from a business because of data mishandling or selling, according to Okta, while the same percentage of US respondents (47%) would cut ties with a company completely following a data breach.

To set this future ‘Authetaverse’ in motion, the report identities four principles of digital trust: empowerment, protection, understanding, and respect. These pillars lay the foundations for how an Authentaverse should be built and brokered – ensuring it is ethical, inclusive, functional and, ultimately, trusted by all it serves.

Empowerment
Upskilling and educating citizens will enable them to better understand the value of sharing and managing their data.

Protection
A highly personalised, layered approach to designing digital services will better respect and protect citizens by providing more intelligent authentication.

Understanding
Building a moral eco-system requires understanding of the people behind the data points. Humanising data will help unlock innovation, security, and trust.

Respect
The former hierarchy is being replaced by the human right to agency over their own data, with open and consumer-controlled data sharing models at the centre.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Digital Trust

To gain deeper insights into how businesses are navigating the complex world of digital trust, LexisNexis Risk Solutions partnered with leading market researchers, Savanta to survey senior industry leaders across key sectors like banking, retail, and telecommunications. These leaders shared their perspectives on the evolving digital trust landscape and how their organisations are adapting to the findings from the Authentaverse report.

The findings from this research will be released in The Future of Digital Trust: Delivering a Safer, More Connected World report late October 2024. Be some of the first to access the full report and discover why the progress on true collaboration is being held back and how leading firms are investing in innovative strategies through tokenization and the latest forms of encryption to break down barriers between government, private sector and their customers, to ensure safer, seamless digital interactions for the future.

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Welcome to techUK’s 2024 Digital ID Campaign Week! On the 14-18^th Oct, we are excited to explore how our members are increasing efficiency for both businesses and users, combatting fraud, as well as what creative and innovative ways our members are expanding our understanding of Digital Identities.

Whether it’s how we’re communicating, shopping, managing our finances, dating, accessing healthcare or public services, the ability to verify identity has quickly become a critical vanguard to the Digital Economy.