UK consumers applying to open an account with Lloyds Bank via the bank’s mobile app can now verify their identity and upload key personal data to support their application by scanning the NFC chip embedded in their passport with their smartphone.

Lloyds is rolling out the passport-scanning feature in its banking app after also launching a Smart ID app that enables users to generate, store and use a digital identity on their Apple or Android mobile device in order to verify their age and ID for a range of uses without having to show physical identity documents.

The passport-scanning feature will speed up the bank account application process and reduce the risk of error by enabling users to automatically populate data fields — including their name, title, date of birth, gender and country of birth — directly from their passport, the bank says.

The Smart ID app is available to all UK consumers, whether they have a Lloyds account or not, and is interoperable with other UK digital identity apps including Yoti and Post Office EasyID, meaning that it can be used wherever these apps are already accepted.

Lloyds, Yoti and the Post Office “will announce new ways people can use their digital ID apps over the coming months”, Lloyds says. 

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