E-government breakthrough in Poland thanks to the banking sector

PKO Bank Polski enables clients to contact public administration offices via their bank account. It takes just a few minutes to create the Trusted Profile which allows access to e-government platforms. Thanks to it, customers may order EKUZ cards (European Health Insurance Card), file an application for ID card or driving license, notify the sale of a car, obtain copies of birth, marriage or death certificates or register their business activity. They may also freely use all the functions of the PUE ZUS service (social insurance), quickly obtain a criminal record certificate or an individual tax interpretation. What’s more important, they get the possibility to affix electronic signature to applications and official letters.

PKO Bank Polski says 30,000 of its online banking customers have moved to create ‘Trusted Profiles’, enabling them to log-on to Government services and electronically sign documents using just their banking IDs. The initiative forms part of the Polish Government’s “From paper to digital Poland” project conducted by the Ministry of Digital Affairs in cooperation with the banking sector.

Under the project, Poles can use their banking ID and password to log in to the social insurance board, contact public administration offices or a given local government’s site to apply for benefits and sign documents.

The creation of a Trusted Profile for access to online Government services has been a barrier to wider uptake, as subscribers first had to confirm their identity with a public services unit. In August, this administrative effort was shifted to the banking sector, with PKO Bank Polski the first Polish bank to enable customers to create their Trusted Profile from its Website.

„By providing commercial entities with trusted profile set-up tools, citizens will no more have to confirm their identity with an authorised public administration unit,” says Anna Streżyńska, Minister of Digital Affairs. „This is a game-changer in the approach towards digital services and digitisation. Just compare the number of the existing Trusted Profile users with figures showing those who use on-line banking, respectively – a bit more than 500 thousand right next to as many as 16 million.”

„Low take-up of the Trusted Profile has principally been a result of having to go to an authorized public administration unit and confirm your identity with them. Today we change it all as the Trusted Profile is now ready to be completed remotely, e.g. with a bank’s on-line interface”,  assures Mrs Streżyńska.

PKO Bank Polski was the first to join the project „From paper to digital Poland”, which is a part of the Plan for Responsible Development led by Ministry of Development. The bank’s customers may already file “500+ applications” (social benefits) and log to the PUE ZUS, and from now on, they are able to create Trusted Profiles in their transaction service. The created Profile allows to log in and sign electronically applications and forms on selected public administration sites. This takes place similarly to the quick payments in e-stores – the bank authenticates the provided customer’s data and then re-logs the customer to the selected service or allows to confirm the submitted instruction or application. At the same time, at no point data are exchanged between the authority and the bank, thus making the process safe and confidential.

iPKO and Inteligo users are eager to use the e-government access from online banking services. The electronic banking system of PKO Bank Polski was used to submit as much as 200 thousand applications (500+ social benefits program), of which 40 thousand – at the onset of the program. Thanks to implementing the Trusted Profile creation option in iPKO and Inteligo transaction services, the number of Profile users may increase from the existing 500 thousand to approx. 9 million.

Source: finextra.com