The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently released the 2024 Payments System Board Annual Report. It shows that Australian consumers are rapidly becoming familiar with verifiable credentials in the form of smart phone digital wallets.
“The RBA continued to monitor the growth in mobile wallet card transactions… Payments using mobile wallets reached 39 per cent of card transactions in the June quarter 2024”. Graph 2.1 from the report is reproduced above.
Whether it’s tap-to-pay at a merchant terminal or click-to-pay in a mobile app, most consumers are becoming comfortable with this digital experience. Thus, they are ready to click-to-present any important IDs in exactly the same way.
Consumers should be able to prove any important facts about themselves with the same security, speed and ease of use as they present their payment cards. So as Lockstep submitted in our submission on Australia’s 2030 cybersecurity strategy, the single most impactful thing that governments could do to make citizens safe online is simply give them the option of carrying their driver licences, Medicare cards, health IDs and social security numbers in standard digital wallets.