NZ Forex, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ASX-listed Oz Forex Group, has signed up to use RealMe, a NZ government and NZ Post initiative, to help customers transfer money overseas without having to go through a physical identifications process.
OzForex Group CEO Neil Helm said, “We believe our customers will welcome the additional convenience. For customers with a RealMe identity they no longer have to fax or scan identity verification documents to sign up for the service.”
“By streamlining the on boarding process further it improves our efficiency, reduces administrative costs and minimises risk from the transaction process.”
RealMe works by allowing authenticated end users to unlock and release their personal information from the original authoritative source. The business organisation specifies as part of their integration to RealMe the proof of identity attributes they require. When a person uses RealMe to access a product or service that requires proof of identity, the system displays the personal information requested by the business and why it is required. It is only released to the business when the user clicks consent.
“RealMe does not store the users identity attributes or hold any of the users personal information (other than that necessary to manage their login) but acts as a key to enable the individual to unlock and release their personal information from the authoritative source in which it is held. Initially users establish their verified identity through a combination of an online application process and a visit to a New Zealand Post shop to have their photo taken. From there users can transact with a growing range of RealMe integrated service online without needing to visit a branch or send copies of identity documentation in the mail,” said a Datacom spokesperson.
Datacom is the current implementation and hosting vendor for RealMe. Datacom also offers organisations and agencies the Cloud Identity Integrator service as a SaaS solution to streamline their consumption of RealMe services. The company has been working with the State Service Commission, Department of Internal Affairs, and most recently NZ Post Group since 2004 to build and extend the solution now known as RealMe.
“Big banks and financial service companies have been the early adopters of RealMe. We’re also now receiving enquiries from a wide range of other sectors keen to benefit from the risk reduction and business process improvements RealMe provides, while giving a greater digital customer experience to their customers,” said NZ Post’s head of agency services Mandy Smith.
Smith added that NZForex is also the first to sign-up for the new Datacom hosted integration to the RealMe service.