RealMe costs the government

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and New Zealand Post have spent $5.5 million so far this financial year on further development and operating costs for the RealMe digital log-in service.

That’s on top of the approximately $8 million spent to develop RealMe for its launch last July, building on the previous investment over several years of the cost of development of the igovt systems, along with operational and staff costs and all associated overheads, DIA says.

There are two RealMe services: A user name and password for participating government websites, and a verified account, which commercial organisations can use for evidence of identity online.

Around 17 different government organisations offering 48 services are so far using RealMe, which is averaging more than 750,000 uses a month over the past year. There have been more than 1.25 million log-ins created as at January 31.

The Bank of New Zealand was the first of the big banks to sign up to the service, in February. It says it enables customers to cut times to interact with the bank. Earlier, TSB Bank signed up.