e-id services and e-commerce payments–Finland 2010

Excellent growth figures - on EU levels the e-id volume would be 1,5bn. All public sector id-transactions are presently done by banks. This is extremely cost efficient (economy of reuse) and naturally preferred by citizens - as the tool (one-time code) is so familiar (economy of repetition and secure (economy of trust).

Difficult to understand why this public-private solution has not spread to more than some half a dozen countries (not a big source of income for banks of course - more a question of better customer service and taking responsibility for speeding up e-government. Technology vendors naturally try to sell a separate tool for every purpose - but endusers prefer familiar ones.

The e-payments are introduced in -97 and have grown steadily - much for the same economy of reuse, repetition and trust reasons - but also supported by economy of scope and scale. Plus being made in real time - cutting merchant and bank risks. EU-equivalent volume would be 2,1 billion times.

More interesting statistics here: http://www.fkl.fi/en/material/statistics/Statistics/Statistics_banks_payment_systems_2001-2010.pdf