Finland’s eID market: A tricky situation

Olli-Pekka Rissanen
Special Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Finland
 

• The Public Private Partnership (PPP) model has been successful in Finland, but one group of players are holding the market;
• Citizens can use the same electronic ID to access all services;
• A new business model is under construction. It should be ready for cross-border identification.

 
In the 1990’s the banking sector in Finland was very advanced. They developed simple, secure electronic identification. In 2003 we, in government, also accepted it for public services. However, after that, the banking sector had a hold on the market. At the same time, the Finnish citizen card has been unsuccessful and mobile has only very small slice of market. We were first in the world with a citizen card and now we are building a new business model to open the market. We hope that it will give opportunity for new innovations, which will most probably be mobile. Our model should be also compatible with eIDAS and has been tested using Mobile Connect (GSMA) with Catalonia.  
 
 
 
Biography
Mr Olli-Pekka Rissanen has worked at the Ministry of Finance (Finland) since 2001. Before that he worked at the University of Helsinki. During his 15 years at the ministry, he has worked in many sectors from computer security to digitalization. Currently, his two main tasks are the implementation of government programs and eID policies in Finland. Mr Rissanen has also been member of different EU working groups and committees.