UN Proposes Digital ID System for Banking and Mobile Payments

The UN proposes a digital identification system linked to banking and mobile payment platforms. This system gives you easy access to financial services and mobile payments. Implementing such a system could increase financial inclusion and promote digital transactions.

UN Pushes Digital ID System for Enhanced Social Welfare and Financial Inclusion

A global digital ID system would link bank accounts and payments. According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ new policy agenda, this initiative simplifies and digitizes the process of verifying people’s identities worldwide. 

This digital ID system would allow people to securely access financial services, such as bank accounts, payments, and remittances, regardless of where they live. It would also provide an easier way to access government services and allow for easier access to the global economy.

Unbanked and underbanked people can use this digital ID system to access financial services and streamline payments. Fraud and identity theft are also reduced.

The proposal has a section on “global digital cooperation and sustainable development goals.”

Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries.

Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.

UN Urges Action to Address Wealth Inequality in the Digital Era

Biometrics are being considered by the World Economic Forum for tracking and verifying human identity, and this proposal aligns with that. Using fingerprints or facial features, systems can identify individuals accurately.

Fingerprint Cards, a Swedish biometrics company, has partnered with the World Economic Forum to study blockchain-based digital ID platforms. 

They aim to develop systems to protect individuals’ personal information while providing secure and reliable identification methods.

Despite technology progressing quickly, the UN recognizes there’s still a need to ensure equal access to the digital revolution and address wealth inequality. Everyone needs to benefit from technological advancements, so they emphasize the importance of taking action to bridge the gaps.

Digital technology has led to massive gains in productivity and value, but these benefits are not resulting in shared prosperity.

The wealth of those in the top 1% is growing exponentially: between 1995 and 2021, they accounted for 38% of the increase in global wealth, while the bottom 50% accounted for only 2%.

Digital technologies are accelerating the concentration of economic power in an ever smaller group of elites and companies. The combined wealth of technology billionaires, $2.1 trillion in 2022, is greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half of the Group of 20 economies.

Economic inequality and social mobility are seriously affected by this concentration of wealth. Additionally, it means most economic gains go to a select few, not everyone. Underclasses that can’t access the resources they need to survive will be created.

Concentrating wealth in the hands of a small group of people restricts access to the resources necessary for economic advancement and social mobility.

This can create a situation where the wealthy have multiple avenues for growth while the underprivileged cannot access the resources necessary for their own economic advancement. As a result, economic inequality and social mobility are significantly impacted.