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Government e-identification as an alternative to BankID for payments is positive

For many years, BankID has been by far the largest e-identification method in Sweden and is now used by a very large part of the population to identify themselves and sign contracts or payments, for example. This has helped create secure, seamless and user-friendly digital services, but at the same time made many people very dependent on a single commercial operator. A governmental e-identification that works for payments would therefore be an important complement to BankID.

Published: 13 March 2026

Swedish Police Authority to design a government e-identification

The government has decided that Sweden should have a national e-identification and the Swedish Police Authority has been tasked with both designing and issuing it. The work is carried out in accordance with the EU's eIDAS regulation^[85] Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC. , which stipulates that all member states must provide an e-identification at the highest level of trust, which Sweden currently lacks.^[86] You can read more about trust levels for e-identification at Tillitsnivåer för e-legitimering (Digg, Swedish only), retrieved 23-12-2025. This is done in cooperation with Myndigheten för digital förvaltning, Digg (the Agency for Digital Government). The e-identification should be usable both in public e-services and in the private sector.

In a referral from the Council on Legislation from January this year, the Government submits a number of proposals on the design of a state e‑identification, including its content, carrier and activation.^[87] En statlig e-legitimation (Government, Swedish only). Together, these proposals represent a good first step towards a government solution.

The Riksbank considers that a government e-identification that can be used for payments can have several positive effects. Firstly, it can strengthen competition in the market, by creating scope for more actors to build their own identification solutions. Second, it gives society another option for identification and payments should one be disrupted. Finally, it could improve accessibility if the government e-identification can be used by groups that currently lack or have difficulty obtaining a BankID, such as new arrivals, people with intellectual disabilities or people without a Swedish bank account. The Riksbank's assessment is that it is important that the holder can use the government e‑identification via, for example, a mobile phone, as this is a prerequisite for it to be able to function as a secure and government-controlled complement to BankID.