Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister of Internal Affairs

Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government is making it easier to verify your identity online by rolling out RealMe Identity Verification Service [RealMe] access to an additional seven private sector organisations.

“The Government is now expanding this service to further organisations including financial service companies and online education providers. This move will provide significant cost and time savings for people who need to identify themselves for a service, as well as helping the organisations to meet their compliance obligations, including anti-money laundering requirements” says Ms van Velden.

The Early Childhood Council [ECC] received approval to use RealMe which will be significant for early childhood providers.

“ECE workers must be identity checked every three years as a minimum. RealMe provides a digital way of completing identity checks which are required for all workers by the Children’s Act. In some cases workers do not have the primary and secondary hard-copy documents so a digital alternative makes a lot of sense. We are very pleased that approval has been given as it will help our checking systems designed to keep children in ECE safer,” says Simon Laube, Chief Executive.

MyMahi has been working closely with the Department of Internal Affairs on the tertiary study enrolment process. “Working together can shorten the process from over a month to ten minutes. This innovation can be life changing for students and their whānau,” says Matt Webb, MyMahi Partnership Director."

“Many authorised agencies including registered banks, real estate agents, and accountants are already approved to use RealMe to benefit their customers. Organisations using RealMe must also offer alternative ways for customers to verify their identity,” says Ms van Velden.

RealMe is a service that allows New Zealanders to prove their identity online with Government agencies and authorised organisations such as registered banks, without having to visit in person and show their passport or driver licence.

A communications service provider that recently signed up for the service says, “For us what is good about RealMe is the ‘know your customer’ aspect. It enables us to check people are who they say they are when buying our products and services and will help us reduce fraud.”

The service is often a popular way to open a bank account, renew a passport, and enrol to vote online with more than 1.5 million verified identities on RealMe as of August 2024.

For more information on RealMe IVS and a guide to sign up for access please visit: https:// https://www.realme.govt.nz//. For businesses looking to adopt the RealMe IVS service please contact business@realme.govt.nz for advisory and integration support.

© Scoop Media