The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has engaged a supplier of open banking technology as it looks to expand the identity verification options for GOV.UK One Login users.
GOV.UK One Login is the government’s flagship digital identity platform, which enables citizens to access government services through a single account. GDS – which is responsible for digital services, data and technology across central government – says 23 million people have so far used the service to sign in to more than 250 UK government services.
Ecospend has been appointed to the newly created contract, which has a value of £4.7m (about $6.2m) and is scheduled to run to February 2029, according to a government contract award notice.
At the moment, One Login – launched in 2021 – can only be used to access some government services. It does not yet work, for example, with Universal Credit. But over time, it will replace all other ways to sign in to services on GOV.UK, including Government Gateway.
The contract award notice (published 22 September 2026) states that Ecospend – which already works in the UK public sector with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and National Savings & Investments (NS&I) – will support ‘identity verification, identity validation and fraud risk assessment.’
The company’s engagement will specifically enable GDS to move beyond passports and driving licences to enable an open banking data-enabled additional option for people using One Login to verify their identity – a new public sector use case for a technology more closely associated with enabling payments.
OPEN BANKING: EXPLAINED ‘Open’ refers to open application programming interfaces (APIs): software intermediaries that allow two machines to interact (and, in the case of open banking, share banking data). Global Government Finance’s focus is on its potential to improve public service delivery.
Gov.UK One Login roadmap
GDS’s intention to use open banking data for One Login has already been flagged in a GOV.UK One Login roadmap, most recently updated in August 2026, that states that users will be able to ‘prove their identity by signing in to their online banking and sharing information from their [bank] account.’
Global Government Finance understands that GDS expects to roll out the open banking-enabled route, powered by Ecospend technology, next year (2027).
With the user’s permission, the route would allow people to sign in to their online banking and use information held by their bank to support the identity verification process. In more technical terms, this is use of Ecospend’s tech for ‘account information services’ (known in open banking circles as ‘AIS’). This is a different use of the company’s technology than, for example, is used to enable people to make payments to HMRC or NS&I. In these cases, the service is known as payment initiation (or ‘payment initiation services’ – PIS), though HMRC’s open banking technology use has expanded to AIS (through Ecospend) since the company’s initial PIS-focused appointment.
Ecospend has been owned by Sweden-headquartered Trustly since 2023.
“We’re proud that Ecospend, a member of the Trustly group of companies, is partnering with the GDS to enable further choice in the creation of a GOV.UK One Login. Trust sits at the heart of everything we do at Ecospend, and we know it really matters when people prove who they are to use public services,” a company spokesperson said today (5 October).
“Open banking already helps millions of people in the UK manage their money every day. This partnership shows it can do far more. By drawing on bank-verified information that people choose to securely share, users will have another convenient way to help prove who they are when accessing government services via GOV.UK One Login,” the spokesperson added.
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GCA’s dynamic purchasing system
The procurement was run via the open banking Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) overseen by the Government Commercial Agency (known as the Crown Commercial Service until April this year) to facilitate the use of open banking across the UK public sector.
A DPS is a type of commercial agreement that enables public sector buyers to procure from a list of pre-approved suppliers.
Designed to ‘offer [public sector buyers] a quick, easy and flexible way to buy commonly used goods and services,’ the GCA describes DPSs ‘are especially suitable for buying goods and services in fast-changing industries’ including technology.
CCS (now GCA) launched the open banking DPS as 2024 dawned with the ultimate aim of ‘reducing the costs of receiving money into public sector organisations, as well as reducing fraud.’
At time of writing (5 October 2026), 26 companies (all looking to supply open banking-related services to the public sector) are named on GCA’s open banking ‘appointed suppliers’ webpage.
The DPS’s full name is the Open Banking (Data, Digital Payments & Confirmation of Payee Services) DPS. It is referred to by the GCA as ‘RM6301’ (‘RM’ is used in all GCA agreement reference numbers).
The GCA’s DPS explainer webpage notes that ‘DPSs are slowly being replaced by a new type of flexible agreement known as dynamic markets’. The Procurement Act 2023 introduced dynamic markets as a replacement for DPSs when it took effect in February last year (2025).
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Ecospend’s public sector pedigree
GDS’s appointment of Ecospend marks the latest UK public sector assignment for the company.
Ecospend secured what was believed to be the world’s first public sector open banking contract, when it was hired by HMRC to enable payments to be made to the department through open banking technology: HMRC introduced a ‘Pay by bank account’ option (button) for people making online self-assessment tax returns in 2021 – believed to be the first time any government in the world had embedded open banking within its own operations. Ecospend re-won its HMRC contract in 2024.
NS&I has also been working with Ecospend for PIS. The state-backed savings institution announced in May 2023 that people would be able to select an HMRC-style open banking-enabled ‘Pay by bank account’ option when making online payments. This contract has just been re-won by Ecospend (see next section of this article).
In 2024 the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) also engaged Ecospend to develop what a contract award notice described as a ‘UC Open Banking Proof of Concept’ (‘UC’ stands for ‘Universal Credit’).
Global Government Finance revealed in June this year that DWP had U-turned on its plan to hire a ‘strategic supplier’ of open banking technology for use on UC. The move – blamed on “shifting delivery priorities” – constituted a damp squib of a denouement to a drawn-out procurement. Ecospend was, however, believed to have been identified through a competitive bidding process as preferred supplier.
RELATED ARTICLE Government adoption ‘most important’ ingredient for trust in open banking: UK fintech leader – a news story (29 January 2025) based on a panel discussion titled ‘Open Banking and Open Finance: the Future Direction of Payment Systems to Promote Competition and Financial Inclusion’ at an event in London
NS&I’s renewed open banking commitment
Ecospend has also been awarded a renewed contract to supply PIS to NS&I after a process also run through the GCA DPS.
Ecospend’s new NS&I £2.5m (about $3.3m) contract will run from August 2026 to August 2030, according to a contract award notice (published on 24 September). The award was actually made in November 2025.
“NS&I’s Pay by bank account [powered by open banking tech] is a payment method that allows our customers to make payments directly from their bank accounts to NS&I, without needing a debit card or manually entering account details. It provides a simple and secure way for customers to set up and make payments, and for NS&I and the taxpayer it is a more cost-effective payment method than debit card or cheque, supporting our focus on delivering value for money,” an NS&I spokesperson told Global Government Finance this week ek.
“Since its introduction in May 2023, our Pay by bank account service been used by our customers to successfully transfer over £35 billion to NS&I through more than seven million transactions, and we are pleased that this re-procurement will ensure the service can continue to be offered to customers,” the spokesperson said.
NS&I is in the throes of a heavily criticised digital transformation project. It launched its ‘transformation programme’ (previously called its ‘Rainbow Programme’) – designed to modernise its operations and cut costs – in 2020. The efforts were slammed as a ‘full-spectrum disaster’ by the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) in February 2026.
RELATED ARTICLE “The reality is: this is happening”: Lord Holmes as ‘government fintech’ evolves – an interview (12 January 2026) with Lord Holmes in which he speaks of the potential of open banking (and describes ‘open banking’ as a “terrible brand”)
One Login now using passkeys
GDS published a blogpost last month (16 September) highlighting a government announcement two days previously (14 September) that passkeys are being rolled out across One Login.
Passkey logins – which use device-based security such as face ID, fingerprint or PIN, instead of a password – are ‘up to eight times faster than signing in with username, password and two-step verification code’, according to the government announcement.
‘This month, the GDS made it faster, easier and more secure to sign into government services,’ GDS’s multi-authored blogpost stated. ‘Users will no longer need to remember a password or enter a security code (also known as ‘multi-factor authentication’) to sign in.’
The blogpost referenced a National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recommendation that passkeys are ‘the more secure and user-friendly login method and should be the default authentication option for consumers.’
‘In the years to come, we expect passkeys to save millions a year for the UK taxpayer by cutting the cost of text message-based authentication,’ the GDS blogpost stated, adding that their introduction was ‘the biggest change we have made to the sign-in experience of GOV.UK One Login since it launched’. It cautioned, however, that ‘it is going to take time for everyone in the UK to adopt passkeys.’
RELATED ARTICLE UK government launches GOV.UK digital services app for smartphones – a news story (4 July 2025) on GOV.UK App’s ‘trial’ release
One Login challenges
The GDS blogpost is open to comments, which include recommendations to drive user adoption.
‘It’s fantastic, the problem is One Login isn’t adopted across many major user journeys,’ commented ‘Roger’ on 18 September. ‘So while great technical work is being done here – would love to see more work to drive adoption where it matters.’
It went on to specify examples including: DWP for Universal Credit (‘they [DWP] expect to attend in person with a passport, multiple times’); HMRC having a ‘complicated mix of 2-5 different usernames, passwords and logins’; and local councils requiring applications for disability badges by email.
GDS’s communications team responded to the comment, stating that ‘GOV.UK One Login is already being used by more than 250 government services and counting’; that ‘over time, GOV.UK One Login will become the single front door to access these services’; and that GDS ‘is actively working with these government services on their delivery and onboarding plans.’
Following another comment that stated that ‘the real problem issue is multiple and duplicated identity systems’, GDS’s communications team responded that GOV.UK One Login ‘is being developed to solve the issue you identify.’
‘This [One Login] will replace up to 300 individual accounts, accessed via 44 different sign-in methods; and will provide a significantly improved user experience. The introduction of passkeys is an important part of that work,’ GDS stated.
RELATED ARTICLE GDS appoints Dutch firm Adyen to bring open banking to Gov.UK Pay – a news story (3 June 2026) on the completion of a procurement exercise to embed open banking technology into payments platform Gov.UK Pay (see below)
GDS’s open banking move(s)
GDS’s appointment of Ecospend is GDS’s second open banking tech-related appointment.
Global Government Finance reported in June that GDS had completed a procurement exercise to realise a long-held ambition to embed open banking technology into payments platform Gov.UK Pay. Gov.UK Pay is a central service available to all UK public sector bodies – including government agencies, local authorities, National Health Service (NHS), police forces and further education colleges – to receive online payments.
Netherlands-headquartered company Adyen was announced as Gov.UK Pay’s new PSP (payment service provider) for ‘non-Crown card payments and pay by bank’ (open banking), replacing Stripe (a ‘non-Crown’ card payment is a standard debit or credit card transaction processed by a ‘non-Crown’ public sector body in the UK, such as local authorities, police and armed forces).
Gov.UK Pay had previously taken payments and processed them using two payment service providers (PSPs): Stripe (for local authorities, police and government-owned charitable groups); and Worldpay (which is Government Banking’s PSP) for central government, arms-length bodies and the NHS (Government Banking is a shared government function).
GDS has moved departments twice in roughly two years. It was moved from the Cabinet Office into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as part of the then-new Labour government’s machinery-of-government changes in 2024. Following DSIT’s abolition in July 2026, GDS has been moved into the newly reconstituted Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The open banking contract award was made by DSIT.
Source: www.globalgovernmentfinance.com
