Thanks for the details and context! Now it makes lot of sense to me. I wonder if they should decouple solution to payments (to utility etc.,) from the identity

Thanks for the details and context! Now it makes lot of sense to me. I wonder if they should decouple solution to payments (to utility etc.,) from the identity. As for the payments, I believe it's better to expand an existing solution than build one from ground up. iDEAL for example, is a proven solution that's been in use in Netherlands for a while now. And since it's based on IBAN that's understood by all (?) the EU banks I guess it's worth expanding iDEAL to pan EU.