It must be accompanied by a photo of their passport or driving licence – but if Lloyds’ computer systems are satisfied that the ‘selfie’ and passport photo match up, they will be passed to an employee.

 

Once double checked, customers will receive an email within 15 minutes to say if the application has been approved. 

 

Lloyds claims this will help hundreds of thousands of customers, as roughly one in three are currently asked to bring in identification documents when applying online to open a bank account or credit card.

 

These are typically new customers, foreigners who have just arrived in the UK, and young people - who may not be on the electoral roll, or have too little information stored on them by credit reference agencies to verify their ID.

 

The new electronic identification and verification checks will be introduced next week for existing customers wanting to set up a joint¹ account.

 

The service will then be opened for all applications for current accounts, savings² accounts and credit cards offered by Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland by the Summer.

 

But while it may make life easier for many customers, it comes as all the High Street lenders are closing hundreds of branches to slash³ costs.

 

Derek French, director of the Campaign for Community Banking⁴ Services, said:

 

‘This is part of a general trend. Banks are pushing and pushing their customers to go online, but there is a large section of the population - particularly the elderly - that simply don’t want to, or don’t have access to this technology.’

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