According to the research firm, the increasing use of smart cards and biometric capture has changed the way government and healthcare citizen ID documentation is viewed, managed and deployed.

It says: “Many governments are adopting smart, chip-based solutions to:

·         Help combat fraudulent and criminal activities;

·         Improve return on investment and bundle several applications in one document to create efficiencies for government departments;

·         Make the documents more user-friendly, flexible, and secure for citizens.

The company points to large scale ID projects that have been launched in the most populated countries in the world. It says: “Thus far, adoption rates are strong in developed countries and those with large economies. Now a new wave of adoption, with upgrades to second or third generation documents, is sustaining the market.”

Research analyst Phil Sealy says: “We expect smart card-based government and healthcare ID products to catch up with and surpass shipment volumes of legacy credentials by 2013. With the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) setting the standards for passports, we expect the penetration of ePassports to hit 89% of the overall installed base in 2016. For other forms of ID, it is the governments themselves that are setting the standards for their citizen documentation and in turn driving the smart card market forward.”

“Smart card solutions are offering governments different ways to interact with their citizens,” says John Devlin, group director ABI. “They are not only using biometrics as an authentication method, but also rolling out eGovernment solutions for online interaction with citizens. The new German national ID card is the perfect example, with services being developed by 150+ companies to allow online banking, registration for online shopping, airline check-in, online tax declaration, and car registration amongst others.”