STOCKHOLM — Sweden is developing a new national electronic ID system that could eventually sit alongside — and partly compete with — BankID.

A new government initiative revolving around electronic identification aims to provide residents with an alternative method for verifying identity online, reducing the country's reliance on the privately owned, bank-administered platform that currently dominates Swedish digital infrastructure.

Today, BankID is used for almost everything in Sweden: online banking, healthcare appointments, tax services, digital contracts, and logging into government websites.

But not everyone can easily get access to it.

People without Swedish bank accounts, newly arrived residents, and some elderly users have long faced difficulties using services that depend heavily on BankID.

government-backed alternative

The new eID would be state-backed rather than controlled by private banks.

Officials say it is meant to make digital identification more accessible while also reducing the risks of having so much of Sweden’s online infrastructure tied to a single system.

Exactly how the new eID will work is still unclear, but it is expected to function similarly to BankID across both public and private services.

bankID isn’t going anywhere

Even with the new system on the way, BankID is expected to remain the main form of digital identification in Sweden for the foreseeable future.

More than eight million people currently use the app, and many companies are unlikely to move away from it anytime soon.

Still, supporters of the proposal argue that introducing a state-run alternative could make Sweden’s digital systems more flexible — especially during outages, banking issues, or future security threats.

More details about the rollout are expected in the coming months.