itsme^® turns 5: 80% of Belgians already use the app

In the space of five years, itsme^® has become firmly established as an established value in the lives of Belgian. Already 6.5 million of our countrymen use the identity app to identify themselves, as well as confirm transactions and sign documents online. itsme^® is the only app of its kind in Europe.

At present, in 2022, 80% of adults in Belgium aged between 18 and 80 have an itsme^® account. Particularly over the past year, with another 3.3 million itsme^® users in Belgium – representing a doubling of users in just one year! The arrival of the CovidSafeBE app in June 2021, for which itsme^® can be used to log in, has also played a major role in this growth.

At least 99% of itsme^® accounts are active, which means that the person behind the digital ID uses itsme^® at least once a year to identify him or herself, log into websites and apps, confirm digital transactions or sign documents online.

“These figures are unprecedented, even in an international context,” says Michael Anseeuw, chairman of the itsme^® Board of Directors. “Belgium has become a genuine frontrunner in terms of digital identity in Europe, with the itsme^® app becoming firmly established within the whole population and across all sectors.”

In total, around 800 companies and partners, spread across some twenty sectors, offer itsme^® as a means of identification. Meanwhile, itsme^® has also become by far the most popular login method for government websites. Each month, between 25 and 35 million operations are carried out in Belgium using itsme^®: that’s roughly 35% more than the number of mobile payments per month across the country*.

The success enjoyed by itsme^® can be attributed to its great ease of use, although the focus on security also plays an important part. The fact that itsme^® makes a substantial contribution to our digital security can also be seen from recent figures about phishing (= the practice whereby people are persuaded fraudulently to share their personal banking codes with third parties). Data provided by the banking federation, Febelfin, shows that the number of successful cases of phishing fraud fell last year by 25%, with 9 million euro less being extorted in 2021 than in 2020. “The widespread use of itsme^® in Belgium has certainly helped here,” says itsme^® CEO, Stephanie De Bruyne. “Using our app means you no longer have to share banking codes when you want to log in or confirm transactions. Your itsme^® is the encrypted and secure authentication key that you control from your app. The results are impressive: far fewer people have fallen victim to phishing fraud.”

* Mobile payments with Bancontact and Payconiq, including embedded apps that have integrated the mobile Bancontact functionality (and in some cases also the Payconiq functionality) in their own apps. Mobile payments peer to peer are excluded.