The OpenID Foundation's Australian Digital Trust Community Group (ADT CG) has submitted comments to the Australian Registrars' National Electronic Conveyancing Council (ARNECC) on Consultation Draft 8.01 of the Model Participation Rules (MPR). The MPR governs how lawyers, conveyancers and financial institutions participate in Australia's electronic conveyancing system, including how they verify the identity of their clients in property transactions.

The ADT CG serves as a neutral platform for professionals working on digital identity and trust systems. It brings together stakeholders from technology vendors, industry sectors, consumer groups, and government to collaborate on standards based digital trust services in Australia.

What the consultation covers

Version 8 of the MPR takes important steps to strengthen the cybersecurity of the eConveyancing ecosystem, including new multi-factor authentication obligations and recognition of established cybersecurity frameworks. The ADT CG supports these changes and commends ARNECC for them.

The group's submission focuses on a related question: how identity is verified in property transactions. Here, the rules rely on face-to-face interviews and the physical inspection of paper documents, an approach that has remained largely unchanged since the rules were first made. The draft does not yet reference the significant developments in Australian digital identity, including the Digital ID Act 2024, the Australian Government Digital ID System (AGDIS), accredited identity providers and verifiable digital credentials.

Key themes from the submission

• A level playing field for digital identity: The submission's central suggestion is that verifying someone through an accredited digital identity service, at an appropriate level of assurance, should give practitioners the same certainty and protection under the rules as a paper-based interview does today. At the moment, those who choose the most fraud-resistant verification methods available carry more compliance risk than those who visually inspect paper documents. The ADT CG proposes that the rules can better reward stronger verification.
• Recognising digital documents: Australians are increasingly carrying their driver licenses and other credentials in digital form, backed by cryptographic protections that paper cannot offer, such as mobile driver licenses built on the ISO/IEC 18013 international standard series, and the OpenID for Verifiable Credential international standards. The submission encourages ARNECC to recognize these verifiable digital documents as equivalent to their physical counterparts.
• A common national benchmark: The submission suggests aligning the Verification of Identity Standard with the National Identity Proofing Guidelines 2025, so that paper and digital verification are measured against the same nationally consistent levels of assurance.
• Building on proven security standards: Where systems connect to an Electronic Lodgment Network via APIs, the submission encourages recognition of the FAPI security profiles, which already protect Australia's Consumer Data Right and open banking ecosystems around the world.

Creating the right conditions

The submission also reflects on progress in the Australian market. More than 15 million Australians have registered for MyID, ConnectID is live through Australia's major banks, and states are rolling out digital driver licenses. Version 8 of the MPR is expected to commence in October 2026, just weeks before private sector organizations become eligible to participate in the Australian Government Digital ID System (from 30 November 2026). It is against this backdrop that the ADT CG has encouraged ARNECC to consider digital identity in this review cycle.

Victoria Richardson, Co-Chair of the ADT CG, commented: "We have some important building blocks in place for high-assurance digital identity. What matters now is creating the right conditions for digital ID to be accepted, with sector rules that recognize accredited digital verification on equal terms with paper. When the rules reward stronger verification, everyone benefits."

The full submission is available here. Participation in the ADT CG remains open to all stakeholders interested in advancing standards-based digital trust in Australia. More information can be found here and a participation agreement to take part is located here.

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to building trusted identity ecosystems. Our mission is to lead the global community in identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy respecting. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts. The Foundation's OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. More recently, the FAPI security profile - built on OAuth 2.0 - has become the standard of choice for interoperable Open Banking and Open Data implementations, while OpenID for Verifiable Credentials specifications are underpinning a new generation of digital wallets. Today, the OpenID Foundation's standards are the connective tissue that enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling "networks of networks" to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.