Digital-First Banking: Why Identity Is Critical to Skandia’s Model
Skandia’s legacy as one of the oldest financial institutions and a Swedish household name hasn’t slowed its pace of change. Early on, ahead of many competitors, the company made a deliberate decision to operate without physical offices and deliver all services through web and mobile channels. That choice still defines how systems are built today. In a fully digital model, access sits at the center of the business. Identity functions as the control layer that determines whether customers can transact, partners can integrate and services remain available. The system behind it needs to be both reliable and adaptable as requirements evolve.
This is one of our most critical platforms. If it doesn’t work, we lose access to all our digital services across the entire business.
Today, identity underpins how Skandia’s customers access services, how partners connect through APIs and how internal systems communicate. Every request, whether from a user, an external provider or another system, is handled through the same layer. Open banking further reinforces this role. By exposing services through standardized APIs, Skandia enables new distribution channels and partnerships, all of which depend on identity working consistently across every interaction.
Choosing an Identity Platform: Why Skandia Selected Curity
With its existing identity solution approaching renewal, Skandia used the moment to reassess its long-term architecture rather than simply extend the status quo.
The evaluation focused on three priorities:
- Full control over deployment and operations
- Direct access to expert support
- Strict adherence to open standards
Adherence to open standards became the deciding factor. Skandia wanted OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect implemented as defined, without proprietary layers or vendor-specific variations. This approach reduces integration friction, shortens partner onboarding time and avoids long-term architectural lock-in.
More broadly, it reflects a deliberate strategy: keep control close, avoid unnecessary abstraction and build on standards that others already understand.
Curity was the only solution that met all three requirements without compromise.
Identity Migration Strategy: Ensuring Stability During Transition
With a fixed deadline and business-critical systems involved, the team deliberately prioritized continuity over transformation. Rather than rebuilding everything at once, they migrated the existing setup as it was and introduced changes incrementally.
The goal was to keep services running, reduce risk and create space to improve once the new platform was in place.
This approach aligns with how Skandia views identity internally. It is treated as core infrastructure, with ownership kept close to the team responsible for running it. Developers and architects were involved throughout, building familiarity not just with configuration but with how the platform operates in practice.
Deployment reflected that mindset. Installation and initial setup were straightforward, allowing the team to move quickly while establishing a foundation for automation early on.
Curity's technical enablement team also played a key role:
Whenever we had a question, it was very easy to reach the Curity team and get thorough, professional responses quickly. We never felt stuck or slowed down.
Unified Identity Platform: Supporting Customers, APIs and Internal Systems
With Curity as the central identity layer, Skandia now supports all access use cases in one place
- Customer authentication for all Skandia’s users
- Internal administrative access
- Open banking APIs used by third-party providers
- Machine-to-machine authentication across internal systems
By consolidating identity in the Curity Identity Server, Skandia has reduced fragmentation and introduced a consistent way of handling access across the business.
This shift has delivered clear outcomes:
- Reduced operational complexity by consolidating multiple identity systems
- Faster partner and API integrations
- Consistent enforcement of regulatory and security policies
From a developer perspective, the improvements are tangible. Configuration takes less time, extending the platform is more straightforward and upgrades can be scheduled and controlled by the team rather than dictated by the vendor.
Reliability has also been consistent, which is essential in a model where everything depends on access and availability.
Future-Proof Identity Infrastructure for Digital Financial Services
With Curity, Skandia has built a foundation it understands, controls and can evolve over time. There is ongoing work to understand how identity will need to evolve alongside emerging technologies. AI-driven services are becoming more relevant, introducing new questions around access, delegation and control, particularly in a regulated environment.
This evolution is approached deliberately. The priority remains maintaining control and predictability while exploring how to introduce new capabilities safely.
