ID.me and Sterling Announce Exclusive Partnership to Transform Background Screening with Innovative Identity Verification Solutions

– As Remote Hiring Continues, Bold New Digital Identity Solution for Employment Speeds Return to Work –

New York, N.Y. and McLean, Va., February 9, 2021

News Highlights

The exclusive partnership between Sterling and ID.me advances identity verification, background screening, and hiring:

• 40,000+ businesses and organizations rely on Sterling’s tech-enabled services to conduct over 75 million background searches annually.
• More than thirty-five million Americans have ID.me digital wallets and one million more are added every 13 days.
• Verifying identity at the start of the screening process helps employers trust information received from workers and improves screening quality while deterring identity fraud.
• The companies are collaborating on solving additional challenges for remote hiring to strengthen and speed hiring practices during a time of increased urgency and mobility.

ID.me, a federally certified identity verification platform, and Sterling, a leading provider of identity and background services, today announced the launch of an exclusive partnership that brings a powerful new identity service offering to the employment and screening space. Employers and workers in the United States will now have access to a flexible identity solution that can be used at scale to accelerate hiring and improve background screens.

“This is exactly the kind of innovative partnership we like to see from two leaders in the field,” said Travis Jarae, CEO of One World Identity (OWI), a leading identity research and advisory firm. “As identity applications evolve, these intersections across solution segments are shaping next-generation strategies.”

With the addition of ID.me, Sterling’s 40,000+ clients gain access to a suite of powerful new identity verification services, easily configured to meet their specific business needs. These services will be available to clients starting in the second quarter of 2021, with additional capabilities planned for the remainder of the year.

“Sterling has long believed that identity verification is core to background screening, and we are focused on delivering best-in-class identity services to our clients,” said Sterling CEO Josh Peirez. “By partnering with ID.me, we bring together two industry front runners to deliver new, innovative solutions that will empower individuals and benefit employers as they adapt to the changing dynamics of work, now and in the future.”

The ID.me-Sterling partnership expands on the existing, widely adopted ID.me digital identity wallet that is used by a pre-verified network which is growing by one million participants every 13 days. The wallet gives individuals a user-centric, verified profile they can use to prove their identity and share verified career and other credentials. The identity wallet is owned and controlled by the individual, who chooses what to securely share and when. This enables greater career mobility and expanded employment opportunities while eliminating the need to repeatedly prove identity. Employers can request identity verified at different levels of trust all the way up to NIST 800-63-3 IAL2/AAL2, and a video chat option ensures that all workers can verify online.

“Our partnership with Sterling brings even more value to the digital wallets of our over 35 million members,” said Blake Hall, CEO of ID.me. “Government agencies, top brands and organizations, and individuals across the country already trust ID.me to verify people’s identities. Now, we’ll be extending that trust and value to the workforce and volunteer sector.”

Sterling and ID.me are collaborating on additional solutions to strengthen and speed screening and hiring. The two companies are incubating concepts and working with early customers, with plans to make new solutions available in the coming months.

Click here to learn more about Sterling Identity Verification.

About ID.me
ID.me provides the recognized login and identity verification used by over 35 million people, with one million additional people joining every 13 days. Almost 70% of the US adult population currently has access to unemployment benefits via the ID.me secure verification process. ID.me simplifies how individuals prove and share their identity online. Their next-generation identity platform provides identity proofing, authentication and group affiliation verification for organizations across sectors. ID.me’s technology meets the highest federal standards for online identity proofing, authentication, KYC and AML requirements and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 conformant credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. To learn more about ID.me and its secure identity verification platform, visit https://www.ID.me/.

About Sterling
Sterling—a leading provider of background and identity services—provides background, identity verification, and Covid-19 health testing services that help over 40,000 clients create people-first cultures built on foundations of trust and safety. Their tech-enabled services help organizations create great environments for their workers, partners, and customers. With operations around the world, Sterling conducts more than 75 million searches annually. Visit Sterling online at https://www.sterlingcheck.com/.

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