I like this comment:
"We're at the early stages of this system so we need something that allows people to re-register easily. As people get more used to it customer authentication can be ramped up. Some banks are already introducing two-factor authentication for online transactions."
Imagine a car manufacturer saying:
"We're at the early stages of this car so we need something that allows people to drive it easily. As people get more used to it we'll add stuff like brakes, lights, seatbelts, bumpers, crumple zones, etc later..."
The rest of us out here in techie land have to get things right first time, we go through iterative testing, and beta and all that crap; we define a final goal and work towards that goal and don't release a product or a method until that goal has been achieved.
They're saying, "In the early days, thousands of people could be ripped off, but we'll make it more secure later, honest..."
What, using the same idiot-minds you're using now? What will it be, another layer of duct tape over the existing layer of duct tape?
Oh for a government that had any kind of corporate responsibility agenda in its back pocket.
Balls.