I just got NemID as a foreigner -- it took me about 4 months of circular references (x is closed because of covid, get it from y; y is shut because of covid -- try x) and a rooting trick on my phone to get the app to work. I am sure that it is nice for the government and the banks having a unified point of sale, but it _really_ took a lot of work to get sorted. I think I prefer the decentralised, less secure, presumably easier to defraud method…

In Norway the usual form of ID for anyone without a driving license used to be your debit card. Banks have mostly stopped issuing cards with profile pictures on them now, as they don't want the responsibility. But the national id card has been delayed for a decade. So many now have to bring their passport to buy beer...

Banks issued ID cards in Sweden for decades. Source: I worked as a teller and knew the procedure.

Passports only became legal IDs in the last decade or so.

Even then you usually needed a letter proving your identity (personbevis) from the government, right? So the bank was not the arbiter of "who was who", but issued the ID cards.

Correct, but banks were responsible for devising security features etc.