Well, not in the UK. Here you need a passport to partake in any significant financial activity - I had to get one to sell my flat, and you need one to open a bank account. Neither of these were needed 20 or so years ago. It's basically introducing ID cards by the backdoor, when the majority of the UK has always been against them (but civil servants and politicians love them). And all under the nebulous reason of "preventing money laundering".

I have to say though that the guy I spoke to at the Passport Office (a civil servant!) was very nice, and they did git it to me quickly. Never used it again 4 years later, though.