Signicat: B2B might be the biggest ecosystem for the EUDI Wallet

Europe has set an ambitious goal to launch the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet by December 2026. The project is advancing rapidly: First deployments have already started and more will be seen during this year.

However, the project aiming to make digital identity available for each European is still facing many challenges. The continent is currently looking at a fragmented identity wallet landscape with immature standards and specifications that have never been tested on a large scale in real life, according to Esther Makaay, vice president of Digital Identity at identity verification company Signicat.

Makaay shared her views at a recent webinar organized by Dock Labs breaking down the basics of the EUDI Wallet and its possible pitfalls.

“The expectations are all over,” she says.

The EU wants to see identity wallets being used for everything from opening a bank account to sharing education credentials, collecting prescribed medication, checking into flights and more. But currently, that goal is very far away, explains Makaay.

The EUDI Wallet will function as an app on a phone, certified by a specific member state that will add personal identification data (PID) into that wallet, making it a national identity. On top of that users should be able to add driving licenses, diplomas, payment cards, passports and boarding passes. As of November 2024, there are 24 government-led digital identity wallets across Europe, according to data from Digital Innovation Observatories at Politecnico di Milano. S

The EUDI Wallet is currently being tested through large-scale pilots (LSPs) with the current batch expecting to wrap up between June and October. The pilots are run by four consortiums, including Nobid, Potential, DC4EU and EUDI Wallet Consortium (EWC). Norway-based Signicat is a member of the EWC, working on interoperability and testing.

“Everyone thinks payments are the biggest ecosystem out there, but I suspect that business-to-business might be bigger,” says Makaay.

However, one of the concerns is that most governments do not really understand the concept of organizational identity despite being the primary drivers for this market. Organizational identity will involve legal person identity and related data.

Integrating payments and travel into digital identity is also a tricky task due to their international character.

“One of the main concerns that I’m seeing, especially when working with payments and travel, is that one size does not fit all,” says Makaay.

The legislation and the core of the Architecture Reference Framework (ARF) of the EUDI Wallet is written from a very government-centric perspective. However, airlines and payments do not stop at the European border.

“They have their own authorities and their own ecosystems that you also need to work with,” she adds.

Despite the hurdles, Makaay remains optimistic. While many Scandinavians are already used to bank ID-based solutions, much of the continent will discover new possibilities with the EUDI Wallet.

The first batch of the EUDI Wallet’s Implementing Acts, which define standards and specifications, was adopted in November. The second batch is in review while the third batch is expected in May 2025.

“What’s good news is that all the Implementing Acts will be reopened and updated annually as needed and this is very relevant because they refer to a lot of standards and specifications that are not ready yet,” says Makaay.

This post was updated at 10:32am Eastern on March 28, 2025 to clarify Signicat’s role in the EWC.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  Dock  |  EU  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  European Business Wallet  |  Signicat