EU publishes Implementing Act for remote EUDI Wallet onboarding

The European Union has taken an important step in completing the legal basis of the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets. On Tuesday, the European Commission published an Implementing Act related to remote onboarding of digital ID wallet users, laying out reference standards and specifications.

The regulation defines remote user onboarding as a “crucial step” in verifying their identity, binding their personal identification data to their wallets and to the user device. In order to ensure high trust and security, remote onboarding may rely on electronic identification that meets the substantial level of assurance (LoA) combined with additional remote onboarding procedures — together satisfying the requirements of the high assurance level, according to the rule.

This represents a decisive development: The new act doesn’t automatically make the EUDI Wallet universally “AML-ready,” according to an analysis published by payments advisor Roberto Garavaglia in the financial news outlet Finextra.

“Rather, it shifts the debate from the absence of the rule to the more demanding question of how eIDAS2, AMLR, assurance levels, identity proofing and regulatory reliance should now be coordinated in practice,” says Garavaglia.

Biometrics, which can be used to raise the LoA or Level of Identity Proofing to enable AML compliance, must be implemented in a way that ensures compliance with the EU’s data protection regulations, the Act notes.

The Implementing Act notes that conformance is assessed against the clauses of ETSI TS 119 461 v2, which defines policy and security requirements for identity proofing components used by trust services.

Implementing Acts are meant to accompany the eIDAS 2.0 regulation, adding specific rules, such as technical specifications, processes and standards that stakeholders need to apply. The Acts spell out everything from certification standards, digital trust services and much more.

Article Topics

AML  |  digital ID  |  eIDAS  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  European Commission  |  identity proofing  |  regulation  |  standards