EU Council advances business wallet framework for corporate digital identity

European Business Wallets could create a market for rapid online authentication and risk intelligence checks to replace inefficient manual checks under the EU’s proposed new regulation. The General Secretariat of the EU Council presented the proposal to the Councillors as a step towards agreeing on an approach to the European Business Wallet (EBW).

An extension of the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Framework Regulation would help reduce administrative burdens, ease cross-border processes and enable businesses to digital manage representation rights and authorizations, the General Secretariat states in an email. The proposed regulation is attached to the email as an annex, and makes up the bulk of its 84-pages.

EBWs should use qualified electronic signatures, seals, and digital attribute attestations for identification and authentication with full legal power. They should integrate a qualified electronic registered delivery service (QERDS) to enable secure data exchanges.

Regular reference is made to the eIDAS 2.0 framework and its governing regulation No 910/2014, and accordingly, onboarding should interoperate with existing digital identity solutions through the EUDI Wallets of legal representatives or their equivalents.

And like EUDI Wallets, they should operate at Level of Assurance “High.” LoA High brings in standards for identity proofing and authentication that include biometrics use along with spoofing protection in the form of Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) and Injection Attack Detection (IAD).

Authenticating the representative of the business, therefore, opens up a new set of biometric checks which will presumably have to be repeated at different points in the business’ lifecycle, and possibly at regular intervals.

IAD firms that provide the technology and labs that offer testing against the European standard are explored in-depth in the 2026 Injection Attack Detection Market Report and Buyers Guide from Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence.

Business wallets and the credentials they store also may require sanctions checks and other steps that EUDI Wallets for individuals do not, which would need to be carried out by identity verification and AML providers.

The Council also presented the proposal to the EU’s Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council on Tuesday.

EU Member States are expected to accept EBWs for administrative procedures within 24 months of the regulation entering into force, with complex functionalities granted an extra year.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric identification  |  digital wallets  |  eIDAS  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  European Business Wallet  |  identity assurance  |  identity proofing  |  Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES)