Proof’s VDC launch brings together banking regulation, reusable identity and AI agents

Proof, the identity and transaction-security company formerly known as Notarize, has launched its Verifiable Digital Credential, a portable digital identity that allows consumers to complete identity proofing once and reuse that verified identity across financial institutions and other organizations that accept Proof credentials. The VDC became generally available through Proof’s platform and API on September 15.

The launch comes as three developments converge around reusable identity: U.S. regulators have given financial institutions clearer guidance for using verifiable digital credentials; Proof has an existing network of businesses where reusable identity could potentially gain utility; and AI agents are creating a new identity problem — proving not only who is behind an agent, but what that person authorized it to do.

Together, those developments make the launch more than the introduction of another digital credential. They point toward a model in which verified identity can move between institutions — and potentially into transactions performed by AI agents on a person’s behalf.

According to Proof, each credential is anchored to an individual X.509 certificate issued by its WebTrust-audited certificate authority following Kantara-certified IAL2 identity proofing. The credential is held by the consumer rather than belonging to an individual relying institution, allowing it to be presented again wherever Proof credentials are accepted.

The significance of the launch becomes clearer when each of those three developments is considered separately.

Regulators give VDCs a clearer path into financial services

The first development happened just seven days before Proof’s announcement.

On September 8, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, together with staff from the Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA and OCC, issued new and updated FAQs explaining how verifiable digital credentials can fit within existing Customer Identification Program requirements.

The agencies addressed VDCs through two routes.

Government-issued VDCs, such as mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), may qualify as government-issued identification and therefore potentially be used as a documentary verification method when applicable CIP requirements are satisfied.

Separately, regulators updated an existing FAQ covering electronic credentials to explicitly include VDCs alongside digital certificates as a potential non-documentary identity verification method. That guidance can include credentials issued and maintained by non-government third parties.

That second route is particularly relevant to commercial credential issuers such as Proof.

It does not amount to a regulatory endorsement of Proof or any other provider. Financial institutions remain responsible for ensuring that a third-party credential issuer uses an appropriate level of authentication. The guidance also does not change existing Bank Secrecy Act requirements or create new supervisory expectations.

What has changed is that VDCs are now explicitly addressed within federal CIP guidance.

Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and a member of Proof’s board of directors, framed portable identity as both a consumer-experience and trust-infrastructure issue.

“Portable digital identity has the potential to reduce friction for consumers while giving institutions stronger, independently verifiable evidence,” Ferguson said, adding that such systems require infrastructure built to standards expected of financial institutions.

The regulatory clarification gives financial institutions greater clarity for evaluating an identity model that differs significantly from how most consumers prove who they are today.

From repeatedly verifying an ID to carrying an identity

Consider a consumer opening a checking account.

They might upload a driver’s license, take a selfie and complete identity and fraud checks. Later, they apply for a credit card and potentially repeat the process. A mortgage can trigger another identity check. Opening an account or applying for another credit card at a different institution can start the process again.

Each institution effectively establishes the person’s identity for itself, while copies of sensitive identity information can accumulate across organizations.

“For decades, every institution has effectively rebuilt a person’s identity from scratch,” Proof Founder and CEO Pat Kinsel said, describing the repeated cycle of document uploads, selfies and identity checks.

Proof’s model is designed to change that architecture.

After completing IAL2 identity proofing, Proof says the consumer receives a VDC anchored to a unique X.509 certificate bound to the verified identity. The credential is delivered to the consumer’s device and cryptographically bound to a hardware-protected key.

The consumer can then present the credential again at an institution that accepts it rather than repeating the complete identity-proofing process.

Proof says the service supports OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance (OID4VCI) and OpenID for Verifiable Presentations (OID4VP), allowing consumers either to enroll just in time or, if they already hold a Proof credential, reauthenticate and present their existing identity. Organizations do not have to preregister every user before receiving a credential.

Proof says the credential can also be reused for interactions including wire authorizations, beneficiary changes and account recovery. The company supports revocation and live credential-status checks, allowing a relying institution to determine whether a credential remains valid.

Using selective disclosure based on the SD-JWT verifiable credential format, Proof says consumers can provide only the identity attributes required for a particular decision rather than transmitting an entire identity document.

The institution still determines whether it trusts and accepts the credential.

That distinction is important. Reusable identity does not eliminate the relying institution’s responsibility to decide whom and what to trust. Instead, it changes the evidence available to make that decision.

Proof already has a network where reusable identity could expand

The second factor is distribution.

A reusable credential has limited value if there is nowhere to reuse it.

Proof says its identity infrastructure already serves more than 8,000 businesses across mortgage, auto, wealth, insurance and enterprise, and that more than $1 trillion in transactions have been secured across its platform.

Those figures describe Proof’s broader business network. They do not mean that all 8,000 businesses currently accept Proof’s VDC.

The company says individuals can claim a credential through Proof and use it with “participating organizations” across its network, but its announcement does not specify how many organizations currently accept the credential.

Still, Proof enters the reusable-identity market with an existing base of business relationships into which the credential could potentially expand.

The company has also spent 2026 building relationships and infrastructure around that strategy.

In March, Proof announced a strategic partnership with IDEMIA Public Security. The companies said they planned to combine IDEMIA’s identity verification and authentication technologies with Proof’s PKI-based digital signature and authorization network to support privacy-preserving VDCs spanning physical, logical and digital environments.

In May, Proof joined the FIDO Alliance, describing the move as part of its work connecting verified human identity with actions performed through AI agents.

Then, in June, Proof launched x401, which the company describes as an open, issuer-neutral protocol for verifying the identity and authority behind AI agents.

Taken together, the announcements show the direction of Proof’s strategy: not simply issuing a credential, but trying to establish infrastructure through which verified identity and authorization can be reused across different interactions.

AI agents introduce a new identity and authorization problem

The third development pushes the story beyond traditional customer onboarding.

AI agents raise a different version of a familiar identity question.

Imagine an agent receiving an instruction to open an account, move money or change a beneficiary.

The institution receiving that request needs to answer two separate questions: Who is the human behind the agent, and did that person authorize this particular action?

Proof is positioning its VDC and x401 architecture around that problem.

The company says its VDC establishes the identity of the person, while its authorization infrastructure and x401 protocol are designed to carry that identity into agentic interactions and create cryptographic evidence connecting an agent’s action to the verified person and the authority granted to it.

When Proof launched x401 in June, it described the protocol as issuer-neutral and designed to allow a website or API to request the particular evidence it requires from an agent — such as verified identity, age, membership, organizational affiliation, signing authority or proof of humanness.

The agent can then present a compatible credential and authorization for the receiving service to evaluate.

The architecture is Proof’s answer to an emerging problem, rather than evidence that the industry has settled on a particular approach to agent identity or authorization.

But it illustrates why portable identity could become more relevant as transactions move beyond direct human-to-application interactions.

A reusable credential could potentially serve two generations of digital transactions: reducing repeated identity proofing in today’s human-initiated interactions while providing one component of the trust infrastructure needed when software begins acting on a verified person’s behalf.

From identity checks to identity infrastructure

The convergence of these developments is what makes Proof’s launch notable.

Regulatory clarity provides a pathway. Proof’s existing business network could provide distribution. And the rise of AI agents is creating new questions around how verified human identity and delegated authority can be carried into machine-initiated transactions.

The immediate proposition is relatively straightforward.

Instead of repeatedly uploading identity documents and completing identity proofing at every participating institution, a consumer verifies their identity once, receives cryptographically verifiable evidence of that identity and presents it again where the credential is accepted.

But the longer-term implication is broader.

Digital identity verification has largely operated as a point-in-time transaction: an institution asks who someone is and performs the checks necessary to answer that question. The result generally remains inside that institution.

Reusable credentials begin to separate the verified identity from the institution that happens to need it at that moment.

If financial institutions become comfortable accepting credentials issued by trusted third parties, identity verification could gradually shift from something every institution independently reconstructs toward a portable trust layer that consumers carry between financial relationships.

And if AI agents increasingly transact on behalf of those consumers, that identity may eventually need to travel another step — from the verified human, through an authorized agent, to the institution receiving the instruction.

Proof’s launch places the company at the intersection of those two shifts: making human identity reusable today and attempting to make that identity usable when machines act on humans’ behalf tomorrow.

Article Topics

AI agents  |  authorization  |  digital identity  |  IAL2  |  identity proofing  |  Proof  |  reusable digital ID  |  verifiable credentials