EUDI Wallets: what businesses need to know and prepare for.

Digital identity has traditionally been shaped by each service a customer interacts with. Customers provide information, complete the checks requested of them, and prove who they are in the way that particular business requires, often repeating similar processes as they move between organizations.

The European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet starts to change that relationship by giving people a way to carry trusted digital information with them and present it when it is needed.

By the end of 2026, EU Member States are expected to provide at least one EUDI Wallet, designed to let people identify themselves, store and present digital credentials, share selected attributes, and sign documents across public and private services. A customer could hold trusted digital versions of information such as a driver’s license, education credential, or professional qualification and present the relevant proof, reducing the need for each business to repeat the full verification process. Rollout timing and functionality will vary between Member States, however. Germany, for example, plans to launch the first stage of its state EUDI Wallet at the start of 2027, with additional functionality and credentials introduced progressively.

For businesses, that creates a meaningful change in how trust can enter the customer journey.

What is an EUDI Wallet and how does it work?

An EUDI Wallet is an electronic identification means established under the EU Digital Identity Framework, giving citizens and residents greater control over identity data and electronic attestations of attributes that can be used across services and borders.

The framework builds on the original eIDAS Regulation. The updated rules, often referred to as eIDAS 2.0, introduce European Digital Identity Wallets and expand the use of digital identity across public and private services.

Importantly, an EUDI Wallet is not only a way to prove a full identity. The framework supports selective disclosure, allowing a customer to share specific attributes required for an interaction without automatically revealing all of the information contained within a credential.

It also supports privacy-preserving techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs. For example, someone could prove they are over 18 without revealing their complete date of birth. Similar principles can apply to qualifications, residency, licenses and other attributes, creating a more precise model where businesses can request the proof they actually need rather than collecting more customer data than the interaction requires.

How will EUDI Wallets affect businesses?

EUDI could easily be viewed as an identity verification change focused primarily on account opening, but its potential footprint across the customer lifecycle is much wider.

The European Commission is already testing use cases across travel, education, health, professional credentials, mobile driver’s licenses, organizational identity, and access to public and private services. As those credentials become available, businesses will need to consider where trusted digital proof can improve existing interactions rather than simply where an EUDI Wallet can be added.

For some businesses, wallet acceptance will also become a requirement. Certain private service providers required to use strong user authentication for online identification, including those in banking and financial services, will need to accept EUDI Wallets at the customer’s request by the end of 2027.

A credential might establish information during onboarding, support a sensitive account change later, or provide a particular attribute when the context requires it. But EUDI Wallets will not replace every existing authentication or verification method. Customers will continue to use eIDs, passkeys, biometrics and other approaches, while EU rules also protect alternatives for people who choose not to use a wallet. Businesses will therefore need to support EUDI Wallets alongside other authentication and verification methods across the customer journey.

What should businesses consider when verifying EUDI credentials?

Being able to technically verify an EUDI credential is an important capability, but it only solves one part of the experience.

Businesses also need to decide which issuers and credentials they trust, what information they are justified in requesting, and what should happen once that information has been verified. Under the EUDI framework, relying parties are expected to declare the data they intend to request, while those requests should be necessary and proportionate to the intended use.

The appropriate response will also change depending on the interaction. A credential might provide enough assurance to complete one journey immediately, while another could still warrant an additional authentication step because the risk, regulation, or context is different.

Hard-coding those decisions into individual wallet integrations risks creating more complexity every time a new credential is introduced. Connecting credential verification to a broader authentication strategy instead allows businesses to respond to what has already been proven and introduce another step only when it genuinely adds value.

How should businesses prepare for EUDI Wallet adoption?

With the end-of-2026 rollout approaching, EUDI is becoming difficult to treat as a distant digital identity trend, but simply adding wallet support would undersell the opportunity.

EUDI gives businesses a chance to ask customers for less unnecessary information, recognize trusted proof they already hold, and make stronger verification feel more natural within the journey. Done well, that security can become almost invisible, appearing when greater assurance is needed without making every customer work harder to prove themselves.

Preparing for EUDI therefore means creating enough flexibility for authentication and verification to work together as new forms of trusted proof become available.

The businesses that do that will be better placed as EUDI adoption grows because they will not have designed around a single wallet or credential. They will have designed for a model where trusted digital proof can arrive with the customer and fit naturally into the journey around them.

If you’re considering what EUDI Wallets could mean for your business, or how they might fit into your existing authentication and verification journeys, we’re always happy to have a conversation.