Visa’s digital identity chief has described the forthcoming EU Digital Identity Wallet as a “gamechanger” for Europe’s payments and banking ecosystem, offering an unprecedented opportunity to simplify and secure cross-border authentication.
EU Digital Identity Wallet
Speaking at Money20/20 in Amsterdam, Marie Austenaa, Head of Digital Identity at Visa, characterised the initiative as “a present on a silver plate” for financial institutions, positioning the Wallet as a cornerstone of future-ready, regulatory-compliant onboarding and authentication practices.
eID Wallet
The EU Digital Identity Wallet (eID Wallet) is a major digital infrastructure project mandated under the European Union’s eIDAS 2.0 regulation.
Each EU member state is required to deliver at least one version of the Wallet by 2026, with all major service providers obliged to accept it for authentication by 2027.
According to Austenaa, the Wallet promises to make it dramatically easier for individuals to open bank accounts across borders, offering a consistent, trusted means of identity verification.
“It’s an opportunity to decouple identity from the bank itself,” she noted. “The identification process can be carried out by an accredited third party, but the bank will still receive verified proof – secure, standardised, and interoperable.”
Major Implications
This shift has major implications for how payments are authorised.
In the future, banks could authenticate transactions based on the eID credential stored in a customer’s digital wallet, rather than relying solely on proprietary apps.
Austenaa emphasised that this change is not merely optional.
“There are mandatory provisions in the regulation requiring the Wallet to be used for payment authentication. That places concrete obligations on banks,” she said.
The opportunities, however, extend well beyond payments.
Austenaa highlighted future use cases such as IBAN verification, proof of income, and fraud mitigation, noting that while full adoption will take time, the benefits are clear.
“This is a trusted digital identity, owned by the citizen, governed by the state, and useable across the EU. That’s powerful.”
She acknowledged the challenges that lie ahead – particularly the aggressive implementation timeline.
“2027 is like tomorrow for banks,” Austenaa said.
“We’ve already completed a live payment using the Wallet for authentication – it works. But adapting existing infrastructure, like the Access Control Server, is not trivial. We were fortunate to work with a flexible bank. Not all will move that quickly.”
Her parting message was both optimistic and cautionary: banks can either view the eID Wallet as a compliance hurdle or seize it as a foundation for innovation.
“This is a moment to build trust, reduce friction, and drive pan-European growth,” she said. “But we need to start now.”
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