Who does what?
The EUDI Wallet is creating a new digital ecosystem for identities and credentials in Europe. In the future, citizens will be able to store and use their identity data securely in a wallet. For an overview of the wallet's introduction and how it works, we recommend our previous blog post.
While discussions of the new system often focus on users, this post takes a look behind the scenes. What role do companies and organizations play within the new ecosystem? How do the various actors cooperate to make the wallet work?
Three roles are central: Issuer, Wallet Provider, and Relying Party. Together, they ensure that digital credentials can be issued, securely managed, and verified by companies or authorities. Depending on their business model, companies may take on one or even several of these roles in the future.
Rather than simply exchanging documents, this involves transferring cryptographically signed verifiable credentials. Their origin and integrity can be verified automatically, replacing many manual checking and identification processes.
A typical use case is filing an insurance claim. Instead of submitting copies of ID documents or going through separate identification procedures, customers can release the required identity data directly from their EUDI Wallet. The insurer automatically verifies that the credentials originate from a trusted issuer and have not been altered. This makes the identification process faster, more secure, and free of media breaks.
Issuers issue digital credentials that can then be stored in a wallet. These may include, for example:
Depending on the use case, issuers can issue both Electronic Attestations of Attributes (EAA) and Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (QEAA). You can read more about EAAs and QEAAs in our first blog post. The issuer is therefore the trusted source of a piece of information: it confirms that certain data is correct and can be proven digitally.
Companies can also integrate their verified data directly into digital business processes. Once issued, credentials become reusable digital assets that users can present to different organizations. Companies with a large customer base, or organizations that already issue certificates and credentials today, are natural candidates to act as issuers in the future.
Wallet providers supply the technical infrastructure through which users can securely store, manage, and share their digital credentials with their consent. The wallet acts as a secure intermediary between issuers and relying parties, enabling the data-minimizing release of individual attributes.
Companies that act as wallet providers themselves can integrate the wallet more deeply into their existing digital services, creating additional value for their customers. This ranges from a consistent user experience to the integration of further identity and trust services.
Relying parties use the credentials stored in the wallet to verify information and carry out processes based on it. Typical examples include:
Instead of uploading documents or going through identification procedures repeatedly, users can provide the required information directly from their wallet.
Verification is automated using cryptographic trust mechanisms, allowing the relying party to immediately determine whether a credential is authentic, unaltered, and issued by a trusted issuer.
This role is particularly relevant for regulated companies. Under eIDAS 2.0, many organizations will be required to accept EUDI wallets for defined use cases. For banks, this applies, for example, to KYC and onboarding processes or the use of the wallet as part of strong customer authentication (SCA).
Beyond this regulatory obligation, however, the EUDI Wallet also offers concrete benefits. Identity and credential checks can be automated further, media breaks reduced, and existing processes simplified for both customers and employees. For example, identity data can be taken directly from the wallet during onboarding or authentication, eliminating manual document checks and separate identification procedures.
From 2027, the EUDI Wallet will become relevant to many digital business processes. Banks and insurers in particular are required by the statutory acceptance obligation to prepare for integration early.
For companies, this means engaging with the EUDI Wallet should not wait until its official rollout. Getting started is often easier than expected: as a relying party, wallet credentials can be integrated into existing processes via specialized connector providers. What matters most, therefore, is not the technical implementation but identifying meaningful use cases.
In the long term, the EUDI Wallet could be used not only by people but also by digital agents — software-based assistants that carry out processes automatically on behalf of users or companies.
Conceivable applications include the automated submission of credentials, the preparation of contract signings, or verification processes. This requires controlled access to trustworthy digital identities and verifiable credentials.
Although this development is still in its early stages, the EUDI Wallet, verifiable credentials, and Europe-wide, standardized trust mechanisms are already laying the groundwork for such scenarios today. Research and standardization efforts are also advancing how digital identities can be used securely between autonomous systems in the future.
The EUDI Wallet creates a Europe-wide trust ecosystem that will fundamentally change the digital identification of customers, partners, and employees. For companies, the question is therefore no longer whether, but how they integrate the wallet into their business processes and meet the regulatory requirements.
Senior Consultant Cyber Security
We are happy to support you in identifying relevant use cases, assessing regulatory requirements, and developing a suitable integration strategy.
