During one of our webinars, Esther Makaay, VP of Digital Identity at Signicat, presented an overview of the organizational identity findings from the European Identity Wallet Consortium’s Large-Scale Pilots, based on two years of implementation and testing.
Unlike personal wallets, business wallets introduce a different set of requirements, structures, and challenges. The EWC pilots provided early insight into how these could function in real operational environments.
Here’s what we learned:
Business Wallets Are Fundamentally Different from Personal Wallets
Esther emphasized that a business wallet is not simply a “corporate version” of a personal wallet. It has distinct characteristics:
- It is unlikely to be mobile-based, as organizations do not have a single physical device
- It is more likely to be cloud-based, shared, or on-premise
- It often combines the roles of holder, issuer, and verifier
- It requires semi-automated exchange of attestations
- It must integrate with existing business systems and workflows
These differences mean that business wallets require separate design, governance, and technical approaches.
Organizational Identity Is Structurally Complex
A legal entity cannot be treated like a natural person. Esther explained that organizational identity is inherently more difficult to standardize because:
- Companies do not have biometrics or physical presence
- Registration processes vary significantly by country
- There is no single universal identifier
- Naming conventions and legal identifiers differ across jurisdictions
Within the pilots, the consortium worked on defining a foundation for legal entity identity, including agreements on core attributes such as unique identifiers and legal names, though these elements were heavily debated due to national differences.
Key Use Cases Tested in the EWC Pilots
The pilots explored several B2B and B2Government use cases involving business wallets, including:
- Public procurement, focusing on evidence provision and verification of economic operators
- Know Your Supplier (KYS) processes for onboarding business partners
- Corporate bank account opening
- Exchange of business documents
- PEPPOL network interactions and verifiable eReceipts
- Creation of company branches across borders
- Authorized corporate travel and expense flows
These use cases demonstrated how verified organizational identity data could be reused across multiple processes.
Observed Benefits from the Business Wallet Pilots
Based on the pilot outcomes, Esther highlighted several clear operational improvements:
- Reduction in administrative burden
- Increased automation of data exchange
- Simplified onboarding of suppliers and partners
- Improved accuracy of company data
- Stronger ability to verify business counterparties
- Reduced exposure to fraud and impersonation attacks
She also noted that many current B2B and B2G processes remain highly paper-based, making them particularly suited for digital transformation.
Business Wallets Could Drive Faster Adoption Than Personal Wallets
An important observation from the pilots was that organizational adoption may occur faster than citizen adoption because:
- Organizations tend to have fewer privacy concerns than individuals
- Businesses prioritize efficiency and compliance benefits
- Business identity wallets could encourage uptake of personal wallets among employees
This suggests that business wallets may become a significant driver of ecosystem usage.
Separate Legislation for Business Wallets Is Expected
Esther indicated that the European Commission is preparing separate legislation specifically for business wallets, reflecting their unique requirements and governance needs.
While the content of this legislation was not yet public at the time of the presentation, it reinforces the idea that business wallets are being treated as a distinct category within the European digital identity framework.
