The European Digital Payments Industry Alliance (EDPIA) welcomes the European Commission’s legislative proposal for establishing a European Business Wallet (EBW). This initiative has the potential to strengthen Europe’s digitalisation and accelerate the completion of the Single Market.
To fully leverage the potential of the future European Business Wallet, EDPIA and its Members want to share key recommendations:
- The issuance of business wallets should be mandatory in every jurisdiction for use by private businesses – to ensure widespread adoption and prevent fragmentation.
- Creation of strong incentives for wallet adoption – businesses should be encouraged to use the EBW in everyday operations, especially for business-to-business use cases.
- The wallet should enable comprehensive onboarding of businesses while meeting Know Your-Business (KYB) requirements – providing a single, trusted source of verified business credentials.
- Wallets should be capable of storing all critical business identity components, incl. Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) data – which is essential for business-to-business interactions and regulatory compliance during business onboarding.
- There is a need to clarify how the European Business Wallet interacts with other relevant EU payment-related legislations – ultimately, the EBW should follow the same standards as other payment methods when enabling payment capabilities including for authentication.
