Namirial participated in the final conference of the Digital Identity Observatory 2025, dedicated to the theme «Identity Wallet: near future or distant vision?». This event, held in Milan last November 11, represented a key moment to discuss the prospects of the European digital identity market. During the day, Matteo Panfilo, Namirial’s Product Strategy Director, contributed to the debate by sharing the company’s vision on the strategic role of the EUDI wallet in the emerging European digital trust ecosystem, leveraging Namirial’s particiption in Large Scale Pilots and its experience as a Qualified Trust Service Provider in multiple countries.
7 key messages from the 2025 Research
1. Current scenario and complexity of the EUDI Wallet
The emerging EUDI Wallet system is highly complex: between the Architecture Reference Framework (ARF), implementing acts, over 190 technical standards to be adopted, and different national implementations, the regulatory landscape is intricate. To date, 83% (30/36) of implementing regulations have been approved, and 31% of technical standards have already been referenced by the European Commission.
The EUDI Wallet is advancing rapidly across Europe: 22 national digital identity wallet projects have been launched in the EU, up from 11 in 2024, 11 of which are already operational, although none has yet been officially certified as an eIDAS2-compliant EUDI Wallet. Large Scale Pilots have completed the first cycle of tests on use cases such as bank account opening, SIM activation, and digital driving license presentation. The second phase, launched in September with the WeBuild and Aptitude consortia, will directly involve national wallets to test interoperability in payments, travel credentials, and business applications.
In Italy, the IT Wallet is still under development and will be launched experimentally next year, while SPID continues to show growing access numbers, as detailed below.
It is crucial to remember that a wallet is not just «identity»: it represents a digital wallet that includes identity (starting from SPID/CIE in Italy), verifiable attributes, and, eventually, payments.
At the Italian level, everything will converge towards an EUDI Wallet, encompassing SPID, CIE, and the IT Wallet, which will initially be available for a brief experimental phase before moving to the European level.
2. The role of national identities and private players
National identities remain essential and will continue to play a key role in the wallet ecosystem. SPID maintains unparalleled adoption and usage levels in Europe, with trends still growing compared to 2024: by October 2025, there were 41.5 million active identities for adult citizens, representing 83% penetration of the reference population. The system has reached maturity, generating 1.3 billion annual accesses, with an average of 2.7 monthly accesses per user (stable compared to 2024). In early October, agreements with SPID Identity Providers were renewed for an additional two years.
Meanwhile, CIE continues its rollout: 48.4 million citizens hold a valid physical ID, while 9 million have activated digital credentials via the CieID app (16%).
Italy confirms its leadership in European trust services: just consider 2.5 billion PEC (Certified E-Mails) messages and over 6 billion qualified signatures annually. This demonstrates how private players drive innovation, continuity, and adoption. It is expected that private actors, such as banks, will also be involved in the experimental phase of the IT Wallet and at the European level. The AgID is defining Guidelines and regulations for private wallet providers, allowing accreditation for alternative or complementary solutions to the governmental one.
3. Adoption, perception, and national differences
Wallet usefulness and perception vary widely across sectors and countries. Many citizens are still unclear about the scope of change: consider the narrow Swiss referendum approving the Swiyu project or the UK petition with 2.9 million signatures against the Gov.UK Wallet, a significant step for a country historically without a national paper ID system and reluctant towards digital identity.
In Italy, however, user interest is significant and stands out in Europe: 56% of users declare high interest in EUDI Wallets, 26% are neutral, and 18% are opposed. Compared to major European countries, Italy leads in wallet openness: Spain follows with 49% of users highly interested, while Germany and France stand at 39% and 37%, respectively.
Familiarity with digital wallets offered by BigTech (Google, Apple, Samsung) is also growing: from 36% in 2023 to 50% today, mainly driven by storing payment cards. 36% of consumers intend to extend usage to identity documents, citing familiarity as the main advantage.
Some private wallets, like itsme in Belgium, will continue following models different from the EUDI Wallet. Beyond governmental initiatives, the Observatory has identified 110 digital identity wallets developed by private companies, gradually including identity document storage, often without legal validity. The market is dynamic: while new projects emerge, others target business users where economic sustainability is more achievable.
The real challenge will be demonstrating actual utility. Verifiable attributes could enable many use cases, but proper incentives are required to create them and convince private companies to adopt the wallet as a recognition method.
4. Activation and onboarding: the biggest challenge
Wallet activation remains the main challenge in all countries, with very different approaches:
- In Austria, pensioners’ associations organize events to assist citizens in wallet activation.
- In France, identification may be extended using passports and residence permits to facilitate onboarding.
- In Germany, eID is used by only 25% of the population; a significant government budget was allocated to boost adoption, and private wallets, such as the recently announced Sparkasse wallet, are allowed.
- In Spain, the national strategy is still uncertain and under definition.
- In Poland, migration from myObwatel 2.0 to 3.0 is planned, with a completely new architecture.
- In Italy, the DPCMs on the experimental IT Wallet for public and private wallets are awaited, while the EUDI Wallet is increasingly close.
To overcome adoption resistance, it is crucial to build high-frequency use cases and communicate concrete everyday benefits: not only technical functions but tangible value in simplification, time savings, and increased security.
5. The sustainability challenge
Economic sustainability remains «the elephant in the room»: approaches and budgets vary significantly by country, without a unified vision on ensuring system financial balance. How can private companies find sufficient incentives to adopt the wallet as a recognition method? How to balance public control and private participation in what is increasingly becoming a critical national infrastructure?
In Italy, the issue emerged clearly with the SPID agreement renewals: some Identity Providers announced annual fees for users, highlighting historical difficulties in achieving economic balance while maintaining required service standards.
Monetizing verifiable attributes could provide a model for ecosystem sustainability, creating value for both issuers and users, as well as end users benefiting from simpler and safer services. Namirial is proud to be at the forefront in defining the new ETSI standard to enable the monetization of attribute issuance and verification.
6. Payments and regulatory models
Payments remain key to wallet usage frequency, currently dominated by BigTech via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. Integrating payments into the digital wallet is strategic to ensure daily and habitual use by citizens.
There is strong interest in this integration, but regulatory clarity is still limited in the area of SCA (Strong Customer Authentication), intersecting with PSD (Payment Services Directive) and PSR (Payment Services Regulation). In the coming months, the second phase of the Large Scale Pilot will test payment integration within EUDI Wallets, providing crucial insights on how these regulatory frameworks can coexist effectively.
Italian users show significant interest in using wallets for payments and home banking (41%), confirming the importance of this functionality for the project’s overall success.
7. Early movers, game changers
Some players are taking roles that could redefine market dynamics. Banks like Sparkasse in Germany, also developing the new Wero payment scheme, alternative to BigTech and complementary to the EUDI Wallet, are emerging as potential game changers. Their decision to develop certified private wallets, combined with the creation of European payment infrastructures, could position banks as ideal wallet providers, leveraging KYC expertise, established customer trust, and security and compliance skills.
BigTech continues to compete with alternative models: Apple integrated the Japanese ID card into its wallet, while Apple and Google began storing the US passport. These solutions leverage an established, familiar user experience, widespread device penetration, and development capabilities extending beyond traditional digital credentials to emerging services like AI agents for online interactions.
2026 will be decisive: national projects will see the first large-scale implementations, transforming what has remained in Large Scale Pilot “laboratories” into concrete reality accessible to citizens. The key question will be: will the long-awaited identity wallet become a near-future reality or remain a distant vision?
Namirial’s vision: building the future of digital identity together
During the conference, Matteo Panfilo addressed two central issues: the current state of the eIDAS2 ecosystem, considering participation in Large Scale Pilots and contribution to European standards, and the conditions required for the wallet to become widespread rather than just a vision.
Regarding the first point, Matteo emphasized that Namirial, already a Qualified Trust Service Provider in many European countries, has a privileged view on the system’s complexity and upcoming opportunities:
«Between ARF, implementing acts, over 190 technical standards to adopt, and various national implementations, we are building an unprecedented infrastructure. The role of national identities and private players remains crucial: in Italy, SPID continues to achieve unparalleled adoption and usage, with trends still growing. Italy confirms its leadership in European trust services: 2.5 billion PEC messages and over 6 billion qualified signatures annually show how private players drive innovation, continuity, and adoption.»
«At Namirial, we participate in Large Scale Pilots because we believe in building together this near-future of digital identity,» Matteo said. «Thanks to questions arising from LSPs, we created the new generation of our products and services. We launched our Wallet Sandbox, offering customers the opportunity to test real use cases directly accessible on our website, and were among the first to certify onboarding services according to new European standards, including a wallet gateway successfully tested in pilot consortia. Using a wallet means transforming processes, managing digital attributes, simplifying life for citizens and businesses, and eventually integrating payments. It is a huge opportunity for companies, users, and all ecosystem players, who could have strong incentives to participate and issue attributes.»
On the second point, to prevent the wallet from remaining a distant vision, Matteo noted that benefits cannot be assumed:
«The real challenge is demonstrating actual utility. Attributes could enable many use cases, but proper incentives are required to create them. Wallet activation remains the main challenge across countries, from Austria with assisted events to Germany allocating a significant budget to digitalize the country. And the economic sustainability model remains ‘the elephant in the room’: approaches and budgets vary significantly without a unified vision. Meanwhile, our experience in Large Scale Pilots allowed us to build services, like the Wallet Platform and Namirial Onboarding, already available to clients to start implementing what awaits them in the very near future.»
For Namirial, the evolution of European digital identity is already underway: interoperability, trust, and user experience are key to making the wallet a widespread and secure reality. The company is proud to contribute, leveraging its consolidated experience as Europe’s largest Qualified Trust Service Provider and its digital trust solutions, to building a more connected, reliable European ecosystem focused on tangible value for citizens and businesses. The innovative services offered to clients allow them to stay ahead of the upcoming future while already implementing required adjustments to seize business opportunities.