EC, NOBID to launch biometric payments pilot for EU digital wallet

By Gloria Methri

The European Commission is set to fund a multi-national and multi-company consortium as part of a pilot project involving a regional digital wallet program. The consortium consisting of some of Europe’s most trusted identity experts has been chosen pilot, in line with the EU digital identity wallet program.

The pilot project, due to launch in March 2023 will be led by NOBID, a set of Nordic and Baltic countries, along with Italy and Germany. The countries are together developing a large-scale pilot to deliver cross-border payments in the EU.

It is also known as the Nordic-Baltic eID Project. Funding for the same will come from the EU Commission’s Digital Europa Programme. The consortium will now go into a contracting and grant negotiation process with the EU Commission.

Tor Alvik, project manager for the NOBID consortium said, “We are honoured and privileged to have the EU Commission’s trust in piloting and shaping the future of digital payments and digital identity in Europe. Together with all our partners, we will make use of our experience and highly mature digital identity infrastructures in the NOBID consortium countries to deliver a successful large-scale payments pilot of the EU Digital ID Wallet.”

The EU digital identity wallet is a secure app that, when launched, will allow citizens across the continent to easily verify their ID, access public and private services, and store sensitive digital documents in one place.

The consortium’s proposal focuses on payments, one of the top priority use cases in the EU’s digital ID wallet vision. Its implementation will leverage existing payment infrastructure to enable payment issuance, instant payments, account-to-account transfers, and payment acceptance both in-store and online.

The project has unrivalled support from leaders in banking and payments, including DSGV in Germany, DNB and BankID in Norway, Nets in Denmark, Intesa Sanpaolo, PagoPA and ABILab in Italy and Greiðs luveitan in Iceland.

Technology partners in the consortium include Thales, iProov, Signicat, RB, Auðkenni, IPZS, Poste Italiane, Intesi Group, InfoCert, FBK, and Latvian State Radio and Television Centre. Merchants that will be testing out the payment solution include Elkjøp in Norway and REWE-group in Germany.