EUDI Wallet in Finland: where things stand and how to prepare

What is the EUDI Wallet?

The EUDI Wallet (European Digital Identity Wallet) is a mobile app that works as a digital identity document. It is based on the EU’s eIDAS 2.0 regulation, which entered into force in 2024.

A few things set it apart from the e-identification methods we are used to:

• State-backed identity. Each member state vouches for the person’s identity. The wallet must meet the highest assurance level in eIDAS, level of assurance high.
• It works across borders. A Finnish wallet should work in Italy, and an Italian wallet should work in Finland.
• It holds more than identity. The wallet can store credentials such as a driving licence, a diploma or a loyalty card. It shows not only who you are, but what you are entitled to do.
• There will be many. Every EU member state must provide at least one wallet, and certified private providers can offer their own. Finnish law also allows private wallets if they meet the requirements.
  How does it work?
• The wallet is empty when you download it. To activate it, you add your identity data, known as PID (Person Identification Data). PID is always issued by the state and contains, at a minimum, your name, date of birth, place of birth and nationality. Some countries add more. The Danish wallet, for example, includes the CPR number, Denmark’s personal identity code.

Once the wallet is activated, approved issuers can add further credentials. Every actor in the ecosystem must be known and registered: the PID provider, the wallet provider, the credential issuers and the services that read the wallet. That is how the wallet maintains the same level of trust across the EU.

In everyday use, the wallet works much like logging in with your bank ID. You choose the wallet when you log in or identify yourself, see who is asking and what data they want, and approve with a PIN code or biometrics. You only share what is needed. If a service only needs to know that you are over 18, the wallet can confirm that without revealing your name or date of birth.

Who is affected?

eIDAS 2.0 introduces mandatory acceptance, an obligation to accept the wallet as a login and identification method. Three groups are affected:

• The public sector. Authorities and public services that require electronic identification must offer the wallet as an alternative once it is available.
• Private services that require strong authentication. This mainly applies to banking, finance and payments, but also to sectors such as telecoms, energy, transport, healthcare and education. The obligation applies from December 2027, in the parts of your service where you already require strong authentication, for example SCA at login or payment.
• Very large online platforms. Platforms with more than 45 million users in the EU must accept the wallet when a user chooses to log in with it.

Signicat’s rule of thumb: does your service require strong authentication by law or by contract? Then the obligation most likely applies to you. Each organisation must make its own final assessment.

The obligation covers wallets from all EU countries, not only the Finnish one. In Finland, Traficom will keep a register of services that accept digital wallets.

In addition, the EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) applies from 10 July 2027. It names eIDAS-based methods, including the wallet, as approved ways to identify customers. Regulated businesses will therefore have two new regulatory frameworks to deal with in the same year.

How is the rollout going in Finland?

Finland’s national legislation on the EUDI Wallet entered into force on 1 October 2026. The roles are divided as follows:

• The Ministry of Finance steers the national implementation.
• DVV provides the state wallet.
• Traficom supervises wallet providers and trust services, and keeps the register of services that accept wallets.

DVV originally aimed to release the wallet at the end of 2026. The app is now expected in 2027, after delays in the EU’s certification framework and technical specifications. In the first phase, the wallet will support at least strong electronic identification and electronic signatures. More credentials, such as a mobile driving licence, are planned for later.

How Finns get their identity into the wallet

The first credential in the Finnish wallet will be a new digital identification solution, granted on the basis of a valid passport or ID card. From 1 January 2027, providers of electronic identification will also be required to check the validity of the passport, ID card or digital identification used for initial identification.

Finland already has one eID at the highest assurance level: the citizen certificate on the police-issued ID card, managed by DVV. It is the only Finnish scheme on the EU’s list of notified eIDs at level high. Bank IDs and the mobile certificate are registered at level substantial.

When will the wallet become part of everyday life?

It will take time. Johan Sörmling expects 2026 to be a year of pilots and testing, user adoption to begin in 2027, and the wallet to become a real part of everyday life around 2030.

The Nordic picture

• Sweden launches its new state eID, Sverige-id, on 1 December 2026. A first test version of the Swedish state wallet follows in December, with a broad rollout in 2027 and certification planned for 2029.
• Denmark launched its wallet, AltID, in June 2026. So far it supports identity and age verification, but not credentials from other issuers.
• Norway and Iceland are outside the EU and have not yet incorporated eIDAS 2.0 into the EEA Agreement. Both have taken part in Nordic and Baltic pilot projects. Iceland is waiting to see how things develop before launching its own wallet.

What use cases do we see?

The wallet will be used in two stages. First, organisations accept the wallet to identify customers and let them log in. Over time, they can also issue their own credentials for customers to store in the wallet.

• KYC and AML. Customer due diligence is a requirement for banks and other regulated businesses. Once more people use the wallet, it may become the most cost-effective way to identify new customers, since the data is already verified by the state.
• Age verification. A customer can prove they are over a certain age without sharing their name or personal identity code. This is a growing priority across Europe, not least for social media with young users.
• Login and strong customer authentication. The wallet becomes an alternative to existing methods such as bank IDs.
• Credentials. Driving licences, diplomas and loyalty cards can be stored in the wallet. Customers can show them digitally, and you can issue credentials to your own customers.
• Qualified electronic signatures. Customers can sign agreements with the wallet, with the same legal effect as a handwritten signature.

Here is what it could look like once the ecosystem is in place. John is renting a car in Portugal. He identifies himself to the rental company with his wallet, proves he holds the right driving licence category and signs the rental agreement. On arrival, he uses the wallet as the car key. No paperwork and no copies of his driving licence.

What are the challenges?

The wallet will not contain all the data you need. Signicat calls this the missing data challenge. At launch, the wallet holds basic identity data, but not necessarily everything required for an AML check, for example. Many member states are also waiting before letting more credential issuers in. You will need to combine the wallet with other data sources.

The identity landscape gets more complex. In Finland, bank IDs and the mobile certificate are used for the vast majority of strong identifications, connected through the Finnish Trust Network. They will remain for the foreseeable future. For customers without an eID, verification with a passport or ID card is still needed. The wallet becomes one more method, not a replacement. You will need to support all of them in parallel, as well as wallets from other EU countries.

The timeline is uncertain. Finland has already moved its launch from 2026 to 2027. Johan Sörmling points to three critical factors: that member states keep to the timeline, that wallets get certified and that users actually start using them. The last may be the hardest. Finns are used to their bank IDs, and the wallet must give users a clear reason to choose it.

The experience will vary between wallets. How users unlock the wallet, with a PIN code or biometrics, can differ between providers and countries. That affects how you design your flows.

The technology behind it is complex. Accepting the wallet is free of charge for you and for the user. But you need a solution that can communicate with wallets from different countries and verify that the data is genuine and comes from a trusted issuer. Many organisations choose a partner for this, which normally comes at a cost.

How can you prepare now?

1. Find out whether you are affected. Review where your services require strong authentication. That is where mandatory acceptance will most likely apply to you from December 2027.
2. Decide what data you need. What data do you need for onboarding and customer due diligence? What will be in the wallet from the start, and what will you need to fetch from other sources?
3. Choose a technical approach. Will you build the integration yourself, or work with an intermediary that handles wallets and eIDs from several countries for you?
4. Plan for several methods in parallel. Bank IDs, the mobile certificate and the wallet will coexist. Design your flows so that adding a new method does not mean rebuilding onboarding.
5. Register as a relying party. Services that want to read the wallet must register in their country’s register of relying parties. In Finland, Traficom will keep this register. You declare what you will use the wallet for and which data you want to access.
6. Follow DVV’s work and test. DVV runs a public workspace for organisations preparing for the wallet. Providers such as Signicat also offer test environments (sandboxes).
7. Think about the user. The wallet is a chance to rethink the entire onboarding journey, not just to add another login button.

How Signicat and Qvik can help

Signicat has worked with digital identity for around 20 years. Today it supports around 35 eIDs and more than 200 data sources, and its customers include some of the largest financial players in the Nordics. Signicat is also a qualified trust service provider under eIDAS.

Signicat’s wallet solution is a connector that handles wallets from different countries. If you are already integrated with Signicat, you add the wallet as a new identification method. The response you receive looks just like one from a regular eID, so your existing flows keep working. Signicat is also building a service for issuing credentials to the wallet and support for signing with it.

Qvik helps organisations implement Signicat’s solutions and design onboarding flows that work for both customers and compliance. We can, for example, run a workshop where you map your onboarding and see where the wallet makes the biggest difference.

Want to know how the wallet will affect your onboarding? Get in touch.