Everywhere you look today, identity is the real currency. Whether you’re opening a bank account or applying for government services, the same question comes back again and again. Who are you, and how can anyone be sure?

That question has grown far beyond the teller’s counter. It now runs through the veins of the global economy, shaping how governments roll out digital services and how banks try to balance security with convenience.

Digital identity has not-so-quietly become the infrastructure for growth, trust, and even inclusion.

The Push to Make Identity Digital

Fabrice Jogand-Coulomb, who is the Vice President of Mobile Solutions at TOPPAN Security, has been watching this shift unfold. He points to a UN estimate that digital ID can unlock between 3% and 7% of GDP for countries that implement it seriously.

For governments, it’s about sovereignty and privacy. For banks, it’s about meeting regulations and keeping fraud under control.

As Fabrice puts it, “Digital ID is the foundation of economic growth.”

And increasingly, both the public and private sectors are moving in that direction.

Fabrice explains that while international standards make interoperability possible, “a one-stop shop could provide a more competitive price than multiple individual parties.”

The first wave of digital onboarding was messy. Banks and agencies stitched together different vendors for different steps of the process. It worked, but it was costly and clunky.

International standards now mean those pieces can talk to each other, but Fabrice argues that an integrated platform covering the whole lifecycle is usually more efficient.

Goodbye Passwords, Hello Biometrics

Let’s be honest, passwords were never loved, and the industry is finally starting to push past them. Multi-factor authentication is the new baseline for digital identity, with device binding now playing a starring role.

Paired with biometrics, it gives institutions the ability to dial security up or down depending on the risk.

For low-risk transactions, a device binding check might be enough.

And for bigger-ticket items, the system can quietly step up to stronger checks. Fabrice points out that multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming a must, especially as high-value transactions demand stronger checks.

He also believes that, and quoting him,  “device binding with biometrics provides a superior experience” because it feels less like a hurdle and more like a natural part of the process.

This move is being helped along by new standards such as ISO/IEC 23220-4, which enable request–response protocols for authentication through verifiable credentials.

The jargon is quite heavy if you think of it, but the effect is rather simple: authentication that adapts without the customer even noticing.

But Why Is Onboarding Still Tripping Us Up?

Of course, the real headscratcher comes at the very start. Onboarding is where drop-offs and fraud tend to creep in. Too many systems still rely on shaky photos of passports or IDs, which don’t always hold up well under scrutiny.

Electronic documents with chips are far stronger. They give you data that can be authenticated cryptographically, along with a clean biometric portrait.

The trouble is getting phones to read them properly with NFC. Anyone who’s tried it knows it’s fiddly and inconsistent.

He notes that “NFC on phones is rather tested for card presentation and reading simple tags than powering an electronic ID document,” which makes the user experience inconsistent today.

That’s why Fabrice sees promise in decentralised identity and verifiable credentials. Once a person is onboarded securely, their digital ID can live in a wallet on their phone. From then on, sharing it is as simple as a tap.

Or as he puts it:

“Strong onboarding is performed once, then best-in-class user experience can follow.”

Learning from Governments

Large-scale government projects have been testing grounds for these ideas. They set the bar high but also expose the weaknesses of centralised systems, which can become single points of failure.

Take the Philippines. The eGovPH program has rolled out mobile IDs to millions of citizens.

It’s not perfect, but it shows what’s possible. Banks can borrow lessons from this since interoperability, public trust, and scalability matter just as much in finance as they do in government.

Fabrice notes that decentralised models, where credentials sit in a user’s own wallet rather than a central database, help spread the risk.

Banks that plug into such ecosystems avoid being dependent on a government server, while still benefiting from the standards that make everything interoperable.

What the Digital Identity Road Ahead Looks Like

The next few years are going to be busy. Europe’s EUDI framework is pushing hard on adoption, while mobile driving licences are starting to catch on in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and across Asia.

But it won’t stop with government IDs. Fabrice expects verifiable credentials to spread to employers, banks, and universities.

Zero-knowledge proofs, which were once the stuff of research papers, are edging into practical use, letting people prove something without disclosing the details.

Fabrice predicts that zero-knowledge proof should go from proof of concept to proven security, and the market should finally align on a few solutions.

At the same time, AI-driven fraud and the looming threat of quantum computing mean institutions need to keep one eye on the horizon.

Your Phone, Your Passport

But none of these breakthroughs will matter if the end user experience doesn’t work. And today, that experience lives on the smartphone.

The phone has already replaced the wallet for many of us. It’s now on its way to becoming our passport, too. Fabrice warns that user experience will make or break this shift.

If the process feels clumsy, people will gravitate toward alternatives. Or worse, to your competitors.

A trusted, mobile-centric identity system needs to walk a fine line.

As Fabrice puts it,

“Security should be implemented as such that the UX remains great while the App can’t be used without your consent and the phone delivers at least one factor of authentication.”

Security has to be invisible but real, and customers need to feel that they’re in control. That means hardware protections for keys, backed up by biometrics and PINs.

Done right, the phone becomes both the lock and the key to digital life.

Featured image by TOPPAN Security.