An Opportunity and Responsibility to miss for Banks?

I used to be in charge of ao payments, e-banking, e-business and trade finance at Nordea Bank and its predessors. There I tried to demonstrate e-innovation impact with a self-made 1-4 points table.

Now when general-purpose EBWs will be mandatory not only for banks – but also for public sector units the ice-hockey stick phenomena is coming nearer. So the table (not comparing services - but focusing on wallet impact only) came handy – also for ChatGPT. Which mostly agreed with my observations.

AI-agentics enablement (only EBWs do) - 4 points

This is the structural game-changer. AI-agents can only act safely with verifiable identity, roles, mandates, proofs, and compliance credentials. Banks providing these rails become the trust substrate for automation across all sectors. This creates new revenue streams, lower operating cost, and makes the bank indispensable.

Better risk management - 4 points

This is a big winner. Also to protect against cyber-attacks.  EBW/EUDIW brings high-assurance credentials, PoAs, real-time verification, and fraud-proof onboarding. Banks bleed billions annually in AML, KYC, APP fraud, document forgery, and social-engineering cases. Wallet-based flows slam the door on all of that.

Lower costs - 4 points

The cost base of banks is dominated by manual KYC, onboarding, investigations, back-office checks, compliance reconciliation, fraud ops, automation gaps and collecting reliable wealth management data. Wallet-delivered credentials eliminate whole chunks of that. It’s like e-banking all over again — halved total costs then (of banks in Finland) ; will at least halve verification, compliance and data collection costs now.

Lower credit risks - 4 points

This is a hidden giant. EBW/EUDIW bring verified company data, verified roles, verified mandates, machine-readable financial attributes, real transaction proofs, DIIP flows, real-time compliance data — all of which tighten underwriting and reduce defaults. With better risk management not only costs for helping customers to survive will be lower - but it will also be possible to take more risks (seriously good for society at large). 

Higher customer satisfaction and thus retention - 3 points

High-trust, automated service = customers stick. Once banks provide secure credential rails (e.g., issuing organisational VCs, PoAs, EBMAs, mandates), clients won't want to move because their whole operating life depends on those rails. This is a “credibility moat,” not a UX gimmick.

Important to note that  banks can interconnect customers in new ways - just like with BankID, e-signatures, e-invoicing and e-salary in the Nordics. 

New customers - 2-3 points

Some growth, especially SMEs and micro-businesses once EBWs become mandatory for public-sector access. Banks offering plug-and-play EBW/EUDIW onboarding become the natural gateway. But this is secondary compared to the cost and risk wins.

New income - 2 points

Direct revenue will be small at first. Wallet issuance isn’t a premium product. The commercial upside comes indirectly – lower fraud and credit losses, lower KYC bills, better SME stickiness, smoother credit-risk data, more lending, comprehensive wealth management, better trade finance and ability to sell automated services (e.g., mandate mgmt, DIIP-powered flows, verified data streams).