E-ID, SSI and wallets: A review of the E-ID & SSI event

On March 12, 2026, a key topic that is rapidly gaining importance for companies in Switzerland took center stage at the Ergon Hall: how to deal with the new Swiss E-ID, Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), and digital wallets. The event was hosted by Prof. Dr. Mascha Kurpicz-Briki. She moderated the event, structured the thematic blocks, and led the discussions. Eight presentations and a panel discussion highlighted developments from the perspectives of government, business, the financial sector, healthcare, and technology.

Why Digital Identity Is Becoming Strategic

Daniel Säuberli, President of the Digital Identity & Data Sovereignty Association (DIDAS), opened the event by explaining why digital identity belongs on the executive management agenda. The Swiss E-ID and the swiyu trust infrastructure are creating a framework in which identities and attributes can be digitally proven and verified. This not only simplifies logins. Contracts, proofs, and transactions can also be handled more digitally and more reliably.

Verifiable credentials play a central role in this context. They make it possible to sign information at the source and verify it automatically later. This is relevant for KYC processes, regulatory evidence, or digital company formation processes. For companies, this creates tangible benefits: fewer media disruptions, more automation, and higher data quality.

E-ID from Bern

Rolf Rauschenbach, Head of the E-ID Program, outlined the status of the initiative from the federal government’s perspective. The goal remains to launch the E-ID on December 1, 2026, subject to pending voting rights complaints and extensive testing. The rollout will be gradual. Both the issuance of the E-ID and the approval of private organizations as issuers and verifiers will be scaled up step by step to ensure stability and quality.

In addition, the federal government is relying on further trust measures. Only organizations registered in the trust register and possessing a UID will appear in the swiyu wallet. Verifiers must disclose which information they request and for what purpose. The AHV number may only be obtained by organizations registered as authorized with the Central Compensation Office. Before the broad rollout, a test phase involving up to 40,000 federal employees is planned. For Rauschenbach, one thing is clear: the E-ID will only realize its full value when public authorities and businesses integrate it into everyday processes.

Opportunities in Switzerland and the EU

Désirée Heutschi, Co-CEO of Procivis and Head of Corporate Development at Orell Füssli, placed these developments in a European context. In Switzerland, the E-ID is expected to go live by the end of 2026. At the same time, the eIDAS 2 regulation requires all EU member states to provide their citizens with an EU Digital Identity Wallet by the end of 2026. By the end of 2027, regulated sectors such as banking, telecommunications, transport, energy, healthcare, and education must accept these wallets.

For companies operating across borders, managing multiple wallets will become part of everyday business. At the same time, significant efficiency and innovation potential will emerge. Heutschi sees digital identities and credentials as catalysts for new processes. Wherever original documents are required today, verifiable digital credentials can be used in the future. In financial services, applications range from seamless onboarding and digital signatures to automated verification processes. This interaction is becoming increasingly important, particularly in environments with high demands for trust, security, and interoperability.

Banking: From Identification to Efficiency

Wolfgang Mair, Head Digital Business Models & willbe Invest at Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB), explained why the E-ID could represent a turning point for banks. Today, banks largely bear the identification risk themselves, whether in branches, through video identification, or via automated identification procedures. High-quality forged documents and manual KYC processes make these procedures expensive and difficult to scale. With the government-issued E-ID, part of this risk can be transferred to the state because identity verification is performed centrally. During onboarding, customers will identify themselves using the E-ID rather than lengthy forms and repeated proofs.

Structured and verified information flows directly into the KYC profile. Stricter European anti-money laundering regulations require these profiles to be updated regularly. The E-ID enables such evidence to be maintained digitally and efficiently. The E-ID also opens new possibilities for login processes and strong customer authentication. It can support qualified electronic signatures and thereby enable fully digital, legally compliant contract processes. Mair also warned against fragmentation. Without compatibility between Swiss and European solutions, costly integration problems may arise.

Stefan Knaus, Senior Consultant at the Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen, Head of OpenBankingProject.ch and a member of DIDAS, explored this perspective from the point of view of the open banking ecosystem. In a project involving around 40 institutions, he is investigating how banks can integrate the E-ID in practice. This ranges from the role of verifier to wallet functions in mobile banking apps. Account openings using E-ID have already been implemented in proofs of concept. Customers scan a QR code, share selected E-ID data and complete the process with a liveness check. E-ID can also be used to regain access to e-banking following a change of device or a lost password. In branches, the physical walk-in process can also be simplified if the E-ID serves as a digital ID.

Healthcare: SSI Already in Productive Use Today

Attila Fekete, Head of Sales & Product Management at Health Info Net (HIN), demonstrated that SSI is already being used productively today. For years, HIN has provided encrypted email communication in the healthcare sector and linked it with digital identities of healthcare professionals. Around 99 percent of hospitals, more than 70,000 professional identities, and dozens of millions of emails per year run through the HIN infrastructure.

The move to verifiable credentials brings concrete benefits in this environment. Diplomas, professional certifications, and authorizations can be verified in real time. Access rights can be managed more precisely. At the same time, media disruptions in communication with patients and institutions are reduced. This example shows that verifiable data and digital identities are already driving change in sensitive and highly regulated environments.

Agentic Wallets: When the Wallet Takes on More

Michal Jarmolkowicz, CEO & Enterprise Security Architect at Swiss Safe, focused on the next stage of development. In his presentation, “A Look into the Future: Agentic Wallet Technology,” he showed that today’s integration patterns often consist of many isolated services directly connected via APIs. While technically functional, this often creates friction and limited scalability in practice.

As an alternative, he presented the principle: “The user becomes the API.” Verifiable credentials such as student IDs, employee IDs, or KYC credentials are stored in a wallet. Different systems access them selectively and contextually, whether on campus, in retail, or in healthcare. This can simplify onboarding, as opening an account or starting work at a new hospital may require only an E-ID or QR code scan. Future wallets will not only store credentials. They will act as intelligent agents that perform actions on behalf of users based on verifiable data and stored intentions.

According to Jarmolkowicz, solutions such as Google’s and Mastercard’s “verifiable intent” demonstrate how cryptographic proof can be provided regarding what an agent was actually authorized to do. This creates additional protection against fraud and manipulation. His message was clear: companies should design data, products, and interfaces in a way that remains usable for agentic wallets and AI agents.

From Idea to Use Case

Patrick Humbel, Consultant for Digital Transformation, and Michael Doujak, Lead Digital Identity, concluded the event by demonstrating how companies can systematically identify their own use cases. They addressed the question of how opportunities can be leveraged without falling into technical activism. Their answer: ideation workshops aligned with the company’s own customer journey. In one or two sessions, industry-specific touchpoints with E-ID and SSI are analyzed, for example in onboarding, re-identification, or KYC costs. The result is a prioritized list with a concrete starting point. Those interested in such an ideation workshop can find further information here.

Another focus was the issue of adoption. Based on EU figures and scenarios through 2031, Humbel and Doujak showed that high E-ID usage emerges where citizens repeatedly experience concrete benefits. This principle is particularly effective when banks and public authorities work closely together. Depending on the scenario, they expect 30 percent or more E-ID users in Switzerland by 2028/29, provided that both the public and private sectors introduce relevant everyday applications at an early stage.

What management teams should be doing now

In the concluding panel discussion with Daniel Säuberli, Rolf Rauschenbach, Attila Fekete, Stefan Knaus, Kevin Hönger and Michael Doujak, three key messages emerged:

• Firstly, organisations should now examine specific use cases rather than waiting for fully matured standards. Ideation workshops and Proof of Concepts help to prioritise areas of application in onboarding, KYC and GWG processes, reporting or collaboration with authorities.
• Secondly, digital identity belongs at C-level because it affects business models, regulation, governance and customer experience in equal measure.
• Thirfly, Switzerland should actively help shape the emerging ecosystem rather than simply adopting existing solutions. Standards, interoperability and governance frameworks will play a decisive role in determining whether trust and digital sovereignty become a sustainable locational advantage.

To put it bluntly, the event can be summarised as follows: the infrastructure is on its way. Whether this results in a genuine competitive advantage depends on how consistently companies and institutions translate the new opportunities into concrete and secure services for their customers. It is precisely at this juncture that Airlock’s relevance lies.