United Kingdom
The UK’s Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA) has clarified how digital proof of age is expected to work for alcohol sales in England and Wales under proposed changes to licensing rules.
Once the legislation is approved and comes into force, retailers and hospitality venues will be able to accept digital proof of age, but only through providers appearing on the government’s Digital Verification Services register. The proof must provide at least a “medium level of confidence” and assurance that it belongs to the person presenting it. Age estimation technologies will not qualify as digital proof of age under the rules.
Adoption will remain voluntary for both businesses and customers, with venues still able to accept physical identification. OfDIA also says digital proofs must be checked programmatically rather than simply inspected visually, while businesses and providers will have to follow data minimisation requirements. The Age Verification Providers Association has welcomed the clarification but questioned the exclusion of age estimation and called for key requirements to be confirmed in statutory guidance.
Peru
Peru has approved the legal framework for a new digital national identity document, or DNId, giving the mobile credential the same legal status as its physical counterpart.
The regulations establish rules for issuing and using the DNId and allow compliant digital wallets to participate alongside Reniec’s Peru Pass application. Reniec, the country’s National Registry of Identification and Civil Status, is set to begin issuing the new credential free of charge during the rollout.
The DNId is being introduced gradually following the new framework taking effect and will be usable for both online and in-person transactions. It will coexist with existing physical and electronic identity documents rather than replacing them.
United States
1Kosmos has integrated its identity verification technology with EpicCare Link to help healthcare organisations verify external clinicians before giving them access to patient information.
Available through the Epic Toolbox for Identity Verification, the integration incorporates government-issued document verification, biometric matching, liveness detection and device intelligence into clinician onboarding. A provider receives a secure link, takes a selfie and scans an identity document, with the verification result returned to EpicCare Link before account provisioning proceeds.
1Kosmos says its process conforms with NIST Identity Assurance Level 2 requirements and can be configured by healthcare organisations to reflect their own onboarding, security and compliance requirements.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is moving closer to the phased rollout of its national digital identity programme, SL-UDI, as India finalises procurement of the master systems provider that will implement the platform.
Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne said the first digital IDs are expected to be issued in the coming months, with a fully digital identity system targeted by next August. Around 17 million existing National Identity Card holders are then expected to transition to the new system over the following two years.
TCS, Infosys and Protean remain under final evaluation for the MOSIP-based system after bids exceeded the INR 3 billion value of India’s grant funding for the project.
Belgium
Telesign has partnered with Bancontact Company to add real-time fraud intelligence to Belgium’s Bancontact Pay app.
The integration uses Telesign’s Anti-fraud Intelligence platform during new user registrations and significant account changes, providing risk scoring, behavioural analysis and domain-level insights. Telesign says its machine-learning model draws on more than 15 years of fraud patterns to provide automated risk recommendations while operating in the background of the customer journey.
The companies say the additional checks are intended to make it harder to create fraudulent accounts without adding friction for legitimate users.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has begun issuing a new chipless national identity card as part of the country’s move towards mobile-first digital identity.
The domestically produced card replaces an imported microchip with a secure QR code that can be scanned and verified using an ordinary smartphone through the PakID mobile application. The change follows amendments to national identity rules approved in February that introduced QR-based verification, stronger anti-fraud controls and greater use of biometric recognition.
Issuance began on 14 August. NADRA says the chipless credential will initially replace standard national ID cards before being extended to other identity documents and specialised card categories from January. PakID, meanwhile, surpassed 18 million downloads last month.
United Kingdom
The UK Gambling Commission has warned online gambling companies that poor registration data and overly permissive identity matching can create verification problems and weaken consumer protections.
More than a quarter of complaints received by the regulator’s contact centre concern identity verification. The Commission found examples of operators failing to collect complete customer information during registration, resulting in customers being asked for additional documents or information when attempting to withdraw funds.
It also highlighted the use of “fuzzy matching” by third-party verification providers, where similar rather than identical information may be accepted. The regulator said discrepancies such as nicknames, initials or incorrect addresses should be resolved during onboarding, rather than being allowed to pass through the process. Inaccurate information can also make it harder to match gambling accounts against GAMSTOP self-exclusion records.
Romania
Romania’s nationwide rollout of chip-based national identity cards is providing an early test of the transition towards the EU’s eIDAS 2.0 digital identity framework.
The new cards include biometric data in a secured part of the chip, qualified electronic signature capability and the national health card function. More than €150 million in European funding is financing the first batches in 2026, according to Bucharest-based RegTech company Qoobiss.
Older identity documents will remain valid until their expiry dates, while non-chip identity cards must cease to be valid by 3 August 2031 at the latest. This means organisations will need to handle both generations of credentials during the transition.
Global
The global identity verification market is projected to grow from $14.34 billion in 2025 to $29.32 billion by 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets, representing a compound annual growth rate of 15.4 percent.
The analyst attributes growth to increasing demand for secure digital authentication and the expansion of remote onboarding across sectors including financial services, healthcare, e-commerce and telecoms.
