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OpenWallet Forum

OpenWallet Forum - Multistakeholder collaboration on digital wallets

Digital wallets are emerging as an all-in-one solution to address friction in not only payments but also ID verification and access management. By adding scanning and document encryption to their capabilities, digital wallets can offer a secure virtual storage alternative for a lot of what is found in physical wallets today. Digital wallets today are mostly associated with holding payment credentials; but it is already expected they will also carry other credentials, such as digital ID, medical records, driving license, travel documents, education qualifications, and electronic signatures.

Digital wallets have become essential components of the digital public infrastructure (DPI), enabling individuals to access public digital services, prove their identity, make payments, and store various credentials, including digital identity, digital currencies, digital assets, medical records, driving licenses, travel documents, and education qualifications

The new WTSA- 24 Resolution 103 Enhancing standardization activities for digital public infrastructure calls on the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) to promote the participation of the membership in ITU-T's activities on digital public infrastructure, including through the integration of dialogues to share experiences and lessons learned.

The main objectives are to:

Enhance global multistakeholder cooperation in developing and deploying multipurpose and globally interoperable digital wallets.
Empower government agencies, in concert with private sector organizations, standards development organizations, international organizations and other relevant stakeholders, to build and deploy their digital wallets in a cost-efficient, accelerated, globally interoperable, and integrated manner.

To achieve the above objectives, the activities of the OpenWallet Forum are focused on the following main components:

The Government Consultative Committee (GCC),
Annual OpenWallet Forum High Level Panel Meeting and
Multistakeholder collaboration meetings (See the Save the Date below)

Government Consultative Committee

The Government Consultative Committee (GCC) convenes representatives from intergovernmental organizations invited as observers, and ITU Member States. How to join the GCC? See ITU Circular 18

The main roles of the GCC are to:

Discuss government and other public policy interests and concerns regarding digital wallets.
Recording and summarizing diverse views on various public policy issues impacting digital wallets; and
Encouraging international and multistakeholder collaboration to share knowledge and best practices to explore opportunities and challenges related to digital wallets.

The GCC members established the leadership team by consensus at the meeting on 27th February 2025.

Co-chairs

Rolf Rauschenbach, Federal Office of Justice, Switzerland
Armando Manzueta, Deputy Minister of Public Innovation and Technology, Dominican Republic

Vice Chairs [Europe Region]

David Magard, Senior Advisor, Swedish Companies Registration Office, Sweden
Rob Brand, Senior Policy Officer, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands

Vice Chair [Africa Region]

Alfred Mmoto, Deputy Director General for ICT, Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa

OpenWallet Forum High Level Panel Meeting

The OpenWallet Forum High Level Panel meeting is an annual event. Its main objectives are to align stakeholders on critical questions such as consumer choice, inclusion and ensure ongoing support and policy guidance for the OpenWallet Forum work.

The stakeholders would include high-profile and top executives from Intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, standards development organizations, governments, and the OpenWallet Foundation members.

The first edition of the OpenWallet Forum High Level Panel event was held on 22 January 2025 in Davos and was hosted by the Swiss Confederation, joinlty with ITU and OpenWallet Foundation (see the programme for more information). A Call for Action on global digital trust was an outcome of the event.

Multistakeholder Meetings

Multistakeholder meetings bring together the GCC members, ITU membership, the members of OpenWallet Foundation, intergovernmental organizations, standards development organizations (SDOs), and the industry players in digital wallets to discuss policies and technical requirements for digital wallets, share lessons learned, facilitate a common understanding of how to maximize opportunities, address challenges, and advance global interoperability.

The Multistakeholder Meetings will help improve the understanding of:

The interplay of difference technical standards;
Security requirements for software and hardware for digital wallets;
Best practices for countries with less developed digital wallet infrastructure;
Policies and trust frameworks to enable cross-border interoperability for digital wallets and
An open ecosystem that supports users' choice, while protecting users' privacy and security.

The outputs of the Multistakeholder Meetings will contribute to the work of the GCC. The OpenWallet Forum will publish a report on the outcomes of each Multistakeholder Meeting.

Upcoming Meetings
News
Past Meetings

5th GCC e-meeting
24 April 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 CET

GCC Meeting Documents
Remote participation - Only members subscribed to the GCC mailing list will be able to connect.

Fourth GCC e-meeting
27 March 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 CET

Third GCC e-meeting

27 February 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 CET

Second GCC e-meeting

28 January 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 CET

OpenWallet Forum High Level Panel Event
22 January 2025, 10:30 - 13:00 CET,
House of Switzerland, Davos
Programme
Call for Action on global digital trust
Flickr Photo Album

First GCC e-meeting
6 December 2024, 13:00 - 14:30 CET

MAILING LIST AND DOCUMENTS

OpenWallet Forum GCC Mailing list:

To join the OpenWallet Forum GCC Mailing list, ITU Member State clearance is needed to join the GCC and officially communicated to the GCC Secretariat.
Once GCC Secretariat is notified, the person will be invited to subscribe to the OpenWallet Forum mailing list (openwalletforum-gcc@lists.itu.int) to receive news, updates, invitations, and access the GCC e-meetings.
ITU manages the OpenWallet Forum GCC Secretariat and can be contacted by email: gcc-secretariat@itu.int
GCC Meeting Documents