Digital wallets to speed up regulatory checks for recruitment, property transactions

You can already buy a coffee with your phone, but soon you’ll be able to start a job or buy a house with your mobile device. That’s because digital compliance wallets enabling certificates and documents to be held by individuals on a smartphone are becoming a major new global trend. The EU and U.K. are piloting models that should be active within the next 12 months, some U.S. states are already using them, and the Australian government launched its Trust Exchange (TEx) for digital identity checks in 2024.

The wallets work much like the popular digital financial wallets created by Apple and Google. Individuals will be able to store their personal compliance documents – from drivers’ licenses and visas, to educational qualifications, right-to-work checks, national insurance details, and even job references. 

To date, most of the development has been done by tech companies and governments. Now industry bodies in regulated sectors, including recruitment, are seeing the potential to streamline compliance checks and make onboarding processes for staff and customers more efficient, faster, and cheaper.