At the launch event for Techweek 2025, Hon Judith Collins KC, Minister for Digitising Government, announced plans for an ‘all-of-government’ app – or, as it was described, “a secure digital space where New Zealanders could receive notifications, store digital credentials and access services.”

The Minister’s announcement was backed by a challenge from Rod Drury, founder of Xero, who said: “Digital identity is the next big thing we need to solve, and we should do it by Christmas [because] we know how to do it.”

Drury is right. A Kiwi digital identity wallet by Christmas is indeed doable – and Worldline NZ already has the technology and know-how to make it useful for consumers where they shop and socialise

A real, tangible delivery phase

The fact is this: digital identity is moving into a real, tangible delivery phase. At Worldline, we have been working on it for years – academically, technically, legally – and actively setting up all the frameworks to make it possible.

Worldline’s business is payments and a digital payment is simply about moving money sitting in a bank account to the account of a merchant. Worldline provides the mechanism to do that.

While most of us use cards, more and more people are starting to use digital money, held in a digital wallet. The mechanisms that are used for making payments are the same that we can use to share identity.

Identity credentials in a digital wallet could be government-issued, such as a driver’s license, a passport, or ‘Births, Deaths and Marriages’ type credentials, but they could also be Kiwi Access Card credentials. It needs to be securely storable on a phone and merchants need to trust that it is authentic – so a verification process will be needed to ensure this. The government digital wallet is a key component of digital identity, it enables you to store and share your ID in a way that is ‘bound’ to just you.

People do not necessarily want to share all details about themselves. They just want to share the minimum amount of information required.  They want to show that they are over eighteen to purchase something that’s age restricted, while the ‘relying party’ (eg. a bar or restaurant) just to needs have confidence in the security and reliability of the information presented.

Today, the technology behind digital identity is well understood and most of it is built on open standards, which makes it interoperable, accessible, and usable. This is why we are seeing global growth in this space.

Making a New Zealand digital identity a reality

In New Zealand we need the industry to collectively converge on an agreed path of delivery. We are well on the way to doing so, but several tracks must unite to make it a reality.

Firstly, we need to get better and more robust feedback both from consumers and those on the operational side that rely on the information – the ones behind the bar, so to speak. We need to understand what the process is like for them, so at Worldline, we just hosted NZ’s first live trial using digital identity in hospitality.

The second track is around the actual development of the component parts – these include the source of the ID, digital wallet that holds the identity credentials, the acceptance network as a way to ask for the information, businesses that rely on ID, and the government policy to allow it to be used. We know what all the component parts are – it is now about pulling it all together leading to easier regulatory compliance, an efficient way to interact with government, and to stimulate new business.

Making digital identity a reality for New Zealanders will require collaboration across industry. The digital identity issuers – have a track of work that they need to do. We – Worldline, as an acceptance network – have a track of work we need to do. Then there’s the government, which has a track of legislative work to do around digital identity and the creation of the wallet itself. And finally, there are the merchants in hospitality and other industries who rely on proof of identity or credentials today – who need to understand what must get done to get operational.

Terminal technology is modernising to handle digital identity, soon merchants will just be able to switch it on and choose to accept it. They will not need to understand all the complexity behind it, they will just need to understand their part of the process.

From a small business perspective, New Zealand bars and pubs will start to note that people are showing up with international digital identity credentials, or a digital Kiwi Access Card, and they will need to work out how to accept that. They can start that process by talking to Worldline.

If you currently rely on some form of customer identity check as part of your business, start engaging with us early, because we know that ensuring effective operations is different to just adopting technology.

Businesses should start thinking about 2026 as the year they can start making use of this technology. You may need run-in period to understand the technology, build your business case, get the funding, and get a team allocated to deliver it.

It is exciting to realise that things are aligning so that we will be able to have this technology ready by end of 2025. Remember, this isn’t new. Worldline has been working on this for many years, so we are well on track to make New Zealand digital identity a reality in time for summer.

Helen Littlewood
* https://techweek.co.nz/news/digital-public-infrastructure-the-invisible-foundation-for-new-zealands-digital-future