Europe is on the verge of the biggest shift in digital trust since online banking.

eIDAS2, organisation wallets (EUBW), and agentic AI are rewriting how identification, identity authorisation, and verification work.

And banks — with their regulatory posture, enterprise and private customer base and operational discipline — are uniquely positioned to be central and useful for society at large in this new landscape.

But only if they decide to act.

1. The wallet era plays directly to banking strengths

For citizens and enterprises, the wallet will become:

• the control panel for identity (collections of verifiable credentials)

• the gateway for authorisation

• the cockpit for AI-agents 

• the hub for verified payments, invoices, financing, trade finance, contracts and data

This is classic bank territory: high-trust, high-risk, high-volume processes requiring strong governance.

If banks don’t offer wallets (personal + enterprise), others will step in and displace them at the trust layer.

2. Banks already have what QTSPs dream of

Banks start with:

• verified customer identities

• strong authentication rails

• KYC/KYB processes – grounded in legislation

• secure infrastructures

• existing regulatory oversight

• brand trust – economy of trust a big asset to offer society at large

• massive distribution

Add QTSP status and wallet infrastructure, and a bank instantly becomes a continental trust operator.

No startup or global Big Tech can match that combined credibility.

3. A new revenue engine: Trust Infrastructure as a Service

Banks can monetise:

• enterprise wallet hosting (EUBW)

• employee power-to-act credentials

• verified IBAN / account ownership

• identity + onboarding for SMEs

• timestamping, audit and NIS2 compliance

• contract signing and authorisation

• DIIP connectors for b2b and to government and data spaces

Every SME in Europe needs this. Banks can deliver it at scale, bundled with accounts, payments and credit.

This becomes a recurring, high-margin revenue base — much more durable than interchange or credit fees.

4. Industrial-scale credential issuance is the next boom

Enterprises will need verifiable credentials for:

Banks are the natural issuers for many of these.

QTSP capability + wallet rails turns banks into credential factories — with usage fees on issuance and verification.

5. Agentic AI needs trusted rails — and banks can run them

AI-agents will handle contracts, procurement, invoicing, cash management and supply-chain operations.

But they require:

• identity

• authorisation

• delegation

• verifiable logs

• non-repudiation

• trusted payments

Banks can anchor this.

If AI-agents become a major economic actor — and they will — banks must be the trust and payment backbone they rely on.

6. Fraud reduction becomes a monetisable service

With bank-issued and bank-verified credentials:

• invoice fraud disappears

• payment redirection scams die

• impersonation attacks collapse

• supplier verification becomes automatic

• B2B onboarding becomes near-instant

Banks can sell this as fraud-proof business banking, turning a cost centre into a revenue stream.

7. Banks risk losing the trust layer if they stand still

If banks don’t take the trust infrastructure role, others will:

Whoever controls the wallet controls:

• identity

• payments

• authorisation

• AI-agent delegation

• data access

This is the entry point to every financial service.

Banks cannot afford to lose it.

The combination of QTSP status + wallet infrastructure + banking trust is unique.

If banks embrace it, they become the backbone of Europe’s digital trust economy for people, organisations, AI-agents and robots.

If they hesitate, they lose the trust layer — and whoever controls that layer controls the future of finance.