ISO - International Organization for Standardization
ISO - International Organization for Standardization
09/01/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/01/2026 07:37
Global public-private collaboration makes digital identity standards freely accessible worldwide
Global public-private collaboration makes digital identity standards freely accessible worldwide
Lu en 5 minutes
Geneva, Switzerland | 1 September 2026 - The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) and the OpenWallet Foundation today announced a landmark agreement to provide access worldwide to a set of key standards supporting mobile driving licences and similar digital credentials, including the ISO/IEC 18013 and ISO/IEC 23220 series.
This initiative, announced at the Global Digital Collaboration Conference 2026, reflects a unique collaboration between ISO, IEC, DIN and the OpenWallet Foundation to expand access to critical digital infrastructure standards. Through a sponsorship-based model, it will support the needs of a growing global ecosystem by facilitating free access to market-leading international standards while respecting ISO and IEC's copyright.
Governments, international organizations, standards bodies and technology companies joined forces to forge the commitment at a meeting of the Global Digital Collaboration. The OpenWallet Foundation, part of the Linux Foundation, will manage coordination with sponsors, including A4 Advisory, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), Austroads, Explicit Selection, FaceTec, FAST, Fime, France Titres, iDAKTO, Idemia, Scytales, and Stelau.
The ISO/IEC 18013 and ISO/IEC 23220 series underpin mobile driving licences (mDLs) and broader digital credential ecosystems. Adoption is accelerating worldwide across public services, travel, payments and digital identity use cases. Expanding access to these standards represents an important step toward greater global interoperability, security, and inclusion.
"International Standards provide the trusted foundation for interoperability in emerging digital ecosystems," said Sergio Mujica, ISO Secretary-General. "Making these standards more widely accessible accelerates the adoption of trusted digital credential technologies worldwide, enabling innovators, policymakers and implementers to build on a common international foundation to ensure digital identity systems are secure, reliable and globally aligned."
"This move constitutes an important step in removing barriers to essential digital identity and credential standards," said Philippe Metzger, IEC Secretary-General and CEO. "It is about ensuring that the standards enabling secure, interoperable digital identities are accessible to everyone, everywhere. It also establishes a new model for how critical digital infrastructure standards can be shared globally while preserving the integrity of the system that creates them."
Marion Winkenbach, Managing Director for DIN Media, said the digital wallet is a key building block of digital transformation. "To ensure the successful rollout of the digital driver's license and to enable widespread adoption of the wallet, easy and open access to the underlying standards is essential. Together with the OpenWallet Foundation, we have succeeded in making these standards accessible through a sponsorship-based model."
"Making these standards available through a sponsorship-based model is a decisive step toward global interoperability for digital wallets and credentials," said Daniel Goldscheider, Executive Director of the OpenWallet Foundation. "This initiative demonstrates how public and private stakeholders can work together to expand access to critical infrastructure in a way that benefits the entire ecosystem."
The agreement establishes a new model for expanding access to critical digital infrastructure standards while preserving the integrity of the international standards system.
Through a sponsorship mechanism implemented by DIN Media, the relevant ISO/IEC standards will be made available through a dedicated online portal at no cost, where users worldwide can access the specifications in a secure, read-only format.
The portal, and further information, can be accessed at dinmedia.mdoc.online.
For more information or interviews, please contact:
Katie Clift
Public Relations, ISO
+351 913 976 202
[email protected] / [email protected]
For the press
Media release
ISO, IEC, DIN and the OpenWallet Foundation have announced a landmark agreement to provide worldwide access to key standards supporting mobile driving licences and other digital credentials, including the ISO/IEC 18013 and ISO/IEC 23220 series.
About ISO
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 177 national standards bodies. Through its global network of around 800 committees and 60 000 experts, it facilitates the development of voluntary and market-relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. ISO has published more than 25,000 International Standards and related documents covering almost every industry, from technology to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare. More information about ISO is available at https://www.iso.org.
About IEC
The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a global, not-for-profit membership organization that brings together over 170 countries and coordinates the work of more than 30 000 experts globally. IEC International Standards and conformity assessment work underpins international trade in electrical and electronic goods and enables sustainable and clean every production, distribution and consumption. It facilitates electricity access and verifies the safety, performance and interoperability of electric and electronic devices and systems, including for example, consumer devices such as mobile phones or refrigerators, office and medical equipment, information technology, electricity generation, and much more. Conformity assessment refers to any activity that determines whether a product, system, service and sometimes people fulfil the requirements and characteristics described in a standard or specification. Such requirements can include performance, safety, efficiency, effectiveness, reliability, durability or environmental impacts such as pollution or noise. Verification is generally done through testing and/or inspection. Learn more: https://www.iec.ch.
About DIN
DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, is the independent platform for standardization in Germany and worldwide. Together with industry, scientific institutions, public authorities and civil society as a whole, DIN plays a major role in identifying future areas for standardization. By helping to shape the green and digital transformation, DIN makes an important contribution towards solving current challenges and enables new technologies, products and processes to establish themselves on the market and in society. More than 40,000 experts from industry, research, consumer protection and the public sector bring their expertise to work on standardization projects managed by DIN. The results of these efforts are market-oriented standards and specifications that promote global trade, encouraging rationalization, quality assurance and environmental protection as well as improving security and communication. For more information, go to https://www.din.de.
About the OpenWallet Foundation
The OpenWallet Foundation (OWF) provides a safe space for developers to collaborate on standards-based open source components that issuers, wallet providers and relying parties can use to bootstrap implementations that preserve user choice, security and privacy. Working closely with the OpenWallet Forum which is hosted at ITU OWF brings the public and private sector together to work towards open, secure and interoperable digital wallets. OWF is an open initiative under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. For more information, please visit openwallet.foundation.
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