Digital Identity and Onboarding Working Group

Purpose

The aim of this Working Group is to define industry standards for the requirements and permitted use of digital identities to support efficient and effective onboarding of Securities Services clients. These standards are designed to lower costs, reduce client friction, and mitigate risks across the Securities Services industry. The Working Group published a paper in summer 2024 outlining the key onboarding challenges and subsequently published a solutions paper in November 2025 that expanded on the initial findings and set out proposed solutions at both industry and firm level.

Scope

• To investigate smart ways to reduce the effort involved in institutional client onboarding
• To design industry standards to cover 90% of use cases in the 30 highest volume markets
• To develop standards that cater for multi-products and multi-jurisdictions including the company’s legal hierarchy
• To articulate that, where difference exist for a market, why they exist
• To create a design template/ requirements document that will help third parties design solutions to the Digital Identity and Onboarding challenges.
• To create an understanding at the various governmental and regulatory bodies across the globe about the changes that they can make to improve the outcomes.

Key Deliverables

• To research and suggest solutions to the onboarding issues identified in the first paper.
• To create standards for Digital Identity and Onboarding
• To educate the industry through webinars and conferences on the merits of the desired approach
• To change the industry behaviour in respect to Digital Identity and Onboarding

Key Outcomes

Create a set of standards and processes which:

• Reduce the likelihood of bad actors being able to move assets through the securities services industry
• Which are more efficient and less onerous for the industry’s clients
• Automates the processes where possible

Publications

• ISSA Digital Identity and Onboarding Solution Paper -> link
• ISSA Digital Identity and Onboarding Solutions video -> link
• Watch Paul Maley as he explains how ISSA’s Digital Identity and Onboarding WG -> link
• Digital Identity and Onboarding – Defining the problem ->link

Working Group Co-Chairs

• Jonathan Hartwell, Northern Trust
• Brett Lewis, GlobeTax
• Joe Mernagh, UBS

Executive Sponsor

• Paul Maley, Deutsche Bank

Institutions represented by Experts in the Working Group

• BNP Paribas S.A.
• CMA Small Systems AB
• Deutsche Bank AG
• Deutsche Börse Group
• Euroclear
• GlobeTax Services, Inc.
• Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited
• HSBC Holdings Plc
• LLB
• Montran
• MYRIAD Group Technologies Ltd
• Northern Trust Corporation
• S&P Global
• Saphyre, Inc
• State Street Corporation
• Strate (Pty) Ltd
• Tata Group
• The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
• The Investment Association
• The Value Exchange
• U.S. Bank, N.A.
• UBS Group AG
• x-markets GmbH & Co. KG