EPC approves SCARLET rulebook to standardise EU Digital Identity Wallet acceptance for payment authentication
EPC approves SCARLET rulebook to standardise EU Digital Identity Wallet acceptance for payment authentication #
The European Payments Council has approved a new standardisation framework to give payment service providers and EU Digital Identity Wallet operators a single, consistent set of rules for using government-issued digital wallets in payment authentication.
The EPC Board approved SCARLET (the Strong Customer Authentication Acceptance Rulebook and Liability Framework for EUDIW Transactions) at its meeting on 24 September 2026. The initiative was publicly announced on 19 October 2026.
According to the EPC’s announcement, SCARLET is designed for the more than 3,000 payment service providers and 27 or more EU Digital Identity Wallet providers expected to operate across the EU and EEA. The framework will establish common business, contractual, and technical rules for how wallets are accepted for strong customer authentication, a requirement under EU payments and digital identity law.
The rulebook is timed to meet a deadline under eIDAS 2. Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, which entered into force in May 2024, requires private-sector organisations including banks and other financial institutions in specified sectors to accept EU Digital Identity Wallets for strong customer authentication by 24 December 2027. Member states must make at least one national wallet available to citizens by 24 December 2026.
Without a harmonised acceptance rulebook, PSPs across the EU risk implementing wallet-based authentication inconsistently, undermining the interoperability eIDAS 2 requires. SCARLET is intended to close that gap by establishing the liability framework for disputed wallet-authenticated transactions alongside the technical and commercial rules for acceptance.
The EPC has indicated the SCARLET rulebook is targeted for completion in December 2027, shortly before the regulatory deadline. The Payment Services Regulation, the successor to PSD2, is also expected to incorporate the eIDAS 2 wallet-acceptance obligations into the mainstream payments framework once formally adopted.
The approval extends the EPC’s work beyond its traditional SEPA scheme governance into digital identity infrastructure.
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