280 million migrants can't open a bank account because they lack the right documents. Whether you hold a UNHCR refugee card, an NGO letter, or any alternative ID — BridgeWallet verifies you in 3 minutes and connects you to a regulated bank account. No passport needed.
Traditional KYC requires a passport, proof of UK address, and local credit history. For refugees and displaced persons — people who fled overnight, whose documents were destroyed — these requirements are structurally impossible to meet. The system was not designed for them and has no answer for them.
In November 2025, the UK Government published its Financial Inclusion Strategy. Four days ago — 14 July 2026 — the Treasury Committee stated it is 'far from the finished product' and that the Treasury 'does not have a complete plan to tackle financial exclusion.' The FCA confirmed 900,000 adults remain unbanked and 13.1 million — 24% of UK adults — have low financial resilience.
Without a bank account, migrants are paid in cash, cannot build credit, and pay informal brokers 10–15% to send money home. The World Bank confirmed in Q3 2025 that the global average remittance cost is 6.36% — more than double the UN's 2030 target of 3%. On £200 sent monthly, that is over £152 per year in excess fees alone.
The compliance issue is usually not that the borrower is unknowable — it is that the system cannot read the legitimate documents they already have.
BridgeWallet combines biometric verification with alternative credentials to create a reusable digital identity that banks accept — via two paths depending on your documents.
If you hold a UNHCR refugee card, BridgeWallet connects to UNHCR's PRIMES registry via the PING API to issue a W3C Verifiable Credential backed by UNHCR as the trust anchor. The strongest possible KYC foundation for UK banks.
With any alternative document — NGO letter, community ID, national ID, employer letter — BridgeWallet verifies you biometrically and issues a W3C Verifiable Credential directly. Banks accept it under UK DIATF 2024. Same outcome, different trust anchor.
BridgeWallet starts with bank onboarding. The same credential architecture then becomes the foundation for full digital identity — legally recognised across 27 countries from 2027.
Phase 1 secures the two relationships that make BridgeWallet real. First: an England-based bank partner who accepts BridgeWallet verified credentials for onboarding, paying £8 per verified migrant acquired. Second: a formal UNHCR PING partnership giving our credentials institutional backing from the world's most trusted refugee registry. Once both are in place, BridgeWallet launches in England in Q4 2026. Cross-border remittances at under 1% follow upon FCA Payment Institution authorisation, currently being pursued via the FCA Innovation Hub.
eIDAS 2.0, adopted by the EU in 2024, mandates digital identity wallets across all 27 member states by 2026 and requires banks, employers, and government portals to accept credentials from certified third-party providers. The technical standard is W3C Verifiable Credentials plus OpenID4VC — exactly what BridgeWallet already uses. The credential a refugee earns opening a bank account in England in 2026 becomes, from 2027, a legally recognised digital identity across the EU. BridgeWallet applies for Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) certification — the established pathway for third-party identity providers under eIDAS 2.0 — enabling EU-wide expansion. The architecture does not change. The regulatory recognition expands.
A USSD layer means a migrant in London sends money through our app, and their family in rural Ethiopia receives it by dialling a short code on any basic SIM phone. No internet. No smartphone. The M-Pesa model applied to identity and remittances globally.
BridgeWallet becomes the identity layer that financial institutions worldwide use to onboard the unbanked. 280 million migrants today. 1.4 billion unbanked people globally. One credential. Recognised everywhere. Every person deserves access.
Four converging forces make this the right moment to build BridgeWallet.
The EU is legally mandating digital identity wallets across all member states from 2024. Regulation is building the infrastructure BridgeWallet needs.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has an explicit mandate to improve financial access for underserved populations — a regulatory open door.
The global AML body now officially permits risk-based alternative KYC for underserved groups — our model is compliant by design.
Geopolitical instability and climate migration mean the 280M figure grows every year. The market expands while no adequate solution exists.
BridgeWallet does not operate in a grey area. Every component is grounded in enacted law or ratified international standard.
The Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework, made permanent in 2024, legally permits digital identity credentials for regulated financial services including bank onboarding. The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 do not require a passport — they permit electronic verification as an alternative.
Source: GOV.UK →The Financial Action Task Force — whose guidance UK banks are legally required to follow — explicitly permits risk-based alternative KYC for refugees and displaced persons without traditional documentation. This is the global AML standard. It was written to address exactly this situation.
Source: FATF →All 27 EU member states must have digital identity wallets available to citizens by end of 2026, with mandatory bank acceptance by December 2027. BridgeWallet is built to W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0 — the standard embedded in eIDAS 2.0. We are already architecturally compliant.
Source: European Commission →Three weeks ago, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander backed a joint digital verification pilot via UK Finance. The service is being technically delivered by Select ID. UK Finance is actively inviting expressions of interest from organisations in the digital verification ecosystem. BridgeWallet addresses the segment this pilot does not yet serve — migrants and refugees without traditional documentation. The regulatory door is not opening. It is already open.
Every existing platform leaves a critical gap. BridgeWallet is the only full-stack solution.
| Platform | Digital ID | Financial Access | Migrant Focus | Decentralised | Key Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MOSIP Gov Infrastructure | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Government-issued ID only — excludes those outside national frameworks |
Leaf Global Mobile Wallet | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | No identity onboarding for traditional banking integration |
Monzo / Revolut Neobank | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Basic e-money account only — no reusable credential, no KYC portability, no UNHCR trust anchor |
Civic Blockchain ID | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | Requires blockchain literacy — not accessible to all populations |
Worldcoin Biometric ID | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Centralised biometric collection raises consent and vulnerability issues |
BridgeWallet Hybrid Platform | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Full-stack solution — reusable W3C credential, UNHCR trust anchor, mainstream bank access ✓ |
BridgeWallet requires three types of partner to function. Here is exactly what each relationship involves and what we are asking for.
BridgeWallet integrates with your existing OpenID Connect infrastructure — the authentication protocol your team already supports. No new infrastructure required. When a BridgeWallet-verified user approaches your bank, we transmit a cryptographically signed W3C Verifiable Credential. Your KYC obligation is satisfied. You onboard a customer you could not previously reach under traditional KYC.
A Letter of Intent to co-pilot BridgeWallet onboarding for your migrant customer segment. No immediate system integration required — a conversation is the starting point.
NGO and refugee organisation partners are the most important relationships BridgeWallet has. When your caseworker introduces BridgeWallet to a client, that introduction carries the full weight of your trusted relationship. We are not asking you to become a financial product. We are asking you to help your clients access one. Your clients gain verified digital identity, bank access, and sub-1% remittances in 3 minutes.
An introductory conversation — and, if you are satisfied, a small pilot where your caseworkers introduce BridgeWallet to consenting clients and we report every outcome back to you.
UNHCR's PRIMES registry is the world's most trusted source of refugee identity data, and its PING interoperability gateway already exists as a secure API for authorised partners. As a PING partner, BridgeWallet issues W3C Verifiable Credentials co-signed by UNHCR — the highest institutional trust level a credential can carry. No raw data ever leaves UNHCR's systems or the user's device, and UNHCR is never contacted again after issuance.
A formal PING partner data-sharing arrangement covering a limited England pilot with consenting registered refugees. No new infrastructure. No system changes.
A real app prototype. Go from zero documents to a verified digital identity and live bank account — in under 3 minutes.
BridgeWallet is seeking founding partners, investors and community supporters who share our mission — giving every person, regardless of their background, equal access to financial services.
We are looking for:
BridgeWallet was developed through academic research into the barriers migrants face when accessing financial services globally. Specialising in fintech, digital identity and financial inclusion, Raphael identified a critical gap in the market that no existing platform addresses — and built BridgeWallet to fill it. The mission is simple: financial access is a human right, and no one should be excluded because of where they were born or what they have been through.
Connect on LinkedIn →Join the waitlist and be among the first to access BridgeWallet when we launch in the UK. Together we can give millions of people the financial access they deserve.