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.
High street banks require a passport, proof of address and local credit history. Recognised refugees and migrants with leave to remain often have none of these — not through any fault of their own, but because of the circumstances that brought them here.
Without a mainstream bank account, migrants pay 10–15% to informal brokers just to send money home. Basic prepaid accounts like Monzo exist but don't solve the underlying KYC barrier — or allow portability across banks.
No savings, no credit history, no insurance, no stability. The gap isn't legal — recognised refugees have the right to bank. The gap is documentary. BridgeWallet closes it.
Maria fled Venezuela with no documents. She arrived in Colombia and needed a bank account to receive her wages and send money home to her children. Every bank turned her away. She resorted to paying 12% just to transfer money — money her family desperately needed.
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.
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 proposes a formal PING partner integration — connecting UNHCR's existing registration infrastructure to UK regulated financial services for the first time.
UNHCR has spent two decades building the world's most comprehensive refugee registration system. PRIMES holds verified biographic and biometric data on millions of displaced people globally. The PRIMES Interoperability Gateway — PING — already exists as a secure API platform for authorised partners to exchange that data safely.
BridgeWallet proposes to become an authorised PING partner in England. We use PING-retrieved data to issue a W3C Verifiable Credential on the user's device — a cryptographically signed proof that UNHCR has verified this person. UK bank partners verify that credential via OpenID Connect without ever accessing PRIMES directly.
The result: a refugee registered in PRIMES can open a regulated UK bank account in under three minutes — without any raw data ever leaving their device or UNHCR's systems.
Provides verified registration data via the PING API. No ongoing involvement after data transfer. UNHCR never contacts banks directly.
Issues the W3C Verifiable Credential using PING data. Stored on the user's device only via Hyperledger Aries. Zero personal data on BridgeWallet servers.
Verifies the cryptographic signature in milliseconds. Never queries PRIMES. Accepts the credential as KYC under FATF Rec 10 and UK DIATF 2024.
BridgeWallet holds no personal data on its servers. Everything lives on the user's device.
Users consent before any credential is requested from PING and before any credential is shared with a bank. Revocable at any time.
Banks receive only a cryptographic proof. UNHCR's systems are never contacted again after initial credential issuance.
Explicitly permits risk-based alternative KYC for refugees. UNHCR documentation is an acceptable identity source for financial institutions.
Digital identity legally valid for regulated financial services including bank onboarding. BridgeWallet operates as a certified identity provider under this framework.
EU mandate for digital identity wallets across all 27 member states from 2026. BridgeWallet's W3C VC architecture is already compliant — enabling direct EU expansion after the England pilot.
We are proposing a six-month England pilot: up to 500 consenting recognised refugees, one FCA-regulated bank partner, and a full evaluation report delivered to UNHCR at completion. England is the optimal proving ground — high smartphone penetration, established NGO infrastructure, and the FCA's explicit financial inclusion mandate. What we need from UNHCR: a formal PING partner data-sharing arrangement. 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.