(ISO: Geneva) -- On Sept. 1, 2026, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN), and the OpenWallet Foundation announced a landmark agreement to provide access worldwide to a set of key standards supporting mobile driving licenses 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 licenses (mDLs) and broader digital credential ecosystems. Adoption is accelerating worldwide in 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,” says 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,” says 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, says 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,” says 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 at no cost through a dedicated online portal where users worldwide can access the specifications in a secure, read-only format.

That portal as well as further information can be accessed at dinmedia.mdoc.online.