Cambridge launches digital identity regulatory initiative

Led by Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii), in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, with support from the Gates Foundation, the Cambridge DPI Regulatory Programme: Digital Identity is a new global initiative designed to strengthen regulatory and policy capacity around digital identity systems as a foundational element of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

The programme will serve public authorities and ecosystem stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries, including central banks, ministries of finance and digital transformation, data protection authorities, telecommunications regulators, financial supervisors and competition authorities, where digital identity systems are at a pivotal stage of development: Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya in Africa, and India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand in Asia.

As digital identity becomes central to financial inclusion, public service delivery and digital economy growth, policymakers face complex regulatory questions: how to design governance models, ensure interoperability, manage data protection risks, enable e-KYC innovation and promote trusted adoption. The Cambridge DPI Regulatory Programme aims to generate practical evidence and strength institutional capacity to address these challenges in a co-ordinated and forward-looking way.

Advancing inclusive and trusted digital identity ecosystems

Digital identity systems have never been standalone. They underpin financial services, government-to-person payments, health records, taxation, digital commerce and cross-border transactions. Yet countries face divergent models – centralised vs federated architectures, foundational vs functional IDs, public vs private-led solutions – each with trade-offs in governance, resilience and market development.

The programme will support policymakers in evaluating these models through a structured regulatory lens. It will explore institutional design, legal frameworks, interoperability standards, trust frameworks, liability regimes and data protection safeguards.

A strong emphasis will be placed on balancing innovation and inclusion. Digital identity can lower onboarding costs, enable remote access to services and unlock digital finance, but poorly designed systems risk exclusion, market concentration or privacy harms. Through comparative case analysis and applied research, the programme will help authorities to navigate these tensions and align identity systems with broader development objectives.

From research to implementation to collaboration

The Cambridge DPI Regulatory Programme: Digital Identity will consist of 2 mutually reinforcing components designed to generate rigorous evidence while strengthening peer exchange and regulatory collaboration across jurisdictions.

The first component centres on the development of 4 flagship reports that together create a structured evidence base for policymakers. These cover:

• global regulatory architectures and governance models
• high-impact digital identity use cases
• regional adoption of digital identity and e-KYC through country case studies
• the economic case for e-KYC, highlighting efficiency gains and broader development impacts

The second component establishes a collaborative Regulatory Knowledge Ecosystem to amplify research impact through a dedicated knowledge hub, webinars and annual surveys, a cross-regulatory advisory panel and international partnerships. This ensures continuous peer exchange, strategic guidance and sustained policy engagement beyond the publication of the reports.

Together, these 2 components ensure that the programme not only produces high-quality research, but also embeds it within an active, sustained and practice-oriented community of digital identity regulators and policymakers.

The launch event convenes regulators, development partners and industry experts to explore a central question: How do we move from alignment to action in digital identity research, regulation and adoption? The discussion will set the tone for a multi-country effort aimed at equipping authorities with the tools, evidence and peer networks needed to build secure, interoperable and inclusive digital identity ecosystems.

“Digital identity governance must be grounded in rigorous, context-sensitive research. This programme advances comparative evidence across diverse country settings, helping policymakers evaluate institutional design, regulatory trade-offs and adoption pathways. By linking research to real-world use cases, it supports sustained national ownership and the development of trusted, inclusive digital identity ecosystems” says Shrikant Karwa, Programme Lead, Digital Identity, Financial Innovation for Impact.

This programme advances comparative evidence across diverse country settings, helping policymakers evaluate institutional design, regulatory trade-offs and adoption pathways.

Shrikant Karwa

“This programme generates comparative insights while engaging directly with policymakers to navigate trade-offs, institutional design and adoption challenges of digital ID. By connecting research to practice, it enables countries to build secure, inclusive and trusted digital identity systems that reflect their governance realities and change lives” says Pavle Avramovic, Director of Research & Policy, Financial Innovation for Impact.

By connecting research to practice, it enables countries to build secure, inclusive and trusted digital identity systems that reflect their governance realities and change lives.

Pavle Avramovic