Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Digital Wallet Control Points for Banks and Fintechs
October 8, 2026 | NCFA Resource | Payments And Money Movement, Digital Identity And Trust, Competition And Market Structure
Where Digital Wallet Control Really Sits
On October 8, 2026, Mobey Forum launched its Digital Wallet Control Points tool, an interactive map of 22 points where banks, payment providers, wallet providers and other firms can influence how a digital wallet works. It shows how those points connect, which roles are involved and where a firm may need another company to make the service work.
Wallets no longer stop at payments. Identity, credentials, loyalty, data and agentic commerce are being pulled into the same customer experience. A bank or fintech may own the front end and still rely on several other firms behind it. The map helps teams see who controls what before they make a product, security, partnership or investment decision.
What It Does In Practice
Mobey Forum defines a control point as a part of wallet operations, or a connected service, that gives an organization influence over how something works. The tool maps those points against the roles that can affect them and shows how one area connects to another.
Users can explore the map directly or start with a real problem. One guided example follows a security specialist at a European bank scoping a review of its wallet offering. Another looks at a bank planning for agentic commerce and asks what it would need from card schemes, payment service providers and token providers.
A bank can see where it has direct control and where another company matters. A fintech can see where a product fits without pretending it needs to own the whole wallet. An investor can look past the front end and ask whether a company controls something important or depends on someone else for access, distribution or execution.
Digital identity is also part of the current wallet conversation. Mobey Forum specifically points to the European Digital Identity Wallet as a reason firms need to think about identity verification and credential sharing alongside payments. The map gives those teams a way to see where the roles connect instead of treating each function separately.
The work also includes Canadian input. David Dymond of Royal Bank of Canada is part of the core team, while Neill Ashe and Hannah McIsaac of RBC are listed in the wider expert group. Interac contributors include Inna Gelmanova, Navjeet Grewal, Srdjan Manojlovic and Jeremy Wilmot.
Who Gets Value
Banks and credit unions can use the map before deciding what to build, what to buy and where a partner is unavoidable. Product teams can trace the firms involved in a proposed service. Security teams can see which important functions sit outside their own systems. Strategy teams can ask whether controlling a particular part of the wallet is worth the capital and effort.
Payment companies and wallet providers can use it to see where their role becomes important to someone else. That may be more valuable than owning the entire customer relationship. A firm that controls a hard-to-replace function can have a stronger position than one with a visible consumer brand but little control underneath it.
For fintech founders, there may be little value in rebuilding a capability that banks or large payment firms already control well. A smaller company may have a better opening where several participants need the same missing service or where existing options create too much friction.
Investors can use the map in much the same way. A company may be growing quickly but still rely on someone else for credentials, customer access, payment execution or distribution. That can affect margins, negotiating power and how defensible the business really is.
Agentic commerce makes this more immediate. Once software can use a payment credential or act for a customer, financial authorization and payment controls become part of the wallet question too. Who can approve the action, who executes it and who can stop it may sit with different firms.
Strengths And Limits
Teams don't have to study the entire wallet market before they can use the tool. They can begin with a security review, a product idea, an agentic commerce plan or an investment question and follow the control points related to each decision.
It also makes hidden reliance easier to spot. A firm may appear to own the wallet experience while another company controls a critical connection, credential or payment function. OSFI warns about rising cyber, technology and third-party risk across increasingly connected financial systems and AI adoption. Those outside dependencies can change the economics of a product, the risks involved and whether building internally makes sense.
Mobey Forum has been working on this idea for a long time. Its original mobile wallet control points work dates to 2012, when it focused on areas such as wallet connections, distribution, customer acquisition, data flow and movement of value. The 2026 tool carries the same basic question into a much wider wallet market.
There are clear limits. The map won't tell a bank which control point it should own, whether a partnership is a good deal or whether a product will make money. It also doesn't replace security testing, architecture work, legal review or commercial due diligence. Its job is earlier than that: show the players, the connections and the places where control may matter enough to investigate further.
In the Mastercard, Flybits and Rogers Bank AI purchase, the customer set the instructions and spending limit, Flybits supplied the shopping agent, Rogers Bank supplied the card relationship and Mastercard handled the payment. Control was split across the customer, AI agent, card issuer and payment network.
Key Resources
Digital Wallet Control Points Launch (22 control points and guided use cases)
Mobile Wallet Control Points (Mobey Forum's original 2012 control model)
AI Agents Gain Identity and Wallet Access (wallet access, identity and delegated permissions)
FCA Emerging Technology Horizon Scan 2026 (AI, programmable finance and financial crime)
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