TOPPAN Group and South Korea’s RaonSecure are to conduct a joint proof of concept for the cross-border use of digital verifiable credentials. The trial will involve students from Soka University in Japan and Chung-Ang University in South Korea. It will test the exchange and verification of academic credentials between the two countries. The credentials are expected to include documents such as enrolment certificates and academic transcripts.

2024-2025 saw some major mergers and acquisitions activity within the ID and secure document industry, with IDEMIA Group negotiating with IN Groupe for the acquisition of IDEMIA Smart Identity (September 2024), TOPPAN Holdings (via TOPPAN Gravity) agreeing to acquire HID’s Citizen Identity Solutions division from Assa Abloy (October 2024), and Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) signing to acquire a 75% stake in Rubicon SEZC (Laxton group holding company) in June 2025.

German polymer manufacturer, Covestro, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China’s EMPTECH to co-develop high-security identity document solutions. The partnership targets passports, national ID cards and driving licences. According to the companies, the purpose of the partnership is to improve the fit between substrate behaviour, security-feature integration and personalisation process control.

Thales has been selected by Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to deliver new state identification cards and driving licences, alongside a wider set of enrolment and issuance capabilities. The programme will upgrade both document security and operational workflow across DMV locations.

De La Rue has entered into a strategic joint venture with Canadian Bank Note (CBN) to bid for the next generation of British passports, with the aim of returning booklet manufacture to the UK after roughly a decade of production in Poland under Thales DIS (formerly Gemalto). Personalisation of British passports is already carried out in the UK.

At High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Authentix announced the commercial launch of PICO secure™, described as the world’s first nano-optic, plasmonic optical variable device (OVD) engineered specifically for identity documents. Building on Authentix’s established nano-optic platform, PICO secure delivers always-on structural colour and pronounced movement effects aimed at Level 1 public authentication.

Regula has released the 7320, a portable document reader that brings many functions of a fixed border-control workstation into a handheld unit.

Hueck Folien has successfully commissioned a new high-vacuum vapour deposition facility at its headquarters in Baumgartenberg, Austria. The €8.6 million investment, announced in September 2024, includes both a new metallisation system and associated infrastructure upgrades, and marks a major advance in the company’s production of high-performance coatings for the security sector.

Covestro, the German materials science company spun out from Bayer in 2015, is celebrating a decade of innovation and growth with a focus on sustainable solutions for secure documents. Over the past ten years, the company has established itself as a key supplier of high-performance polymer films used in passports, ID cards, and driving licences.

A major new initiative, APTITUDE, has launched under the European Commission’s Large-Scale Pilot (LSP) programme to accelerate the rollout of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet). Coordinated by the French government, APTITUDE brings together 118 partners from 11 EU Member States and Ukraine, with a total of €20 million in EU funding ..