Overview
Financial institutions can grant regulated agents delegated access to customer policies using Verifiable Credentials, with clear proof of authority and licensing.
Why it matters
Delegation is heavily regulated and hard to manage at scale. Credentials allow institutions to confirm who is authorised, under what scope, and for how long — without manual checks.
Ecosystem roles
- Issuer: The financial institution and relevant regulator (licence or authority claims).
- Holder: The agent or adviser.
- Verifier: The institution’s service channels that grant access.
Assurance and lifecycle
Delegation credentials should expire or be revoked when authority changes, reducing risk and compliance burden.
| Objective | Grant access to an agent to a member policy. |
| Description | Issue verifiable credentials to allow a financial agent access to a policy offered by a financial institution. |
| Actors | Policy holder; Financial agent |
| Dependencies | |
| Preconditions | The policy holder wishes to grant an external financial agent access to a policy they hold. |
| Postconditions | The financial agent holds permission to access a policy on behalf of the policy holder. |
flowchart LR
PH@{icon: "fa:user", label: "Policy holder", pos: "b"} -->|Delegates authority| AG@{icon: "fa:user-tie", label: "Financial agent", pos: "b"}
REG@{icon: "fa:scale-balanced", label: "Regulator", pos: "b"} -->|Issues licence VC| AG
FI@{icon: "fa:building-columns", label: "Financial institution", pos: "b"} -->|Issues delegation VC| AG
AG -->|Stores VCs| WAL@{icon: "fa:wallet", label: "Wallet", pos: "b"}
sequenceDiagram
participant PolicyHolder as Policy holder
participant FinancialInstitution as Financial institution
participant Regulator
participant Agent as Financial agent
participant Wallet
PolicyHolder->>FinancialInstitution: Request to delegate authority
FinancialInstitution-->>Wallet: Issue delegation VC
Regulator-->>Wallet: Issue licence VC
Agent->>Wallet: Stores credentials
Wallet-->>Agent: Credentials ready
| Objective | Financial agent accesses a member policy to act on behalf of the policy holder. |
| Description | Financial agent accesses a member policy on behalf of the policy holder, using a delegated authority previously given to the agent. |
| Actors | Financial agent |
| Dependencies | Financial agent has already been granted access by the Policy Holder |
| Preconditions | The financial agent requests access to the details of a policy on behalf of the policy holder. |
| Postconditions | The financial agent is granted access to the policy. |
flowchart LR
AG@{icon: "fa:user-tie", label: "Financial agent", pos: "b"} -->|Presents credentials| VER@{icon: "fa:id-badge", label: "Service channel / verifier", pos: "b"}
VER -->|Verify issuer, scope, status| TR@{icon: "fa:book", label: "Trust registry / status", pos: "b"}
VER -->|Access granted| SYS@{icon: "fa:file-contract", label: "Policy system", pos: "b"}
sequenceDiagram
participant Agent as Financial agent
participant Wallet
participant Verifier as Service channel
participant TrustRegistry as Trust registry/status
participant PolicySystem as Policy system
Agent->>Wallet: Approve presentation
Wallet->>Verifier: Present delegation + licence VCs
Verifier->>TrustRegistry: Check issuer, scope, status
TrustRegistry-->>Verifier: Valid
Verifier->>PolicySystem: Grant access
PolicySystem-->>Agent: Policy details
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A practical, standards-aligned view of Verifiable Credentials for organisations building trusted ecosystems.