Rethinking Authentication Modernization

The evolution of customer authentication has never been driven by technology alone. It has been shaped by changing customer expectations, new digital experiences, evolving regulations, and a more sophisticated threat landscape. 

Yet conversations about authentication modernization often focus on what organizations deploy. How many users have moved to multi-factor authentication? How quickly can organizations implement passkeys? When will passwords finally disappear? 

Those are important milestones, but they are no longer the defining questions. 

Most organizations are not replacing one authentication method with another. They are managing a growing mix of authentication methods, digital identities, trust models, regulations, and customer expectations at the same time. The question is no longer, What comes after passwords? It is, How do you evolve customer trust journeys without constantly rebuilding the underlying security foundation? 

Today’s launch of DigipassONE™ reflects this broader shift across the industry. OneSpan’s unified authentication platform brings together authentication, digital credentials, transaction security, mobile application protection, and analytics to help organizations adapt to change while continuing to leverage their existing authentication investments. 

The New Reality of Customer Authentication 

Customer authentication is becoming more diverse, not less. 

While passkeys continue to gain momentum, most organizations are not moving toward a single authentication method or trust model. Instead, they must support a mix of authentication methods, identities, credentials, policies, and customer journeys. 

According to the FIDO Alliance’s State of Passkeys 2026 Report, more than 5 billion passkeys are now in use globally, highlighting the shift toward more user-friendly and phishing-resistant authentication experiences. But adopting new technologies does not eliminate complexity. Organizations must continue serving customers across existing systems, devices, and channels while preparing for digital credentials, identity wallets, and other emerging trust models. 

As Guillaume Teixeron, Senior Analyst at KuppingerCole, explains: 

“Authentication modernization is not a rip-and-replace exercise. Financial institutions in particular will run hardware tokens, mobile authenticators, and passkeys side by side for years, and the real differentiator is no longer any single method, but the ability to manage that coexistence without abandoning existing investments.” 

The Challenge Is Delivering Trusted Experiences 

As customer authentication evolves, so do the experiences organizations are expected to deliver. Customers simply expect secure, seamless interactions. 

Behind those interactions, organizations must support account onboarding, everyday login, account recovery, and high-value transactions across multiple authentication methods, digital identities, channels, and trust relationships. 

Evolving regulations, including the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) and PSD3, are introducing new identity models that must coexist with existing investments rather than replace them. 

At the same time, attackers are exploiting the gaps between systems, channels, and workflows rather than targeting individual authentication technologies alone. 

For identity, security, and fraud leaders, the challenge is to manage this complexity while protecting customer trust and avoiding unnecessary friction. 

Building for What’s Next 

True modernization is not defined by deploying the newest authentication technology. It is defined by building a strategy that can continuously adapt to customer expectations, emerging trust models, regulatory developments, and evolving threats. 

Organizations need a way to introduce new capabilities without disrupting existing customer experiences or adding another layer of operational complexity. That requires a connected approach that supports customer trust across the entire journey while allowing each organization to evolve at its own pace. 

DigipassONE puts that approach into practice. It gives organizations a progressive path to modernization, enabling them to build on what already works while preparing for the authentication and identity models ahead. 

The Future of Authentication 

The organizations that lead the next era of customer authentication will not necessarily be the first to adopt every new technology. They will be the ones with strategies designed to evolve continuously without compromising customer trust or experience. 

Is your authentication strategy built to evolve with your customers, or simply built to accumulate technologies? 

See how DigipassONE helps organizations modernize customer authentication without starting over.