Implementing Chile's national digital identity strategy

3. Chile’s national digital identity strategy and action plan

Chile’s national digital identity strategy aims to strengthen the security, accessibility, and interoperability of digital identity across public and private sectors. Building on the existing ClaveÚnica platform and the legal identity foundation provided by the Civil Registry, the strategy sets out a hybrid model in which the state retains core identity functions while enabling private sector participation to expand adoption, enhance services, and support trust. This chapter describes the strategy, its background, and the actions planned for 2026–2030. The chapter is based on interviews and information provided by Chilean government officials responsible for the strategy and a review of key policy documents.

3.1. Background

Chile has reached a reasonable level of maturity in digital identity, built on a strong legal identity system managed by the Civil Registry (SRCeI) and anchored in the universal Rol Único Nacional (RUN), the early digitalisation of tax services by the Internal Revenue Service (SII) since 1995, and the enactment of Law No. 19.799 in 2002, which established legal equivalence between electronic and physical documents while regulating electronic signatures. Its main digital identity asset is ClaveÚnica, developed and operated by the Digital Government Secretariat (SGD), which serves more than 15 million users and provides access to over 1,800 public services online. Chile has also advanced internationally by joining digital economy agreements that promote interoperability of digital identities and by adopting the OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Digital Identity, reinforcing its commitment to international standards (Ministerio de Hacienda; Secretaría de Gobierno Digital, 2025[45]; OECD, 2019[46]).

Despite these progresses, Chile continues to face a number of challenges including:

• A sharp rise in digital fraud, including phishing, identity theft, and online scams, which erodes trust in electronic transactions;

• A weak and fragmented regulatory framework that provides only partial coverage—mainly for advanced electronic signatures and limited uses of ClaveÚnica—without enabling a secure, standardised, and widely recognised digital identity across public and private sectors;

• A fragmented governance landscape, where multiple institutions manage separate aspects of digital identity without clear leadership, co-ordination, or a coherent model, limiting strategic decision-making, interoperability, and efficient use.

In 2025, the SGD and the Ministry of Finance launched the country’s first national digital identity strategy to address these challenges. The strategy aims to build on the strengths of Chile’s existing centralised system while introducing a more flexible, collaborative model. The strategy sets an ambitious vision: “By 2030, Chile will have a digital identity ecosystem at the service of its citizens, built on a solid public-private partnership, which will enable it to consolidate its position as a regional leader in the digital economy and become one of the new global leaders in digital identity”.

“By 2030, Chile will have a digital identity ecosystem at the service of its citizens, built on a solid public-private partnership, which will enable it to consolidate its position as a regional leader in the digital economy and become one of the new global leaders in digital identity.”

Vision statement, Chile’s Digital Identity Strategy (Ministerio de Hacienda; Secretaría de Gobierno Digital, 2025[45]).

The government will continue to provide the foundational identity infrastructure, including key credentials and the ClaveÚnica platform, ensuring reliability and legal recognition. At the same time, private sector partners will be invited to support the system by integrating additional institutions, acting as distribution channels, and providing technical expertise and trust services to enhance security, interoperability, and resilience. In practice, this creates a hybrid model in which the core identity remains state-issued, but service delivery, integration, and trust functions are increasingly federated, leveraging private-sector innovation to expand adoption and scalability across public and private sectors (Ministerio de Hacienda; Secretaría de Gobierno Digital, 2025[45]).

The strategy was co-created by a public-private roundtable in 2024, led by the Ministry of Finance and the SGD together with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, with inputs and advice from the OECD Secretariat. The roundtable included experts from the following organisations:

• Civil Registry and Identification Service (Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación, SRCeI)

• National Cybersecurity Co-ordination (Coordinación Nacional de Ciberseguridad)

• Secretariat of Modernisation (Secretaría de Modernización)

• Government Laboratory (Laboratorio de Gobierno)

• Microeconomic and Capital Markets Co-ordinations of the Ministry of Finance (Coordinaciones Microeconómica y de Mercado de Capitales del Ministerio de Hacienda)

• Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism (Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo)

• Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos)

• Senate advisors

• Asociación de Retail Financiero

• Universidad de Chile

• Chile Telcos

• Asociación de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras de Chile

• Undersecretariat of Telecommunications (Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones)

• Financial Market Commission (Comisión para el Mercado Financiero)

• Asociación Chilena de Empresas de Tecnología de Información

• Chiletec

• Fundación País Digital

• Derechos Digitales

• Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María

The strategy is structured into short- and medium-term implementation phases and organised around three pillars: 1) Governance; 2) Technological development, and; 3) Financing.

3.2. Governance pillar

Under the governance pillar, the strategy aims to address Chile’s fragmented regulatory and institutional landscape, which currently limits coverage, co-ordination, and interoperability, and prevents the establishment of a secure, standardised, and widely recognised digital identity across public and private sectors.

Box 5. Actions under the Governance pillar

Actions for 2026

• Establish a Digital Identity Executive Committee within the government to oversee and guide the implementation of the national digital identity strategy. The Committee will include the following stakeholders:

  • The SRCeI which is responsible for civil registration, as well as the issuance of physical identity documents and the Cedula Identidad Digital (digital version of the national ID card), and responsible for identity proofing for ClaveÚnica.

  • The SGD as the lead co-ordinator of policies for the digital transformation of the public sector and manager of the authentication solution ClaveÚnica;

  • The National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCI), established in January 2025, as the auditor of the security of Chile’s digital identity system

  • The Accreditation entity of the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism as the regulatory and inspecting body of electronic signatures.

Actions for 2027-2030

• Assign policy responsibility for digital identity to a single public authority, clearly established by law. This planned consolidation responds to the current fragmentation of responsibilities across multiple government entities. For example:

  • Trust services are currently under the SGD, SCRel, and the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism.

  • The operation of ClaveÚnica (excluding identity verification) and broader digital government transformation fall under the mandate of the SGD.

  • The issuance of the new digital ID card and identity verification services for ClaveÚnica are the responsibility of the SRCel.

Source: Ministerio de Hacienda; la Secretaría de Gobierno Digital (2025), Estrategia de Identidad Digital, https://cms-dgd-prod.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/pdf/ESTRATEGIA_DE_IDENTIDAD_DIGITAL.pdf?.

3.3. Technological development pillar

Under the technological development pillar, the strategy seeks to foster a public-private collaborative ecosystem, encouraging cross-sector use of digital identity while enhancing security. It also aims to address rising digital fraud, including phishing and identity theft, and to establish a secure, standardised, and widely recognised digital identity across public and private sectors.

Box 6. Actions under the Technological development pillar

Actions for 2026

• Develop a government-sponsored identity broker service, building on the existing ClaveÚnica infrastructure, already used by most of the population. The purpose is to shift from a single identity provider model (ClaveÚnica) to a federated broker that integrates multiple providers, starting with ClaveÚnica and the digital national identity card issued by the Civil Registry since December 2024

  • The broker should allow service providers and users to choose among identity providers offering different levels of security. For example, providers will be able to select less secure options (such as ClaveÚnica, which currently supports only single-factor authentication) or more secure ones (such as the digital identity card), depending on service requirements. Chile also intends to use the broker to strengthen the process for issuing advanced electronic signature certificates, which by law require reliable identity verification.

  • The identity broker will be available to government agencies acting as service providers in line with the Technical Authentication Standard under the State Digital Transformation Law. It may also be used by other public and private entities according to the criteria, scope, and phased implementation set by the Digital Identity Executive Committee.

Actions for 2027-2030

• Additional identity providers, managed by either public or private entities may be integrated into the identity broker, provided they comply with the requirements established by law. For other trust services, both public and private actors will be encouraged to develop and operate solutions, supported by standards that foster interoperability and create new business opportunities.

Source: Ministerio de Hacienda; la Secretaría de Gobierno Digital (2025), Estrategia de Identidad Digital, https://cms-dgd-prod.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/pdf/ESTRATEGIA_DE_IDENTIDAD_DIGITAL.pdf?.

3.4. Financing pillar

Under the financing pillar, the strategy aims to ensure the sustainability of the new system by balancing the costs and benefits of identity solutions from public and private providers, while covering the administrative resources needed to operate the identity broker service.

Box 7. Actions under the Financing pillar

Actions for 2026

• Chile proposes to finance its new digital identity system through a “distributed cost” model, in which private entities pay fees based on transaction volume and type of service, while costs for public sector use are covered by the Digital Government Secretariat’s budget. This approach builds on the existing ClaveÚnica model, optimises available resources, and ensures that digital identity services remain free and accessible for all citizens.

Actions for 2027-2030

• Evaluate whether public service providers should also adopt a distributed cost model, in which institutions contribute from their own budgets to the operation of authentication services, in proportion to the volume of transactions carried out by their users.

Source: Ministerio de Hacienda; la Secretaría de Gobierno Digital (2025), Estrategia de Identidad Digital, https://cms-dgd-prod.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/pdf/ESTRATEGIA_DE_IDENTIDAD_DIGITAL.pdf?.