5 min read
Selecting the right Trust Service Provider (TSP) vendor is vital for any organisation that issues or relies on Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES), seals, timestamps, or certificates. Under the EU’s eIDAS Regulation, TSPs enable the creation of legally valid and compliant digital transactions across Europe.
Selecting a QTSP platform is not just a compliance checkbox. It is a long-lived security decision. At Cryptomathic, we build qualified remote signing and sealing as audited, standards-based systems that survive audits, new onboarding patterns, identity sources and algorithm change.
This blog shows what good looks like and where our platform fits.
Compliance & Regulation
EIDAS alignment as a foundation for trust
A TSP vendor’s first and most critical obligation is compliance. Under eIDAS, trust services must guarantee the integrity, authenticity, and non-repudiation of every electronic signature and seal.
When assessing a vendor, verify that they comply with the ETSI standards for Qualified Signature and Seal Creation Devices (QSCDs) and trust service operations. Additionally, it is important to ask whether the vendor’s signing infrastructure uses certified Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) or Qualified Signature Creation Devices (QSCDs) to safeguard private signing keys. These certified cryptographic devices ensure that no unauthorised access can occur and that all operations remain auditable.
A strong TSP vendor also supports both Advanced and Qualified Electronic Signatures (AdES/QES), allowing flexibility as regulatory or business needs change. Compliance should not be an afterthought, it should be embedded at the architectural level.
Pedigree of the Vendor
Experienced that builds confidence
Trust services demand precision and maturity. A TSP vendor with a long track record in qualified signing and sealing understands not only cryptography but also the practical aspects of certification, onboarding, and supervision.
Look for vendors who have supported complex eIDAS-compliant deployments, handled audits, and demonstrated consistent uptime and legal reliability.
Experience isn’t just a reputation metric, it’s a safeguard. A vendor with deep roots in the trust services sector will already have processes for incident handling, certification renewals, and cross-border interoperability.
High Availability, redundancy, and disaster recovery
A resilient TSP solution guarantees operational continuity under all conditions. The vendor should demonstrate high availability and redundant infrastructure across data centres to prevent single points of failure.
Disaster recovery should be built into the architecture, not added as an afterthought. The solution should provide automatic failover, secure backups of cryptographic keys, and performance capacity to handle both typical and peak transaction loads.
Because electronic signing and sealing are often embedded in mission-critical business processes -such as contract execution, banking transactions, or e-government services - downtime can have direct legal and financial consequences.
Strategic Nature of the Product
A core product, not a sideline
Determine whether the TSP vendor’s signing and sealing platform is central to their business strategy. Vendors that treat trust services as a core offering continuously invest in compliance, usability, and scalability.
In contrast, vendors offering these capabilities as a secondary feature may not prioritise updates or certification renewals.
A strong partner keeps pace with regulatory and technological developments, ensuring readiness for eIDAS 2.0, EUDI Wallet interoperability, and upcoming post-quantum cryptographic standards.
Credibility
Proven, transparent, and auditable performance
Credibility is earned through evidence. Ask for references, case studies, and audit reports that show the vendor’s solution is used in eIDAS-qualified environments.
A credible TSP vendor provides transparent reporting, participates in standards organisations such as ETSI or ENISA, and demonstrates an ongoing commitment to industry best practice.
The most reliable partners don’t just claim compliance, they prove it through independent assessments and public trust-list recognition.
Future-Proofing
Preparing for eIDAS 2.0 and post-quantum cryptography
The European digital trust landscape is evolving rapidly. The eIDAS 2.0 Regulation introduces the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, expanding how trust services integrate with identity ecosystems.
A future-ready TSP vendor should already be developing solutions that enable interoperability with these frameworks, while maintaining support for current qualified signature and seal operations.
Additionally, forward-looking vendors are beginning to prepare for post-quantum cryptography, ensuring that long-term digital signatures remain secure against emerging quantum threats.
Selecting a vendor that actively invests in standards evolution means your organisation won’t need to rebuild its trust infrastructure when regulations or algorithms change.
Support
Expert guidance and responsive maintenance
Beyond the technical platform, an effective TSP vendor offers comprehensive professional services - including solution design, integration, regulatory preparation, and ongoing maintenance.
Look for vendors who provide structured service-level agreements, clear escalation paths, and, where required, 24/7 operational support. The support team should include specialists in both cryptography and eIDAS compliance, capable of assisting during audits or conformity assessments.
High-quality vendor support ensures your trust service continues operating smoothly and lawfully long after deployment.
Choosing a Future-Proof TSP Vendor
The ideal Trust Service Provider vendor unites regulatory compliance, cryptographic strength, operational resilience, and proven credibility within a flexible, scalable framework, delivering:
- eIDAS-compliant trust services with auditable governance.
- Redundant, high-availability infrastructure that minimises downtime.
- Proactive updates aligned with EUDI Wallets and quantum security.
- Expert support to ensure smooth certification, audits, and ongoing compliance.
Choosing the right vendor means building digital trust that lasts legally, technically, and operationally.
Why Cryptomathic Signer Is the Trusted eIDAS Remote Signing Core for QTSPs
Cryptomathic Signer is the eIDAS-certified remote signing technology used by leading European trust service providers, providing a Common Criteria evaluated remote QSCD, certified against EN 419 241-2, enabling qualified electronic signatures and seals at scale.
Signer integrates with certified HSMs and existing CAs so QTSPs can reuse their trust anchors, PKI policies and established audit practices. It exposes standards based APIs, including the CSC API, which simplifies integration with portals, business applications and EUDI wallets.
The platform enforces WYSIWYS controls so users sign exactly what they see, which is critical for legal assurance and non repudiation.
It supports both citizen and enterprise signing, from public sector portals and national ID schemes to banking and high value contracts.
Signer is widely used to modernise legacy smart card infrastructures into cloud based remote signing services operated by QTSPs.
For QTSPs, it shortens time to market for new qualified services and reduces the cost and complexity of building and certifying their own remote QSCD.
For wallet providers, Signer offers a proven back-end for EUDI aligned qualified signing on mobile devices via CSC compatible interfaces.
Overall, Signer provides the cryptographic core so QTSPs and wallet operators can focus on user experience, onboarding and differentiated services.
Key Takeaways
1. Compliance is non-negotiable
A trustworthy TSP vendor must be fully aligned with eIDAS, ETSI standards, and certified QSCD/HSM infrastructure to ensure legal validity, integrity, and non-repudiation of signatures and seals.
2. Proven experience reduces operational and audit risk
Vendors with a long track record in qualified signing, sealing, and PKI operations bring mature processes, reliable uptime, and smoother certification, onboarding, and audit handling.
3. Resilience and high availability are essential
A strong TSP solution must provide redundancy, disaster recovery, and automatic failover to keep mission-critical signing processes running without legal or financial disruption.
4. Trust services must be a core strategic product
Choose a vendor that prioritises trust services—continuously investing in security, standards, updates, eIDAS 2.0 readiness, EUDI Wallet interoperability, and post-quantum preparedness.
5. Cryptomathic Signer stands out as a proven, certified remote signing core
Cryptomathic Signer offers an EN 419 241-2 certified remote QSCD, integrates with existing PKI and HSMs, supports CSC APIs and WYSIWYS, and accelerates time-to-market for QTSPs and EUDI Wallet providers.
FAQs
1. What should organisations look for when choosing a TSP vendor for QES and seals?
Organisations should choose a TSP vendor that is fully eIDAS-compliant, certified to ETSI standards, uses QSCDs or HSMs for key protection, and offers proven support for both Advanced and Qualified Electronic Signatures.
2. Why is vendor experience important for trust services under eIDAS?
Vendor experience ensures mature audit processes, reliable uptime, secure onboarding, and cross-border interoperability—reducing the legal, operational, and security risks of qualified signing and sealing.
3. What makes a TSP platform resilient and highly available?
A resilient TSP platform includes redundant data centres, built-in disaster recovery, automatic failover, secure key backups, and scalable performance to handle peak signing loads without service interruption.
4. How can organisations future-proof their trust service infrastructure?
They can future-proof by choosing a TSP vendor investing in eIDAS 2.0 readiness, EUDI Wallet interoperability, standards evolution, and post-quantum cryptography to ensure long-term signature validity and regulatory compliance.
5. Why do QTSPs choose Cryptomathic Signer as their remote signing core?
QTSPs choose Cryptomathic Signer because it is an EN 419 241-2 certified remote QSCD that integrates with existing PKI and HSMs, supports CSC APIs and WYSIWYS controls, and enables scalable, compliant qualified signatures and seals.