UBS' TRANSFORMATION USING QUALIFIED ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES (QES)

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WHO IS UBS?

UBS is one of the world's largest wealth management and banking institutions. UBS is transforming its services through digitization by offering clients remote electronic signatures that provide the same legal value as a handwritten signature, while adding convenience and efficiency.

As part of a comprehensive selection process for an e-signing solution that matched their business, legal and technical requirements, UBS carefully chose Cryptomathic Signer as being the most technologically advanced and secure digital signature solution on the market.

By partnering with leading security hardware and service providers, including SwissSign and nCipher, Cryptomathic delivered a turn-key solution allowing UBS to offer Qualified Electronic Signatures.

PROBLEM

With millions of clients, UBS generates, manages and maintains a vast amount of physical documentation, requiring client to print, sign and return important financial documents manually.

SOLUTION

Cryptomathic Signer, a secure Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) solution, enables clients to sign legally binding documents remotely, integrating What You See Is What You Sign (WYSIWYS) technology and HSM-protected signing keys.

RESULTS

The remote digital signing solution, Cryptomathic Signer, enables UBS to move more of its services online, pioneering a superior digital user experience while enhancing security and control of document management. As an added benefit, the financial and environmental costs of managing millions of paper documents are drastically reduced.

THE CUSTOMER VIEW

"Thanks to the Cryptomathic Signer solution, our clients can sign their contracts digitally in e-banking - while meeting all legal and compliance requirements."

Andreas Kubli, Head Multichannel Management & Digitization, UBS Switzerland.

THE IMPORTANCE QUALIFIED ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES (QES)

Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) are crucial for financial institutions to streamline digital transactions while maintaining legal compliance and security. QES ensures that electronic signatures carry the same weight as handwritten ones, enabling seamless remote document signing without compromising integrity.

Due to UBS' international operations and clientele, the electronic signature service has to comply international regulations that carry the strongest legal value in court, in case of litigation. QES is the only current standard of e-signatures that can offer such a strong level of probative value at an international level.

WHY CRYPTOMATHIC?

UBS partnered with Cryptomathic to implement Cryptomathic Signer, a secure and scalable Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) solution. Using Cryptomathic Signer, UBS customers now have the freedom to digitally sign legally binding documents at any time on any device, from anywhere in the world. Cryptomathic Signer also incorporates unique What You See Is What You Sign (WYSIWYS) technology to provide non-repudiation and give users confidence and trust in the transactions they are committing to.

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UBS REQUIREMENTS

It was imperative that UBS’ existing portfolio of online services and systems could leverage the QES solution to deliver greater value to their customers. As such, the key requirements for the electronic signature service include:

Seamless Signing Workflow For End-Users

The signature operation must be simple and straightforward for users, without disrupting the familiar user-flow. To ensure a strong service uptake, UBS required the solution to support a variety of channels and devices without changing the user experience.

Legal Value

In Switzerland and in the EU, only a QES provides the principle of legal equivalence between handwritten signatures and electronic signatures.

Sustainability

The reuse of existing authentication technology for user authentication and transaction signing was an important requirement to ensure the viability of the solution for cost and environmental considerations. In addition, the solution would have to serve new efficiency and sustainability requirements.

Performance and Scalability

The service is expected to support millions of customers. Being able to maintain a high level of availability with short latency was an important requirement.

User Confidence and Non-Repudiation

In order to meet internal UBS compliance policies and user expectations, the solution had to encourage the same level of confidence and security regardless of whether a document was signed at the branch or online.

RESULTS

Through its partnership with Cryptomathic, UBS realized several strategic outcomes:

ENHANCED EFFICIENCY

UBS enabled clients to sign documents remotely and securely, eliminating manual paperwork and reducing processing times, whilst offering a unified signing experience for multiple channels.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

By implementing Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) compliant with eIDAS and ZertES, UBS ensured legally binding, tamper-proof transactions with strong non-repudiation.

SCALABILITY & COST SAVINGS

UBS can continue to support millions of customers with minimal latency, reducing operational costs, and minimizing environmental impact by eliminating paper documents.

CONCLUSION

UBS’ decision to offer a credible alternative to hand-written signatures, which have been entrenched in peoples’ behaviour for centuries, requires the engagement of a skilled partner; which beyond possessing skills in IT security and complex project management also needs to pay attention to legal and regulatory aspects as well as user experience. The ability to provide all services online in real time, from any device, anywhere in the world is a great competitive advantage for UBS – resulting in superior customer experience, control and cost savings. Cryptomathic, with its Signer solution and a highly competent and devoted team, successfully delivered this unique combination.