Cryptomathic Blog

Globalization has continued its seemingly inexorable march over the last decades. Movement of capital, labor, ideas, goods and services across borders has made the world smaller. International and multilateral organisations create the rules that define and guide interactions between peoples and nations. Parallelly, we are seeing another revolution - the digitizing of our economy at a breath-taking pace.

The need for social distancing and the fact that most office workers are now exclusively working from home, has led to profound changes in the business world. While the move to digital was already underway in many countries, the recent crisis has provided a new impetus. Many countries already had the underlying regulations and framework for digital identification and signing in place, and they are finding it easier to make the shift. Those that did not, are scrambling to catch up. 

Financial institutions and solution providers are busy implementing the requirements of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) under the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS).

A fundamental objective of the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) has been to reduce the risk of fraud to the maximum extent possible and ensuring security for electronic payment transactions.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how remote electronic signing can help banks with faster onboarding, reduction in operational and legal risks and enhancing operational efficiencies in relation to corporate banking clients. The direct savings from that alone can run into the millions and if we account for the opportunity costs of not having remote electronic signing solutions, that cost can be much higher.

User experience is always front and centre when it comes to attracting retail consumers. But what about corporate and institutional banking? Surely large corporations with dedicated finance departments have things other than just user experience on their minds. Are remote signing solutions worth it for them?

If SMEs are the backbone of an economy, professional service providers are the ones who grease the cogs of that machinery. Notaries, accountants, insurance agents, consultants etc. provide value added services that are indispensable to the operations of a business in the 21st century. We touched upon how eIDAS can be leveraged for professional service providers in a previous article here.

In Part 1 of our article, we briefly summarised the challenges faced in the uptake of eIDAS services for SMEs. A recent study conducted for the European Commission found that awareness and lack of resources were the main barriers. Efforts to highlight the benefits of eIDAS services through real-life case studies was also found to be lacking. In order to address these barriers to adoption, certain recommendations were made which are summarised below.

SMEs continue to be a key focus area for the European agencies to fuel growth and enhance economic freedom for its citizens. Various policy tools and initiatives have been designed with an aim to level the playing field and make it easier for SMEs to compete with the big conglomerates using their limited resources. These tools may be termed as force multipliers and they are made possible through a combination of policy decisions and technological advancements.