Electronic Signature Implementation at ING
ING Real Estate Finance established a world first when it introduced the technology to enable corporate real estate agents to submit property valuation reports in the XBRL format, complete with a legally binding Qualified Electronic Signature (QES). This project involved numerous parties within the bank such as Information Risk Management, Operational Risk Management, Legal and Compliance. With help from Fyndoo, ING REF was able to launch these legally recognized electronic signatures in line with the European Commission's Electronic Identification And Trust Services (eIDAS) directive. Paul Staal, ING's Global Lead SBR/XBRL, explains how this project with Fyndoo put qualified electronic signatures firmly on the map at ING REF.
What was your reason to work with Fyndoo?
"Fyndoo is a well-trusted party in the Netherlands. Topicus (Fyndoo's parent company) has proved itself since 2010, when it launched the banking hub infrastructure for the Dutch Banking Cooperative (ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank, at that time). This enabled secure, standardized, and automated credit reports to be sent digitally in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is the open international standard for digital business reporting."
"Fyndoo is a well-trusted party in the Netherlands. Topicus has proved itself since 2010."
Customer Journey Expert at ING
What are "Qualified" electronic signatures?
"There are three levels of electronic signature: Simple, Advanced and Qualified. Qualified describes a signature with a high level of security, compliant with the EU's eIDAS regulation for electronic transactions within the internal European market. Qualified electronic signatures are legally considered the digital equivalent of handwritten (or "wet") signatures. I personally think QES are more secure than wet signatures."
What is the key advantage of the qualified electronic signatures?
"There is a high amount of business value in these signatures. Borrowers, lenders, renters and other parties in real estate transactions all share the key benefits: speed, high levels of security, efficiency and validity across the entire European Union."
What made Fyndoo stand out for you on this project?
"Fyndoo is a strategic business partner. They understand SBR. They also have people with a deep understanding of XBRL, and are skilled at building with it, which is scarce. We therefore have built a good relationship over the years. They also understand teamwork. And this project demanded complex teamwork."
What did you achieve with the solution?
"We were able to implement the Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) with the highest standards and norms, based on an official ID and a live interview (with the signer, red.). We implemented them to facilitate corporate real estate appraisers to deliver their reports digitally and signed. This provides a high level of assurance for parties in transactions up to government level across the whole European Union. Considering that these days there are fewer physical meetings for parties to sign documents, this means that QES ensures high efficiency, and legally binding signatures. This is an important step in my view in the secure digitization process. ING Real Estate Finance aims eventually to implements QES for all client documents through Adobe Sign."
"Fyndoo is a strategic business partner. They understand SBR. They also have people with a deep understanding of XBRL, and are skilled at building with it, which is scarce."
Customer Journey Expert at ING
What are the advantages of qualified electronic signature for ING REF and your clients?
"It's faster and safer than any other signature. You can sign anytime, anywhere, as long as you have a smartphone which has the required app. A group of multiple signatories for a large transaction, for example, can be approached at the same time to sign. There is no need to physically meet. It's efficient. It's instant. And it's European, so clients can use it abroad as well. Signatures are recognized by the Belgian and French governments, for example. So if you want to use it to identify and sell something or sign something, you can use it all across Europe. Ultimately what I like about QES is that citizens and companies will eventually be able to use it everywhere to securely sign any official document."
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ING team was able to implement the Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) with the highest standards and norms, based on an official ID and a live interview (with the signer, red.).
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