Swisscom info and facts
Bank documents such as credit agreements could previously not be signed online. With the Digital Identification & Signing service from Swisscom, this is now also possible. The credit card service provider, Swisscard, started using the solution yesterday, 19 December 2017.
Those who applied for a credit card or mortgage online in the past, could complete most of the process online, but not all of it. The last step, signing the contract, still had to be completed with a signature. This meant that customers had to wait for the contract to be delivered by post or, download it themselves, sign it and then return it to the bank. Neither simple nor independent of location or time. The qualified electronic signature (QES), in combination with the video identification procedure, resolves this problem. Swisscom has been offering this solution since November 2017.
But the first customer to use this procedure, Swisscard, issuer of more than one million credit cards, only started using the solution yesterday, 19 December, 2017. After a short video call for the purpose of identification, credit card applications can be submitted digitally, and completely without paper or physical signatures using an online application procedure. For Dr. Daniela Massaro, Head of Acquisition at Swisscard, one thing is clear: "It should be possible to open a credit card relationship easily, quickly and directly nowadays." The users sign the the documents using a Swiss certificate issued by Swisscom. These digital statements of intent can be completed using a smartphone, tablet or computer with a web cam and an active telephone number. The signature is provided with the Mobile ID or by entering a transaction number (TAN) via the smartphone, which is sent via SMS.
Prerequisite for the award of the QES is the prior identification of natural persons. Swisscom is therefore offering QES in combination with its video identification procedures, which is already being used by more than 10 banks. Identification is carried out via video call and only takes around 5 minutes. As there are no media breaks in the process, the downstream work activities can be started immediately. This reduces the burden on processing departments and increases data quality. Furthermore, the downstream digitisation of documents and manual entry or rectification of data can be dispensed with.
Swisscom supports various signature use cases with its digital identification and signature service and the all-in signing service according to ZertES, the Swiss law governing the use of certificates with electronic signatures, OEIDI which governs the use of electronic invoices, and AccO which deals with electronic archiving, which means the solution covers different sectors and various areas of application.