By the time a legally valid signature is required for the conclusion of a contract, at the latest, business processes end with paper. Through a technology partnership, fidentity and Cryptomathic aim to remove this last hurdle and make legally valid digital signatures accessible to all.

Signature solutions available today are either easy to use but not legally binding. Or they are legally binding but not very user-friendly. That is why fidentity and Cryptomathic have combined their know-how to solve this challenge and promote the spread of qualified electronic signatures (QES).

High requirements inhibit the spread of QES
QES is the only signature standard that is equivalent to a handwritten signature in terms of security and provability in Switzerland and the EU. Nevertheless, QES has not yet become widely accepted and is often only available to closed user groups. his is due, among other things, to the legally prescribed identification that is required for a QES. Previously, signers first had to identify themselves at a registration office or their identity was verified in a live video call.

Legally valid signing thanks to automated identification
In the collaboration between the two software providers, fidentity provides the missing piece of the puzzle to make legally valid digital signatures accessible to all. “As experts in online identity verification, we provide our certified technology for an end-to-end signature process to make legal signing accessible to all,” said Thorsten Hau, CEO of fidentity. The fully automated identity verification process will be seamlessly integrated and will not require technical integration or involve third-party vendors. A smartphone, a valid identification document and a smile – that’s all it takes for a legally binding signature, Hau said.

Certified technologies for highest trust
The partnership brings together Cryptomathic’s pioneering and secure eSignature solution, Signer, with fidentity’s certified online identification, IDENT. “The combination of certified identity verification and best-of-breed encryption technology will be key to the breakthrough of digital signatures and critical to the future of digital transformation,” said Guillaume Forget, EVP e-Signature and Mobile Security at Cryptomathic. Signer is one of the few certified qualified remote signature creation facilities approved for both EU and Swiss legislation. fidentity offers a fully automated and seamless online identity verification service that meets all current requirements of the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and eIDAS and is certified by kpmg.

About Cryptomathic

Cryptomathic is a global provider of secure server solutions for businesses in a variety of industries, including banking, government, technology manufacturers, cloud and mobile. With more than 35 years of experience, Cryptomathic provides systems for authentication and signing, mobile app security, EMV, and key and cryptocurrency management through best-in-class security solutions and services.

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Media contact

Thorsten Hau; CEO & Founder
thorsten@fidentity.ch
079 461 99 36

The essential ingredient for successful business relations

Cinnamon is as essential to cinnamon stars as trust is to successful business relationships. At fidentity, we want to make it easier to trust each other. That’s why we’re launching the perfect ingredient for signing contracts at the highest level of trust in the coming year. Find out why our qualified electronic signature is “as simple as a smile” in this newsletter.

Qualified signing – “as simple as a smile”

The qualified digital signature (QES) is the counterpart to the handwritten signature. Only the strictly regulated QES has the same legal consequences as a handwritten signature. With other digital signatures from signature providers – such as docusign – it’s like a contract concluded with a handshake: it comes into effect, but it becomes much more difficult to prove.

But who has an overview of which signature standard is necessary for which document? No one wants to make a risk assessment for every contract as to whether a QES is necessary or whether a simple signature would suffice. How easy would it be to have a digital signature that would always meet the “gold” standard? The signer would not have to worry about the legal evidential value? That’s why fidentity is launching QES next year, making digital signing “as simple as a smile”. We combine our fully automated identity verification with the digital signature, so that it will be possible

• at any time
• without prior legal knowledge
• without interruption

with the highest evidential value. Why worry when signing is “as simple as a smile”?

Award-winning fidentity app

An app award for fidentity? What seems contradictory at first glance makes us particularly proud. fidentity’s identification solution is web-based and works without an app. Basically. Because the NFC functionality of smartphones can only be accessed with native apps. That’s why we were looking for a technological solution to integrate the reading of the NFC chip into the existing web flow in a lean way. The reward for the effort: the almost “invisible” fidentity app won an award in the “Business Impact”  at the Best of Swiss App award ceremony. The plus for our customers: They can trust that they have an identification solution “on board” that lowers their onboarding costs and improves conversion rates.

Our promise: simplest UX

We know from our regularly conducted usability tests: Good user guidance in digital onboarding is central. After all, not everyone has grown up with the Internet and smartphones. In addition, know-how about new technologies – such as NFC – is only slowly becoming established. That’s why we’ve been working intensively on the user interface with design sensors, experts in UX, over the past few weeks. In addition, students from the Interaction Design program at the Basel School of Design took a critical look at our Liveness module and developed new, creative approaches for improved user guidance. The result: an intuitive online identification solution that is optimized for non-digital users.

Would you like to learn more about the new user interface? Book a demo call now.

Online identification with fidentity – now even easier, safer and faster

Our vision: to enable trust in the digital world. Our way to achieve this: Making online verification simple, secure and flexible. That’s why we’ve expanded our identification solution in recent months. Our Liveness module is now even faster and more intuitive for your customers to use. We have also developed an NFC module. Interested? Learn more in our newsletter.

Liveness module in usability testing

Real-time face recognition, an improved progress bar for the user, a short tutorial video and immediate user feedback during the selfie process – these are just a few of the new features we have integrated into our liveness module. In a usability test, we wanted to know how the new features were received by users. And we are proud of the results: The testers gave our module a rating of 4.5 out of a total of 5 ⭐. What they liked best:

• the ease of use
• the intuitive user guidance
• the design.

Convince yourself. Try our Liveness module for identity verification now.

Thanks to NFC: digital onboarding even more secure and faster

Many identity documents, including the Swiss passport, have an integrated NFC chip. This is as secure as the chip on a credit card and is considered counterfeit-proof by FINMA. fidentity enables this chip to be read and checked.

NFC technology is not new. But did you know that

• most smartphones today have an NFC reader?
• the bank transfer previously required to identify customers during onboarding is no longer necessary if verification is carried out by reading the data from the NFC chip?
• fidentity now makes it possible to read and verify this chip?

Seamless integration of web an app

To date, only “native apps” can access the NFC reader function of smartphones. Since fidentity’s identity verification is web-based, we were looking for a technical solution that supports identification with NFC while integrating as seamlessly as possible into the web flow. Thanks to the new App-Clip technology (Instant App on Android), identification with NFC is possible without the user having to make a detour through the app stores.

See for yourself the seamless integration of the NFC module.

KPMG confirms: fidentity is proven to be FINMA-compliant

As part of a voluntary audit in accordance with the ISAE 3000 standard, KPMG confirmed that fidentity’s identification solution meets the requirements of FINMA Circular 2016/07 on “Video and Online Identification”. We also have extensive experience in other compliance issues and can meet your requirements according to the Data Protection Act, regarding outsourcing and risk management.

We are happy to help you create a user-friendly onboarding for your new customers.

Is there 100 percent security?

It recently became public: security researchers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) successfully hacked video-based online identification and thus gained access to a test person’s personal data. The CCC is therefore calling for this technology not to be used where there is a high potential for damage.

Behind the CCC’s attack is years of preparation. Moreover, the identity of a complete stranger was not stolen, but the identity of identical twins.

We at fidentity find the hack exciting and are convinced that it will contribute to an improvement of the procedures. Because all optical processes are vulnerable with more or less effort, fidentity continuously invests in our software and uses “friendly” hackers to uncover possible security gaps. Today, only identification with an NFC chip is considered 100 percent secure, as this is not “hackable” with today’s technology.

• Swiss fintech company fidentity specializes in fully automated identity verification of real individuals.
• As part of a voluntary audit, KPMG has confirmed that its online identification solution is proven to be FINMA-compliant.

“We are pleased about the audit report, which confirms that our identification solution is FINMA-compliant,” says Thorsten Hau, CEO at fidentity. “Our customers can rely on the assessment of a recognized audit firm, which simplifies compliance with the FINMA Circular Video and Online Identification. This reduces costs for them in the digitization process.”

FINMA Circular 2016/07 “Video and Online Identification” regulates which technical measures and standards must be met when a new customer wants to open an account via digital channels. For example, during the identification process, the image quality of the scanned identity document must be checked, and the data entered by the user must be compared with the machine-readable zone (MRZ). In further checks, the selfie and the photo from the identity document are compared and a so-called “liveness check” is used to check whether the person is real.

As part of the audit, which was conducted in accordance with the ISAE 3000 standard, KPMG tested requirements from eight different categories. In addition to technical criteria, the IT architecture and internal company processes were also scrutinized. “As fidentity provides services for regulated financial service providers, it is crucial that our systems work reliably and that control mechanisms are in place to identify any exceptions in good time and prevent failures,” explains Thorsten Hau, adding, “For us, it goes without saying that we have pen tests carried out on a regular basis to protect our system from unwanted cyberattacks.” Thanks to the hosting partner’s ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications, fidentity also complies with quality management and information security requirements.

Less than 90 seconds – identity verification with fidentity

Media contact

Thorsten Hau; CEO & Founder
thorsten@fidentity.ch
079 461 99 36

Management Summary

• Since June 1, 2021, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) permits the reading of the chip of biometric identity documents as an additional security measure for online identification.
• This eliminates the bank transfer that was previously necessary for the customer to identify themselves.
• With a custom-developed NFC software module, fidentity now also supports the contactless reading of biometric data for identity verification.
• This makes digital onboarding even simpler, faster and more secure – for you and your customers.

What is NFC technology?

Near Field Communication (NFC) is not new. The technology has been around since the early 2000s. It is a bidirectional wireless data transfer between two electronic devices. For the data to be exchanged, the two devices must be no more than 10 centimeters apart. That’s why NFC is considered to be particularly secure, since the small distance makes it almost impossible for the data to be intercepted.

NFC in everyday use

Most users are not aware of that: NFC technology is already widely present in everyday life. It is used, for example, in contactless payment with smartphones or credit cards. In addition, NFC technology is also implemented where access and entry control is involved – for example, in hotels, public buildings or at the workplace. Whereas in the beginning a special device was needed to read the data, today almost every smartphone has an NFC reader.

NFC in online identification

Additionally, NFC is also being used for identity verification. Many ID cards, such as the Swiss passport, contain a NFC-chip that stores key personal data, and also biometric data such as a photo and fingerprints. Such e-travel documents are protected by various security mechanisms. For example, with an NFC reader non-governmental users cannot access biometric data, but can only read the data that is also visible on the document.

NFC facilitates digital onboarding

For NFC technology to be used in digital onboarding, it requires not only a smartphone equipped with an NFC reader and an identity document with an NFC chip. It also needs the appropriate legal basis. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has created this legal basis last year with the update of Circular 2016/07. As of June 1, 2021, the reading of the chip of biometric identification documents is now permitted as a security measure for online identification. At the same time, the previously required bank transfer by the customer is no longer necessary if identification is carried out using an NFC chip.

The legal adjustments were decisive for fidentity to be allowed to integrate the NFC reading functionality into the verification process. This gives customers to identify themselves during onboarding using an electronic passport or other identity document equipped with NFC technology.

*Update to FINMA Circular 2016/07 of May 6, 2021

Digital onboarding with NFC is for you and your customers…

… even simpler: If the data for identity verification is read using an NFC chip, the bank transfer previously required from the customer during digital onboarding is no longer necessary.

… even faster: The data is read out contactless. This makes the verification process even faster. This makes the verification process even faster.

… even more secure: Data stored on the NFC chip is practically impossible to forge. In addition, the reading of the data is guaranteed to be error-free.

The NFC software module is currently in test mode.

For a successful test:

• select the «ID verification» and «NFC reader» module,
• have a CH passport ready for identification.

Are you testing our NFC module with an iPhone? Please use the “Safari” browser in normal mode (not “private mode”).

Would you like to know more about our NFC module? Please contact us.