Poland’s KIR issues e-signatures with Cryptomathic
KIR, Poland’s national payments processor, has struck a partnership with Cryptomathic, a Danish authentication software provider, to enable Polish citizens to sign documents digitally.
KIR has authenticated transactions through certificates for decades
The new remote qualified e-signature service (QES) is called ‘mSzafir’, and its co-author Cryptomathic says it has “the highest levels of security under European law”.
Poland is one of many countries which went into lockdown to try and curb the growing coronavirus pandemic. This makes the introduction of a digital signature service timely, intended to push along those legal processes otherwise on hold due to social distancing measures.
The country has legally recognised e-signatures since 2001 under the Electronic Signature Act, which was later standardised across the EU by the introduction of eIDAS in July 2016.
KIR, a key component of Poland’s payment infrastructure, will be issuing eiDAS-compliant digital certificates from its centre, which has authenticated transactions through certificates for decades.
The new e-signature service uses Cryptomathic’s e-signature solution, Signer, which facilitates the centralised digital remote signing experience for legally binding contracts.
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Cryptomathic says the service will have “a big impact on Poland’s social and economic agility”
“Given the current conditions, we need to be taking every opportunity to create a secure, cashless and paperless world, one that appropriately supports our citizens during prolonged periods of social distancing,” says KIR’s digital signature business line director Elzbieta Włodarczyk.
“KIR’s partnership with Cryptomathic represents a significant milestone in the digitalisation of Poland’s economy and the modernisation of its national payment infrastructure,” Włodarczyk adds.
Cryptomathic’s MD Guillaume Forget believes the new service will have “a big impact on Poland’s social and economic agility”.
“The shift to remote digital signatures also accelerates Poland towards a truly paperless environment, with all the environmental benefits that delivers,” Forget adds.
KIR’s remote QES service is already available to all Polish citizens.
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