SwissSign becomes the first Swiss company to use online identity verification to confirm people’s identities for the qualified electronic signature

(Press release)
The Swiss legislature has permitted online identification verification since 15 March 2022 for signing with qualified electronic signatures. Under the previous requirements, signatories needed to have their identity verified in person (i.e. on site at a selected identification point) before being able to use a qualified electronic signature.
 

SwissSign is the first company in Switzerland to complete the online identification certification process successfully. The SwissID Sign signature solution can now be used to sign docu-ments digitally, without the need for in-person identification and therefore without any media discontinuity whatsoever. For users (especially business customers), this cuts costs consid-erably, as administrative efforts are reduced significantly. Both processes (online identity verification and digital signature) can be completed easily using the SwissID App. The only requirement is that the signatory has a personal SwissID account. 
 

Jürg Graf, CEO of SwissSign, commented: ‘We are delighted to be the first Swiss company to successfully obtain the certification. Online identification verification is a nationwide innova-tion that permits genuine end-to-end digitalisation of processes. What’s more, signatories can have their identities verified online around the clock. This new procedure greatly enhances efficiency, especially for business customers who rely on our integration solutions.’
 

PXL Vision technology for real-time identification
For the identification process, SwissSign relies on PXL Vision’s Swiss technology, based on an end-to-end approach without media discontinuity. The procedure relies on biometrics, a smartphone camera and near-field communication technology (NFC) to check that an official identity document is authentic. This ensures that the document is an original issued by the Swiss Confederation. Users then record a short video of themselves to confirm that a real person is carrying out the process and to demonstrate that they are the person shown in the passport. ‘We are very proud that we can meet the new legislation’s stringent security re-quirements with our technology and thus support SwissSign with its online identification pro-cess,’ explained Michael Born, CEO of PXL Vision AG.