KIR, Poland’s national payments processor, has teamed up with global e-signature specialist, Cryptomathic to enable Polish citizens use remote electronic signature services.

Thus, Polish citizens can now sign documents digitally using mSzafir, a remote qualified e-signature service with the highest levels of security under European law, according to the official press release. The timely availability of remote qualified e-signature services (QES) comes as the country enters lockdown and imposes stringent social distancing measures which may otherwise have prevented legal documents from being signed.

The KIR initiative, developed in partnership with Cryptomathic, enables both individuals and companies in Poland to provide non-repudiable, legally binding digital consent in both financial and public services, elevating remote e-signatures to the same legal standing as when paper-based documents are signed manually.

The new trust service utilises digital certificates issued by KIR’s experienced certification centre. For over twenty years, the company’s certificates have been used to authenticate transactions within the interbank clearing system and to ensure the security of messages exchanged between banks, the press release continues. KIR is a qualified trust service provider and has been issuing qualified certificates and time stamps since 2003. 

The new e-signature services are administered using Cryptomathic’s e-signature solution, Signer. KIR’s remote QES services are available to the Polish population starting with press time, via a wide range of portals, mobile solutions and legacy client applications.