ACADEMY: E-SIGNING User Acceptance
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User Acceptance of SOFTPRO E-Signing Solutions

Signatures - one of the most popular Biometrics - Widely accepted and intuitive to use

Unlike other biometric technologies such as fingerprints, facial scan, or iris scan, a dynamic signature is more accessible and accepted because it is non-intrusive and does not convey a sense of criminality. For this reason, people are less hesitant to use dynamic signatures for completing business transactions than other biometric technologies since signing has already been an accepted form of authentication and authorization for hundreds of years.

Best Biometrics to proof an Intent

In addition to advantages such as the cultural acceptance of signatures, dynamic signatures also offer some of the best biometrics with respect to uniqueness and repeatability thus sealing your transactions in a secure manner and removing any question as to the identity of the signer.  

High Acceptance for Corporate Use

In 2010 The German IT organization BITKOM has executed a representative survey for usage of biometrics to evaluate the expectation about the acceptance of Biometrics for corporate use. Participants were primarily members of the worker‘s council and trade unions. Result: Signatures are expected to be one of the most popular Biometrics.

The results show the relevance of the position of signatures as a biometric characteristic: "How do you rate the acceptance of the following Biometrics for employees?" For the signature a high acceptance is expected of 42% of the participants in this survey - the largest positive acceptance, well before the fingerprint with 27%.

The participants also expected that the introduction of biometric signing will result in the lowest rate of opponents. 18% expected that potential users may refuse to use signatures for authentication while 32% expected that the use of fingerprint is likely to be refused and 77% expect this for  palm vein recognition.

When asked "Which of these methods would you prefer to use on your own?" Signatures (39%) rank second after fingerprints as preferred method (55%).

Project Experience on User Acceptance

There are various reasons why face-to-face banking in branches regained popularity:
  • The financial crisis in 2008/09 resulted in a renaissance of personal consulting in branches - in particular in Savings Banks and Credit Unions
  • Increasing fears about security and privacy of online banking result in increasing reluctance towards this form of doin business
Spain: Observations fom Project "Firma Digitalizada" of CECA - the Spanish Savings Bank's Organization
At the end of 2010...
  • more than 100 millions of electronic documents were signed digitally since the project went live in 2009
  • 15 million Spanish citizens possessed a DNI electrónico (eID card) but they rarely to never use the eID feature oft this card
  • 99% of the transactions signed digitally in Spanish Savings Bank were processes where handwritten signature were digitized
Source: "Taking Signatures seriously - Combining Biometric and Digital Signatures", Proceedings of Conference ISSE, 2010-10-06, p. 323 ff.

Germany: Comment after start of the pilot of implementing SignPads at the counter of Savings Banks

Steffen Knabe & Martin Grube, Finanz Informatik - Europe’s largest processing centre for financial institutions: "Piloting and usage in production at the Berliner Sparkasse have shown that the handwritten electronic signature is familiar to customers as a step into the world of electronic signatures – in contradiction to the qualified electronic signatures with smart card and PIN."

Source: "Die elektronische Unterschrift reduziert den Aufwand", SparkassenZeitung, 2007-11-02
Electronic signing with the handwritten signature is increasingly recognized as a small but important step in the process to automate the workflow, adding efficiencies to formerly paper-based processes. The implementation of Biometrics is no longer seen as an isolated “security only project”.

When looking for "Biometric Solutions" one will usually find them in the IT-Security sector or at shows like Biometrics in London where in 2010 the CIO of the Spanish Savings Banks Organization presented a case study about E-Signing. But more and more potential users realize that it important to have a holistic view on potential benefits.

Some components relevant for such a holistic perspective:

  • Doris Görke of the German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) summed up the experience of one year E-Signing in production at Berliner Sparkasse in an article on March 20, 2009 in their weekly newspaper Sparkassenzeitung: It was titled “E-Signing makes slim”. As a matter of fact electronic signing is the appropriate “slim fast diet” for a lot of workflows – literally a the workflow is slim and fast.
  • Although in many processes a signature is not mandatory in the context of the corresponding legal framework, Doris Görke of DSGV states that electronic signing with the handwritten signature is also beneficial from a marketing and sales perspective. The signing ceremony is an act of appraisal of the relationship between customer and bank. This act of appraisal is increasingly important since customers tend to visit the branches less often and their major interface to the bank is the bank’s website. As a consequence the ritual of the signing ceremony is re-discovered as an important act of appraisal for the relationship between customer and bank.
  • Devices used for signature capturing are also tools for communication purposes. A signature tablet does not only display the context related to the purpose of signing but also advertisements which are relevant at the point of check out such as customer service programs or the invitation to participate in competitions etc.

E-Signing with Smart Cards - No alternative for mass adoption so far

Some call it "The Smart Card Blues": Since the mid 90’s solutions for E-Signing based on smart cards are promoted in various ways. However the forecasted mass adoption of this technology has not taken place so far. Today application providers still lack a critical mass of citizens in a country which would be able to create a digital signature based on a smart card certificate.

For a long time Germany was aiming for the most stringent security standards which were almost blocking completely the adoption of e-signatures. Despite official announcements of a breakthrough for digital signatures the launch of the electronic identity card (“neuer Personalausweis”) in November 2010 was no breakthrough for them. So far the eID card is another option of a card which could carry digital certificates – like millions of Maestro Cards from the Savings Bank’s organization which offer this possibility too.  

  • In theory they could be used for digital signing with smart cards.
  • Practically it is difficult to find anyone using them.
  • Other EU countries like Belgium and Spain had similar experiences with a lack of adoption their electronic identity cards.

Some signals in 2011 indicate that qualified electronic signatures will remain a technology which is only used where it is required by law only offering a few business cases. In April 2011 the German Savings Bank organization stopped the preparation of Maestro Cards to host digital certificates for qualified electronic signatures for consumers in favour of promoting their own signature card focus to a small range of business customers only. In August 2011 no company provides certificates for the German eID card and only one certified card reader for a price around 150 Euro is on the market.

Interested users of digital signatures with smart cards need to take additional action and also need to invest: Initial and annual fees need to be paid for digital certificates and card readers must to be sourced.
  • The certificate has to be activated or downloaded.
  • Card readers offering enhanced security with own PIN pads are required to create qualified electronic signatures. These card readers also need a special certification by authorities. Little wonder that a critical mass of card reader infrastructure is still lacking and hence the amount of applications for E-Signing this way remains at low level.

The electronic transfer of income statements in Germany (project name ELENA) was once meant to fuel the adoption of digital certificates smart cards and card readers according to the e-Card strategy of the government back in 2005. It failed and was stopped by the Minister of Economic and Technology and the Minister of Labour on July 18, 2011. Their press release confirms the lack of the adoption of this form of E-Signing. Creating digital signatures with certificates stored on smart cards as "the way to sign for everyone in the 21st century" remains a vision. Of course there are some niches where this qualified electronic signatures are required by law such as

  • documentation of hazardous waste treatment
  • electronic communication between layers and the court
  • replacing paper-based Electronic Media Records with digital records (integrity seal for a scan)
    • The only major adoption of qualified electronic signatures with a broader relevance may be the health professional card. Its roll-out was initally planned for 2006 but was delayed due to a mass of issues in the project and conflicts among the project partners.

     

    The compulsary use of qualified electronic signatures for electronic invoices is due to fall in autumn 2011. The European Commission has urged Germany to allow alternative ways to provide authenticity and integrity for this purpose. The strict law on electronic invoices in Germany is blamed for being "overregulated" and being the cause why onky a mere of 5% of invoices are processed electronic in Germany.

    Meanwhile one method of E-Signing became mainstream and popular    

    Digitizing handwritten signatures on trustworthy capturing devices became a reality in banking, insurance, public administration, health care, energy, telecommunication and many more industries.

Gregg Kreizman (Gartner Group) is one of those experts monitoring the markets for E-Signing very closely for a long time: “Despite all these obstacles, we recommend companies to start embedding handwritten electronic signature solutions at point of sales or service today. This initiative has many business advantages including reduced cost, increased security, improved customer satisfaction and increasing revenue. The fact that customers are used to signing with their handwritten signature makes this solution an intuitive one and facilitates its integration process. Therefore business will highly benefit from starting this project today and not stipulate it on when and how many citizens have which type of smart-cards.”
Source: “Hype Cycle for Data and Application Security" Gartner Group, 2009