The National Bank of Georgia has offered yet another innovation to the banking sector. Starting on February 10, 2014 a new service – electronic signature - has been activated in the banking sector. Procredit Bank, which joined the project from the very beginning, contributed significantly to the project development and was the first one to introduce this innovation, through the  active cooperation with NBG.  Using this system Procredit Bank gives a unique opportunity to its clients to sign certain banking operations electronically and not on the paper.

Introducing e-signature is important in ensuring comfort and simplicity in banking operations. E-signature of banking documents will help to decrease the amount of papers in daily use, which in turn will have a positive impact on the environment.

A newly renovated Agmashenebeli Ave. branch joined the project from the first stage. Here the Governor of NBG, Giorgi Kadagidze used electronic signature to sign the banking operation for the first time. “Introduction of innovations and infrastructural reforms in the banking sector represent an irreversible and permanent process. It is fair to say, that today Georgian financial institutions offer their clients state-of-art products and services. Today’s project is a great example – similar services are offered in Germany, Italy, Spain and US banking sectors. The whole essence of this system is simplicity, speed and security of the procedure. This project is beginning of the end for revenue receipts, daily papers, huge paper archives etc. I’m glad, that Procredit Bank is a pioneer in implementing this project, and I also hope and I am sure that the whole banking sector will quickly pick up this project. I would like to thank the staff of State Services Development Agency, the staff of the National Forensics Bureau, without their support this project wouldn’t have been possible. This project means for less time spent by the consumers in implementing operations, it means more security, higher speed, and at the same time more efficiency, higher productivity, lower costs for the commercial banks, which eventually will be necessarily reflected in the competitiveness of the commercial bank, interest rates and all the benefits which we speak about. I want once again to congratulate Procredit Bank on its pioneer status, and I hope that today’s project is just the beginning and first the banking sector and later the whole business community will promptly join this innovation” – said the governor of the NBG, Giorgi Kadagidze, on the presentation.

Later this innovation will be gradually implemented in other Procredit bank branches.

Electronic signature is an alternative to the signature on the paper. The model agreed with the NBG grants an e-signature the same legal force as the signature on the tangible document and it gives rise to the identical rights and duties between the bank and the client. By using the e-signature offered by Procredit bank it is possible to identify the signature and determine its validity.

Similar to signing the tangible document, the e-signature is done only on the territory of the bank, directly by the client, on the special device – the sign pad. Using the unique code a client can download the original document from the portal http://edocs.procreditbank.ge on Procredit bank website free of charge during 30 days after signing and save the document to the desired location.

To provide a reliable and secure environment, NBG cooperates with the State Services Development Agency and Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau. At the same time the safety of the procedure is guaranteed, as the integrity and immutability of the document is protected. Any changes to the document and/or its contents after e-signing, violate the validity of e-signature and renders it invalid. Also, e-signature can only be used for those documents, which are directly confirmed by the signatory. The existing  system of e-signature, used by the bank provides safety of signatory’s personal data and excludes their use in any other documents.

The high quality protection against the forgery is particularly important. The opportunity of e-signature expertise is also provided.

Taking into consideration all the advantages of e-signature, the customers of Procredit Bank will get modern, secured and flexible banking services.

NBG as the sector regulator, when working this project was guided by the directives of Euro Parliament and European Council and by the recommendations of the Europe initiative on e-signature standardization.

Electronic Signature is an important step forwards both for short-run and long-run development of Georgian Banking sector.

“E-signature system is an innovation for Georgian banking sector, which we have implemented through active cooperation with NBG. We are glad, that customers of Procredit bank will be the first to use this service. Its ecological character makes for the importance of the project. As you know, huge amount of paper is used for signing the documents during the day, directly affecting the wood-cutting. Often signed receipts become useless after receiving services. By implementing e-signature paper use will decrease significantly and thus we will contribute to the protection of the environment. The customers won’t need to save signed receipts, since by e-signing they can get the electronic original document any time”- said the general director of Procredit Bank, Sasha Terens.

Information about e-signature project can be found on the website of NBG: http://www.nbg.gov.ge/index.php?m=623