This document is the main document on SPS-Signature. In accord with the Worldline managers, this document can be diffused at the external.

Context

The introduction of SEPA results in new responsibilities for creditors. The creditors are now required to store signed mandates in order to limit possible fraud and dispute between debtors.

The e-mandate, according to the EPC (European Payments Council), is the target standard for providing a global and digitalized mandate-issuing process. The objective of this e-mandate is to pre-authorize the payment by the debtor.

Goal

In order to speed up SEPA mandate adoption for creditors, and prevent them from managing new collection and storing processes, Worldline decided to offer, within the SPS (SEPA Payment Suite) panel of services, a new online signature service for SEPA mandates.

The SPS Signature Platform allows a creditor to provide its customers an electronic mandate and make them signature/validate online.

The electronic mandate produced is materialized by an ADOBE PDF mandate file where signature and certificates are embedded.

Creditor organization prospects

Creditor organizations will be able to give their customers (debtors) another way to make electronic transactions. In order to make another step toward a fully digitalized process, these organizations will have another selling argument. They will be able to maximize the possibilities given by the SPS solution and centralize the management of SEPA objects.

WL Signature/Validation solution

The electronic signature/validation service requires no hardware deployment, and is based on:

• An accurate identification process of customers by creditors

• Strong authentication schemes like Card Payment, One Time Password (OTP)
  by SMS, One Time Password (OTP) by Email and signature on a Wacom tablet.

Worldline offers a solution to manage mandates electronic signatures/validations.

The SPS Signature platform will guarantee that the customers have given their approval for the mandate by going through an agreement scheme defined by the creditor. Once the mandate has been signed, the customers will receive a digital mandate with the best legal compare to the state of art.

Worldline offers several agreement processes to perform the digital signature. Each creditor has the liberty to choose the agreement(s) scheme(s) that best fits their needs. The choice of this solution depends on the balance between the insured risks, the customer type (prospect or known), the guarantee of payment and customer usability processes.
According with the knowledge of the connected debtor (identification), the creditor can also choose to perform an electronic signature or an electronic validation. Indeed, the electronic signature has more constraints than electronic
validation.

The signed/validated document and the several evidences will be stored in secure storage unit in order to keep their electronic validity.

The signature service can be used in several cases:

• Mandate signing/validation: The user signs/validates a mandate in order
  to authorize the creditor to debit his bank account. Example: state taxes.

• Single payment: The user has to pay a product or service to the creditor
  only one time. Example: e-shopping order.

• Payment schedule: The user has subscribed to a service, authorizing
  transactions to be planned according to a schedule. Example: monthly
  subscription to a television network. Scheduled transactions can be directly
  created in SPS, if the creditor requests it.

Differences between electronic signature and electronic validation:

Electronic signature (OTU)
The electronic signature allows the Certification Authority (CA) to generate a personal certificate (OTU certificate) for the debtor with his name in the common name of the certificate. The signature applied on the PDF mandate has the same legal values as the manual signature on paper. A personal certificate implies to know without ambiguity the debtor who will sign a mandate. On internet process, this knowledge is only possible for known customers, and not for prospects.

Moreover, the CA ETSI certification requires the creditor to describe the process of identification of the debtor in a formal document validate by Worldline.

Electronic validation (ORG)
The electronic validation allows to sign a PDF mandate but with a not personal certificate. For performing this PDF signature, an organization certificate is used (ORG). As a personal certificate is not generate by the CA, the debtor has not to be strictly identified and prospect can sign a PDF mandate by this way. However, the signature on the PDF is not considered as a legal signature even is traces are kept and archived. It’s just a beginning of proof.

Object of this document

This document is the general specifications of SPS-Signature.

Add to this main document, WL has:

• Technical specifications (for internal use)
• Web Service integration guide (for creditor use)
• User Guide (for creditor use)
• Newcomer Guide (for creditor use)

Glossary and definitions

Creditor: The creditor is the business that will provide a product or service requiring a payment to the user.

Debtor: The debtor is one of the creditor’s customers who want to pay for a product or a service. According to the company’s business, the debtor can also be named: Customer, Client, Subscriber or Member.

SPS Signature Service: The platform developed by Worldline to allow electronic signature or electronic validation of mandates.

SPS Creditor Service: The platform developed by Worldline to manage SEPA mandates and creditors’ transactions.

SIPS: The platform developed by Worldline for electronic payments including credit cards payments. (<http://www.sips-atos com>).

Direct Debit: It’s a payment instrument to debit a payer’s account whereby a payment transaction is initiated by the payee on the basis of the authorization given by the payer.

Dematerialization: The removal of physical certificates or documents indicating ownership of financial assets, so that the financial assets exist only as accounting records.

OTU: A “One-Time-Usage” element is an element which can only be used once and cannot be reproduced.

OTP: One-time unique Password used in the SPS Signature Platform. The principle is that the customer enters this code into the SPS signature to prove his identity and to authenticate transactions, and if the OTP code entered is correct, the customer will be granted access. This code provides an extra layer of online security beyond a simple username and password authentication.