FPIL – Digital signature acceptance
09 April 2020
As many of our business partners are experiencing disruption to normal business caused by the current Coronavirus pandemic, we have updated our policy on digital signatures and ID verification.
- We now accept digital signatures for new business applications, provided they have been created through DocuSign or Adobe Sign.
- We will also accept verification of ID from a video call
How can I get started with digital signatures?
You will need to set up your own account with either DocuSign or Adobe Sign. You will then be able to load our forms into those systems before sending to your client for checking and signing.
DocuSign: https://www.docusign.com/videos/how-it-works
Adobe Sign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iV9KU40vwM
The benefits of using digital signatures
It saves you time and money – you’ll be able to send paperwork to clients via email, rather than having to travel to obtain a wet signature.
Processing times should reduce. Where instructions are provided electronically, they will be much clearer and easier to process.
Clients will be able to sign their documents on their PC or mobile device, making it more convenient for them to complete transactions.
It is more environmentally friendly and, in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, it means less business will have to be conducted face to face.
What does FPI require?
In order to accept electronically signed instructions we require the following to be submitted along with the instruction
For Docusign:
- Any instruction submitted to us must be accompanied by the certificate of completion.
For Adobe Sign:
- Any instruction submitted to us must be accompanied by the Final Audit Report.
- You must select the option to include the Transaction ID when producing the PDF for signature, this will stamp a box on the PDF with the transaction ID which allows us to tie back the document received to the final audit report.
After the new business stage, all instructions electronically signed by the client must match the email address we hold on file for them (we verify this using the certificate of completion/final audit report). If the email address differs, we will be unable to accept the instruction and will request a wet signature instruction to be submitted.
If the client would like to update their email address we cannot accept this using an electronic signature. A wet signature instruction must be submitted or the client can call through to our Contact Centre to update this as per our normal process.
KYC verification using video calls
In addition you are now able to verify client KYC documentation via video calls where faceto-face meetings are no longer possible. Where you use this method, we require a clear screenshot of the client’s ID, verification of address and a picture of the client holding their photo ID document (for example passport) against their face.
All three images should then be certified by a suitable certifier using the following wording:
“I certify that this is a true screenshot of a video call I undertook with “client” on “date”
Signed (signature of the certifier)
Name (printed name of the certifier)
Position or capacity (the position or capacity of the certifier)
Date (of the certification)