Luxembourg-based certification authority EuroSignCard and Digital Signature Trust, a Zions Bank subsidiary, are to test the international acceptance of digital signatures issued in the US and European Union.
The alliance effort aims to create a network that will allow recognition of digital certificates issued by certificate authorities in both nations to allow legal transactions, contracts, applications and documents over the Internet. The partners say they will work together to develop a policy infrastructure in which digital certificates can work seamlessly whether the certificate is issued in the United States or the European Union.
"By testing a policy framework between DST's TrustID digital certificate programme and policies arising in the European Union, both entities move international trading, based upon common recognition of digital certificates, closer to reality," says Arthur Brady, senior vice president of sales and marketing at DST.
E.J. Lorang, managing director of EuroSignCard says: "We see this as key to enabling e-commerce between the two continents."
The joint initiative aims to take advantage of recent legislation in both countries which gives digitally signed transactions the same legal underpinning as paper-based contracts.