German eID Initiative

In November 2018, the Deutsche Bundesbank implemented a working group with the target to analyse and to provide possible applications of eID in payment transactions and cash management as well as an overview of the already existing applications in the German market.

The German Association of Corporate Treasurers (VDT) is a member of this working group, e.g. to support the development of a reliable solution. It is key to enforce electronical eID straight-through processes and to avoid that legal representatives of corporates have to legitimate personally in a bank branch. Elimination of any paper-based processes for legitimation and a fraud resistant authorization process must be a key focus in our daily process of electronic bank account management (eBAM).

Analysing the different applications, the association considers that the online identification function of the identity card (Online Ausweisfunktion des Personalausweises) meets the requirements mentioned above. However, there is an obstacle: up to now not even 50 % of the German citizens have activated the online identification function available.

The VDT sees a major task in making this initiative known to the Treasurer Community in Germany to enforce the implementation of eID processes.

In November 2019, the Deutsche Bundesbank published the final report of the working group containing recommendations to implement electronic identification processes: support of market dynamics, improvement of the conditions of the usage of the eID functionality, higher cooperation between economy and government in regards of legitimation processes.

The German version of this report can be downloaded here

We cordially invite all member associations of the EACT to contribute and share on the developments of this topic in their countries/regions in forthcoming EACT Newsletters.

The VDT

The KYC working group of the VDT started the new year with a face-to-face meeting in Frankfurt. 17 participants discussed the next steps to ensure that the best practice paper is up to date, i.e. the information already shared in a VDT newsletter on the storage and distribution of ID copied as well as the relevant aspects of the latest amendment to the Money Laundering Act will be incorporated. The updated version will be available in German and English.

After an intensive exchange with SWIFT in the KYC registry last year, this meeting gave exciting insights into ideas and solutions being implemented by e.g. Bertelsmann / Arvato Financial Service, Bellin and Bank Verlag on the subject of KYC, Digitization of the "signature card" and the ongoing eID initiative. This dialogue will be continued - also with other corporates and stakeholders.