Europabank processed 90% of e-signatures with itsme^®’s QES in 2024

Europabank, a Belgian niche bank, has partnered with itsme^® to enhance and streamline its operations through secure and efficient qualified electronic signatures (QES).  

This collaboration, which started in 2019, was driven by Europabank's commitment to offering its customers a fully digital, fast and secure experience. The partnership also enabled the bank to minimize the operational costs, bureaucracy and human error associated with manual operations. 

Europabank specializes in offering loans to individuals and small businesses. Much of their processes involved paperwork that required clients to sign documents at their branches during business hours. 

This, however, challenged Europabank’s ambitions to digitize their customer journey, and limited their ability to make their services more efficient. Offline processes added an extra layer of bureaucracy for clients and employees. Signed physical documents had to be archived, which required mailing them to the head office, scanning  them, and manually auditing them. These steps not only incurred additional costs, but also increased the risk of human error. 

Europabank recognized the significant potential in digitizing its operations, but faced a challenge on the way to this: Many of its clients, often using the bank as their second or third choice, were unlikely to want to download an app just to verify their identity or sign a document once. This created a barrier, as efforts to encourage app downloads could face resistance, ultimately adding more friction to the customer journey rather than easing it through digitization. 

To achieve digitization while addressing challenges particular to their customer journey, Europabank partnered with itsme^® to digitize their processes smoothly and securely.  

Europabank chose qualified electronic signature (QES) from itsme^® as their preferred signature method, which holds the same legal value as a wet signature. This enabled the bank to enhance their customer journey, digitize their operations, and reduce chances of human error. 

“We chose itsme^® because it's the most legally inclusive solution,” explained Bart Tuytschaever, Business Process Analyst at Europabank. "The vast majority of people in Belgium already have the app, which adds value by allowing us to onboard clients without the need for them to download yet another banking app.” 

Through itsme^®, Europabank can automate the entire signing process, saving valuable time for clients and employees, and eliminating any physical requirements associated with paper documents. The signed contracts are also immediately archived, reducing costs, saving time, and minimizing the margin of error.

Relying on itsme^® has also enhanced Europabank’s security and supported their efforts to combat fraud. This is because itsme helps ensure that only the intended recipients can access the links that Europabank sends. As a result, the bank can be 100% confident that the right person has signed.

Click here to learn more about our collaboration with Europabnk (Testimonial video)

One-third of documents at Europabank are now signed digitally, with 90% of those signatures in 2024 processed through itsme^®. The bank is witnessing rapid progress in digital signing, and the number of digital signatures expected grow by at least 40% in 2025. 

Partnering with itsme^® allowed Europabank to digitize its operations and improve customer service by enabling clients to sign contracts anytime and anywhere. Using QES for document signing streamlined internal operations by digitizing tasks like auditing and archiving documents. This significantly reduced the bank's handling costs and human error, and enhanced their data management and the security of their processes.