Remote identification: lawful options and their conditions

Electronic identification under Section 8a

An eligible method uses a high-assurance means within a qualified system or a banking identification means meeting statutory requirements. It identifies an individual customer or the individual acting for a customer. BankID alone does not verify representation authority or an entire corporate ownership chain.

For a company, separately verify existence, identification data and the person’s authority. Under the banking method, retain availability of the information on who performed the relevant banking-law identification for the Section 8a(2) period. A login screenshot is not the complete identification-service record.

Copies and the first payment under Section 11(7)

The basic individual-customer method includes relevant ID-document parts and at least one supporting document. For a company or trust establish existence and details; a representative provides their copies and authority. Record and verify the information and have no doubts about actual identity.

A text-recorded agreement is required, together with credible evidence of an account in the customer’s name at a credit institution and the customer’s first contractual payment from that account. For foreign institutions, the account must not be maintained in a high-risk third country. This is the current statutory condition; do not mechanically copy older EU/EEA-only guidance.

Where the payment system allows, include the identification purpose, obliged entity’s designation and the name of the individual initiating payment. Only an unrepresented individual customer may omit the supporting document when justified by risk assessment and when that information accompanies payment. This does not generally remove the ID-copy requirement.

Other routes have different requirements

Section 11(8) permits a qualified electronic signature but also requires matching information with the qualified provider or the specified sealed public document, and no identity doubts. A signed PDF without this verification is incomplete.

Section 10 mediated identification uses a public instrument from a notary or public-administration contact point. Sections 11(1)–(4) reliance have their own eligible-provider, information and responsibility conditions. A customer’s assertion that their bank verified them is insufficient.

Risk restrictions and specific exceptions

For Sections 11(1), (2), (7) and (8), paragraph 9 also matters: the method cannot be used where doubts arise about whether the customer, product or transaction presents increased risk. Do not automatically extend this restriction to Section 8a. Identification and subsequent enhanced due diligence are separate questions.

Section 12 contains specific rules for specified payment services and consumer credit; it does not generally let accounting practices omit verification payments. Under Section 12(1), documents must be held by the obliged entity before the transaction. An incomplete method remains incomplete even after the fee is paid.