Banks jump-start e-commerce plans
Will electronic commerce ever take hold in Poland? It might happen sooner than you think. A group of Polish banks has taken the initiative and given e-commerce a jump-start by setting up its own e-signature verification agency. The move comes ahead of a debate in Parliament to consider legislation on the use of electronic signatures in online transactions later this year.
The project, called Centrast, emerged from the collective brainstorming efforts of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), the Polish Banking Association and a handful of Polish banks. The establishing bodies signed a document on Sept. 6 to create a certification center, which will confirm electronic signatures and build public confidence in electronic transactions.
"The reason to create Centrast now was to speed up the same process" of verifying electronic signatures that Parliament will consider, said Pawel Lysakowski, secretary of the Electronic Banking Council of the Polish Banking Association. He added that Centrast could operate independently of legislation since the company would use a digital network for electronic-signature authorization based on signed agreements between the banks and their clients.
Shareholders contributed zl. 21 million ($4.88 million) for Centrast's initial financing based on a five-year business plan, Lysakowski said. The NBP is the major shareholder with a 7.1% stake, he said. Other major shareholders include the Warsaw Stock Exchange (5%), the Katowice branch of Bank Slaski (5%) Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski (4.05%) and BRE Bank (4%).
Centrast will issue certificates for electronic signatures to the operations divisions of banks and other institutions to verify the identities of clients who want to conduct electronic transactions. Centrast's supervisory board will meet for the first time on Sept. 25 to select members of a management board, the first step to getting the company off the ground.
According to Lech Szukszta, the president of Centrast's supervisory board and the director of the NBP's information technology and telecommunications department, the banks came up with the idea for Centrast in May. He said Centrast would run a pilot system within six months and be fully operational within a year. As for the technological infrastructure, Szukszta and Lysakowski said Centrast has been holding talks with different infrastructure providers, but both declined to name specific firms. In October, Centrast's board members will formally register Centrast in court as a legal entity and select an information technology firm, they said.
"It's necessary to have some secure payment system, and it is the responsibility of the National Bank of Poland to establish a system," Szukszta said. As a third-party verification agency, Centrast will guarantee keys, or identity codes of clients, to confirm their electronic signatures and ensure safe transactions, he said. "It's a system that's more for banks than for customers, but customers too can ask that they be placed in the system," he said.
One local banking analyst hailed the idea, saying it would help promote e-commerce in Poland. "The best idea to increase the safety of an (internet) transaction is to have a company provide a public key," said Andrzej Powierza, a banking analyst at Wood and Co., referring to the authorization code that is held by the bank. "What is important is the need for such an (agency) in helping to determine e-commerce because it will build the public's trust in such institutions."
