Cooperation between Bank of asset managers and inSign

With V-BANK, inSign has gained another well-known customer. The electronic signature solution now makes it possible for natural entities to open (securities) accounts digitally from start to finish. Click here for the V-BANK press release (only available in German). We interviewed V-BANK’s CEO – Mr Stefan Lettmeier – and asked him about his experience during the first few weeks with inSign.

What convinced you to integrate inSign into your workflows?

When I first saw inSign, I quickly realised that it could be the final building block in our (securities) account opening process. Essentially, we had already digitised this process, but had not yet found a proper solution to do the whole thing in completely paperless form. Until now, a physical signature on paper was still required. Another point that won me over was that signing was also possible when removed from a given location, i.e. asset managers and clients no longer have to sit together in one place, but can carry out the process of signing separately in terms of time and space.

There are, of course, alternative options. However, we have found that the process involving a call being placed to a call centre is not really accepted by the customer. With inSign, the signature can be made on an iPad or a mobile phone. I am confident that this will enjoy much greater acceptance because now everyone has a smartphone or a tablet.

In which other business processes – besides digital account opening – do you use inSign?

We can imagine doing this for all customer orders in which a signature is required. For example, we receive a customer e-mail containing the information that he is now married, has a different name and has changed his address. As we cannot accept this via e-mail, this could mean that we contact the customer and ask them to make up the signature via inSign. Bottom line: we still see a lot of potential with inSign and are only at the beginning of this development phase.

Do you also use inSign for internal processes?

During the Coronavirus peak, we had sent 80% of our staff home. We have various processes in which a signature is required internally in accordance with authorisation regulations e.g. in the case of a credit approval. Certain authorisation holders who were at home had to sign on the decision papers. We took this as an opportunity to use your company’s product for these purposes as well, and within a very short space of time.

How are employees and customers reacting to the electronic signature?

There are those who are enthusiastic and say “Finally, I can do this electronically”, which is perhaps already commonplace in other industries. However, change always means for a certain proportion of our customers and employees that they first have to get used to it. There is at least some scepticism at first. However, we have already gathered some solid experience by now. After four to six weeks, inSign is a common process internally and almost as natural as providing a physical signature used to be. For customers, we introduced the electronic signature solution just a fortnight ago. There are bound to be bumps at the beginning. Nevertheless, I am convinced that such a medium will prevail in any case.

What else are you planning in terms of digitalisation in the near future?

Quite a lot, such as the complete replacement of fax. This may be strange for you now, but there is still an incredible amount of fax traffic in the banking processes. In addition, we are seeing that our business partners are preparing themselves accordingly and no longer use our website at all, but rather third-party systems. That means Open Banking or APIs. The Provision of standardised API interfaces will be a very central topic for us.

Founded 2008
Germany’s first bank to focus on (securities) account management as well as securities settlement for independent asset managers and selected clients
With approximately EUR 19.8 billion under management for 385 business partners at the end of the first quarter of 2020.

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