Archive for the ‘Whitepapers & Articles’ Category
Silanis “Black Belt” Talks About E-Signature Security
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
If anyone has ever told you that an electronic signature is as simple as designing an “I Agree” button into a web page, think again. That may be true for a simple software license agreement (shrink-wrap/boilerplate contracts). But to bring complex, regulated, customer-facing transactions online without putting your organization at risk, you need to think about the entire business process.
Last month, Silanis hosted a public web seminar on security as it applies to electronic signatures and transactions. Michael Laurie, our legal, compliance and security “black belt”, briefly covered the basics like how to prove who signed, and how to make sure a signed document can’t be modified without detection. But the majority of his one-hour presentation took a deep dive into the rationale for transaction security and control. His main takeaway: keeping control over the process means that all the documents and the entire transaction needs to occur on the application server – no emailing documents out for signing, nor handing off critical steps in the process to other systems.
The benefit of this control means you are able to a) enforce business and compliance rules throughout the process; b) have real-time visibility into the transaction; and c) gather comprehensive evidence.
The punch line? E-signature security is about so much more than just the document or the signature. This philosophy has been at the heart of Silanis’s product strategy for years. The emergence of E-Signature Process Management as a product category reinforced the complexity of bringing business transactions online and the need for an e-signature solution to manage the people, documents, compliance/business/workflow rules, systems, notifications, distribution channels, exceptions and much more.
Categories: Webcasts, Whitepapers & Articles
Tags: Banking, Buckley Sandler, David Whittaker, e-Sign Enterprise, e-signatures, electronic banking, electronic loan processing, electronic signatures, Events, Financial Legal Counsel, Insurance, Legal Counsel, loan, loan operations, Margo Tank, Michael Laurie, Silanis, Straight-through Processing, Webcast, Wells Fargo
Legal experts emphasize the importance of process evidence in e-signature solutions at LOMA conference
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Creating trillions of dollars in revenues, life insurance is a massive industry. It’s also extremely complex, requiring compliance with a large number of stringent laws and constantly changing regulations that can vary from state to state, and certainly from country to country.
As the most selected e-signature vendor for the North American insurance market, Silanis is well versed in the various compliance issues that leading life and P&C insurers must consider when moving their transactions online.
Silanis has participated in many of the learning events hosted by the Life Office Management Association (LOMA), the professional association for thousands of life insurance and financial companies around the world, and found them to be extremely beneficial.
So just last week, we were equally impressed when we attended LOMA’s Regulatory Compliance Exchange for the first time. The professional development event took place from March 30 to April 1 in Baltimore Maryland and was attended by nearly 200 life insurance legal and compliance experts.
One particular session we attended, entitled: Life Insurance in an Electronic Age was of particular interest to insurance companies who are interesting in implementing e-signature solutions.
During the session, Patrick Hatfield, a leading e-commerce lawyer and partner with the legal firm Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell gave a great overview of the legal and compliance issues affecting insurance companies and how they can reduce the risks associated with e-signature transactions.
To support his presentation, Mr. Hatfield included case studies on two life insurance companies who are using electronic processing to manage electronic applications and forms. These companies have not only improved customer service, but have mitigated the risk of being taking to court should a dispute arise thanks to the process evidence that an e-signature process management system provides.
Mr. Hatfield confirmed that not only are e-signatures legal, they are holding up better in court than traditional wet ink processes. To that end, however, he emphasized the importance of the e-signature solution being able to capture detailed and incontestable process evidence.
Thankfully, clients who do take a thorough and attentive approach to capturing evidence throughout the e-signing process will be rewarded with a lower than average number of law suits and court cases.
It’s a point reiterated in the article, Taking E-Signatures to Court, which is based on a Silanis webcast delivered in February 2010 by Greg Casamento, another partner at Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell and lawyer Frank Zacherl, partner at Shutts & Bowen.
When referring to the importance of process evidence, Mr. Zacherl cites the experience of one of his clients, who after five years of employing an e-signature process management system only saw 15 lawsuits filed. According to Mr. Zacherl: “Twelve of these plaintiffs immediately dropped their cases due to the persuasive electronic evidence that was captured by the client’s electronic signature system.” The other three were nearly ready to follow suite at the time of the webcast.
In other words, according to Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Zacherl, for insurers who want to move their transactions online, the proof—and the peace of mind—is in the process.
Categories: Customer News, In the News, Industry Insights, Silanis Events, Webcasts, Whitepapers & Articles
Tags: Bissell & Liddell, e-signatures, Events, Frank Zacherl, Insurance, Life, Life Office Management Association, LLBL, Locke, LOMA, LOMA’s Regulatory Compliance Exchange, Lord, P&C, Patrick Hatfield, Shutts & Bowen, Silanis
