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  3. What is the European Technical Standard Institute (ETSI)?
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Secure Signatures

What is the European
Technical Standard
Institute?

What is the European Technical Standard Institute (ETSI)?

The European Technical Standard Institute (ETSI) is a recognized global standard body which develops technical frameworks to ensure interoperability in a multi-vendor, multi-network, multi-service environment. The Technical Committee (TC) and Electronic Signatures and Infrastructure (ESI) committees under ETSI are responsible for developing standards for digital signatures, trust service providers and other trust services (e.g. remote signature creation and validation, registered email timestamping, etc.).

What is the United States’ E-Sign Act?

The E-Sign Act is the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act that was signed into federal law on June 30, 2000. The act allows the “use of electronic records to satisfy any statute, regulation, or rule of law requiring that such information be provided in writing, if the consumer has affirmatively consented to such use and has not withdrawn such consent.” To learn more about the E-Sign Act, go to FDIC.gov.

What is UETA?

The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) is a United States framework for states to enact state laws focusing on the enforceability of e-signatures and the validity of electronic records developed by the Uniform Law Commission and works with the U.S. E-Sign Act. It helped establish legal equivalence of electronic records and signatures with paper writings and manually-signed signatures enabling electronic commerce across different states. This law was enacted in all states except for Illinois (introduced in 2021) and New York; however, similar legislation relating to electronic transactions have been passed in both states.

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