The Republic of North Macedonia has introduced its National Digital Identity Service – with assistance from Mastercard (NYSE: MA) – in order to support the nation’s fast-evolving digital economy.
The partnership between Mastercard and the Macedonian Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) – first confirmed in early 2020 – aims to bring digital identity and related services, like digital document signing and verification, to Macedonian residents.
The infrastructure for the National Digital Identity Service is offered by ID Service – a Mastercard digital identity service managed by Evrotrust – offering a comprehensive digital identification service on mobile phones. This allows important documents to be signed digitally with the same legal standing as paper-based documents, highlighting yet another key step towards the digitalization of administration and related services in North Macedonia.
The first organization to reportedly use the ID Service managed by Evrotrust is NLB Bank Skopje.
Their first use-case is integration of the digital signature into their routine operational activities. The set of services will be expanded based on client requirements and as their habits, behavior and use of the service continues to evolve, with the goal of supporting the complete digitization of all the Bank’s products.
The digital identity service offered by NLB Bank Skopje will support the e-signing of legally binding agreements from clients’ smartphone devices, eliminating the requirement for actually visiting the branch or using tokens, cards or USB.
Antonio Argir, President of the Management Board, NLB Bank Skopje, stated:
“This is a great success for NLB Bank Skopje and the whole team that worked on the implementation of this solution, together with our partner Mastercard. With ID Service, we can identify a person remotely, share electronic documentation and have them return an electronically signed document. This superior user experience will provide customers with complete flexibility in performing banking services. We will continue to work on our digital transformation, to optimize and simplify our work with customers and personalize our services and products.”
Jeton Shaqiri, Minister of Information Society and Administration in North Macedonia, remarked:
“This year North Macedonia celebrates the introduction of ID Service for the digitalization of our society, which became critical during Covid-19. We respect the commitment of all parties involved to implement the vision of a digital economy that we and Mastercard share. This is just the first step we are taking in achieving our goal of fully implementing ID Service for the benefit of Macedonian citizens.”
Vanya Manova, Country Manager of Mastercard for North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Kosovo, added:
“We welcome North Macedonia among the first countries in Europe to commit to this digitalization at a top, national level. The entire financial sector can benefit from the introduction of ID Service and the subsequent digitalization of internal and external processes. With this infrastructure, businesses can benefit from remote onboarding for customers and merchants, safely and securely apply for credits and/or credit cards, verify identities and sign documents without visiting an office.”