Notarization is a process that has been relied on since antiquity to validate and authenticate the identities and veracity of commercial transactions.

Initially, transcontinental trade and commerce were limited, and business transactions were predominantly localized at a national level and were subject to the legal systems prevalent in that demographic.

This process of verification through licensed professionals primarily came to be known as the process of notarization.

Once the global trade routes were established, there was a need for international processes for the validation of commercial identities and cross-border transactions. Thus, the domestic notarial seals were relied upon at an international level.

Although the domestic laws were different, the notarial seal became the international standard for all forms of commercial third-party authentication services.

Today, the world has evolved further and technology has connected us to the point where international travel for commercial transactions has become less and less essential. Therefore, there has been innovation in this space as well.

The world has started to adopt Remote Online Notarization (RON) to leverage the recent leaps in technology in validating identities and remote collaboration.

Legitify is Europe’s first RON Solution, which allows corporations and entities to carry out all their notarization needs remotely. How does it do this?

It primarily involves four distinct steps:

A) Authentication of the Identity:

This involves the user having to sign up and carry out industry-grade KYC procedures. These are used by banks and financial institutions for all forms of digital transactions. This process involves email verification, FaceID, and biometric authentication, as well as voice verification. Due to the sensitivity of the transactions involved, unless the user is verified, he/she will not be able to use the solution.

B) Appointment and Details of the Transaction:

The verified user can then book an appointment with the notary of the relevant jurisdiction. At this point, the user can upload the document which needs to be notarized as well, as that would allow the notary to peruse it prior to the appointment so that the session can be more fruitful.

C) The Notarization Session:

This is an AI-powered live Audio Video Session where the user and the notary interact on camera and collectively analyze the document to be notarized. This stage simulates the in-person meeting. In addition, it puts an additional layer of AI-powered sentiment analysis for the Notary to ascertain the non-verbal cues during the conversation with greater accuracy.

D) The Notarial Seal:

Once the Notary is reasonably satisfied with the certainty of the identity of the individual (which the solution has already verified prior to the session) as well as the purpose of the notarization itself, the Notarial Seal is affixed on the document. In many EU countries, this is done electronically using Qualified Electronic Signature (QES).

The processes may vary slightly from country to country, but at a European level there is comity on standard processes for cross-border trade, and any notarizations done in Europe will always have these four basic blocks for the process to be valid and binding.

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