Pre-notification to deliver Qualified Preservation Services for qualified electronic signatures and qualified electronic seals

The MCA has received pre-notification from a newly established technology company that plans to start offering qualified Preservation Services for qualified electronic signatures and qualified electronic seals to the local and European market.

The MCA views this pre-notification as an exciting development in the European market of Trust Services. This market which was initiated in 2016 with the launch of the Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (colloquially known as “the eIDAS regulation”). Since the launch of eIDAS, the MCA has been designated as the authorised Supervisory Body for eIDAS in Malta.

Preservation services under eIDAS aim at guaranteeing the trustworthiness of qualified electronic signatures or qualified electronic seals over time. Differently from electronic archiving, which is not an eIDAS trust service, preservation services target electronic signatures and seals rather than documents.

The MCA believes that such novel trust services are crucial for business organisations in their digital transformation journeys. Whilst digital signatures and seals provide the required trust in digital documents, preservation services ensure this trust persists over time. Virtually all industries and particularly banking, healthcare, construction and others that need to store information over time find that such services are crucial to their business processes.

In the coming weeks, the MCA will be performing a detailed review as per the eIDAS regulation, following which the company will then be listed as a qualified trust services provider on the Malta Trusted List and may commence operation accordingly.