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Case Study

Aruba Enterprise for Salt Edge

QWAC and QSEAL certificates for identification when communicating with bank channels under PSD2.
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The company

Salt Edge Inc. is an industry-leading financial technology company with offices in Toronto, London, Bucharest, and Chisinau. The company was founded in 2013 with the aim to create stable and secure interoperability channels between financial providers and end-consumers, bringing benefits to all the involved parties. The company currently works in Europe, Asia and Pacific, as well as Americas, providing its services to institutions like banks, fintechs, lenders, ERPs, accounting companies.

Through its API platform, Salt Edge enables businesses to connect to bank PSD2 channels for account information and payment initiation. ISO 27001 certified and AISP licensed under PSD2, the company employs the highest international security measures and standards.

Requirements

PSD2 imposed strict security measures such as acquiring eIDAS certificates for identification when communicating with bank channels. This led Salt Edge to search for a QTSP – a Qualified Trust Service Provider - that would provide both QWAC and QSEAL certificates. The qualified certificates had to be soft tokens and in compliance with the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) guidelines.

The solution

While researching the market for a suitable solution, Salt Edge identified Actalis S.p.A. – which is part of the Aruba Group since 2009 - as one of first QTSPs to offer such certificates on the market.

Thanks to the fast responses, clear and simple processes, Actalis offered Salt Edge test certificates which streamlined their efforts to offer open banking service across Europe.

In details, the provided certificates are:

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QWAC Certificate - Qualified Website Authentication Certificate - is a qualified digital certificate under the trust services defined in the eIDAS Regulation; it should be used for website authentication, so that ASPSPs (Account Servicing Payment Services Providers) and Third Party Providers (TPPs) can be certain of each other’s identity;

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QSEAL Certificate - Qualified Electronic Seal Certificate - should be used for identity verification, so that transaction information is protected from potential attacks during or after a communication.

Through this solution Salt Edge can integrate to bank channels by using its own eIDAS for identification or by acting as technical service provider (TSP) and thus, presenting clients' own eIDAS certificates. As security is paramount for Salt Edge, the company encourages all clients to issue dedicated eIDAS certificates for Salt Edge that are used for communication with banks when Salt Edge acts as TSP - - this has also been advised by EBA.

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The Benefits

For this reason, Salt Edge has implemented a self-service generation of certificate signing request (CSR) in its system, being the first open banking TSP to do so. This means that finding a trusted QTSP as Actalis has been necessary.

Among the advantages:

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Salt Edge received the eIDAS certificate quite fast, compared to other entities receiving the eIDAS certificate 3 times longer;

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through a clear and open communication among the provider and the customer;

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the ultimate goal of all of this was to improve the general efficiency in responding to customers and business needs.

Future developments

Working with a trusted partner helps to build a seamless and secure flow for clients so this is what it is also needed for future steps, by enhancing and improving Salt Edge business processes.

“We implemented a self-service generation of certificate signing request (CSR) in our system, being the first open banking TSP to do so, as to assist our clients in generating dedicated eIDAS certificates. This means that finding a trusted QTSP as Actalis has been necessary for us: having a good and useful experience working with Actalis, we advise our clients to use their services.” Vladimir Pintea, Head of Open Banking at Salt Edge

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