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Boosting accessibility with QES: How Europabank fully digitized its services with e-signature
Europabank, a Belgian niche bank, has partnered with itsme® to fully digitize its loan approval and account sign-up flows through the secure
Our collaboration, which started in 2019, and was driven by Europabank's commitment to offering its customers a fully digital, fast and secure experience. QES significantly enhances accessibility, allowing customers to visit branches without appointments and complete credit requests entirely online, from submission to contract signing. This aligns with the growing significance of QES in Belgium and beyond: In 2024, itsme® saw a 52% increase in QES’ usage, with 2.2 million signatures placed using our app.
“Using itsme, everything is done digitally, which helped us save a lot of time and eliminate the need for printing documents and being present in person. Many customers are surprised that they can sign a contract from the comfort of their couch!” Alper Gürbüz, Commercial Advisor at Europabank.
Challenge: Paper-based bureaucracy
Europabank specializes in providing loans to individuals and small businesses. However, many of their processes, such as loan requests, required clients to sign physical documents at branches. These offline procedures created unnecessary bureaucracy for clients, who had to be physically present at a branch during work hours to get their applications approved. Employees also endured additional bureaucracy from relying on physical documents, which had to be constantly mailed to the head office, scanned, and manually audited.
Europabank recognized the significant potential in digitizing its operations, but faced an additional challenge on the way to this: Many of its clients, often using the bank as their second or third choice, were unlikely to want to download an app just to verify their identity or sign a document once. Therefore, asking customers to download yet-another banking app could create an additional barrier or friction point in the customer journey.
To achieve digitization while addressing challenges particular to their customer journey, Europabank choose to partner with itsme® to digitize their processes smoothly and securely.
Solution: End-to-End Digitization with QES
Europabank choose to fortify their processes with QES as their signature method, which holds the same legal value as a hand-written signature. This enabled the bank to enhance their customer journey, digitize their operations, and reduce chances of human error.
Through itsme®, Europabank could automate the entire signing process, saving valuable time for employees. The signed contracts are also immediately archived, reducing costs and minimizing the risk of errors. This eliminates the additional tasks associated with physical paperwork.
“We chose itsme® because it's the most legally inclusive solution,” explained Bart Tuytschaever, Business Process Analyst at Europabank. "The vast majority of people in Belgium already have the app, which adds value by allowing us to onboard clients without the need for them to download yet another banking app.”
Relying on itsme® has also enhanced Europabank’s security and supported their efforts to combat fraud. This is because itsme® helps ensure that only the intended recipients can access the links that Europabank sends and no one else can log in to see the documents than the one intended. As a result, the bank can be 100% confident that the right person has signed.
Impact: Enhanced customer experience, available 24/7
Relying on our QES service enabled Europabank to improve its accessibility, making it easier for customers to engage with services both in-person and online. Customers can now visit physical offices without the need for an appointment, and they can submit online credit requests with ease, from initial request to processing and contract signing, all streamlined for greater convenience.
Signing documents with QES also enhanced the trust and security of the bank’s processes. Additionally, it streamlined internal operations and minimize the operational costs by digitizing tasks like auditing, archiving, and transporting documents, significantly improving data management, and reducing handling costs and human error.
One-third of documents at Europabank are now signed digitally, with 90% of those signatures processed through itsme in 2024. The bank is witnessing rapid progress in digital signing, with the number of digital signatures expected grow by at least 40% in 2025 compared to the year before.
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