Republic of North Macedonia and Mastercard launch National Digital Identity Service to help grow digital economy

• Mastercard collaborates with Macedonian Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) to launch country’s first remote digital identity services for Macedonian citizens
• NLB Bank Skopje customers can remotely e-sign legally binding documents via ID Service, a Mastercard digital identity service operated by Evrotrust

Skopje, 30 November 2021 – The Republic of North Macedonia has launched its first National Digital Identity Service – in partnership with Mastercard – to advance the country’s digital economy aspirations. The partnership between Mastercard and the Macedonian Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) – first announced in early 2020 – brings local digital identity and related services, such as digital document signing and verification, to Macedonian citizens.

The infrastructure for the National Digital Identity Service is provided by ID Service – a Mastercard digital identity service operated by Evrotrust – providing an all-in-one, digital identification service on smartphones. This enables documents to be signed electronically with the same legal standing as handwritten documents, representing a further step towards the digitalization of administration and services in North Macedonia. 

The first organization to use the ID Service operated by Evrotrust is NLB Bank Skopje. Their first use case is integration of the electronic signature into their daily operational activities. The set of services will be enriched and expanded based on customer needs and as their habits, behavior and use of the service evolves, with the ultimate goal of enabling the full digitization of all the Bank’s products and services. The digital identity service provided by NLB Bank Skopje will enable the e-signing of legally binding agreements straight from consumers’ mobile devices, removing the need for visiting the branch or using tokens, cards or USB.

“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,” said Antonio Argir, President of the Management Board, NLB Bank Skopje.

“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," said Mr. Jeton Shaqiri, Minister of Information Society and Administration in North Macedonia.

“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,” adds Vanya Manova, Country Manager of Mastercard for North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Kosovo.

“Evrotrust is fully compliant with Mastrcard’s highest cyber and data security standards for information security and cryptography, ensuring the safe integration of ID Service nationwide. The eID solution allows national institutions to cross-check digitally submitted applications against national ID records, ensuring the given identity belongs to the right person,” said Alexander Stanev, Chief Operations Officer at Evrotrust.

Following today’s launch, Mastercard will now work with MISA to expand the National Digital Identity Service footprint in North Macedonia. This will include the integration of more banks, public institutions, mobile network operators, insurance companies, utility companies and investment funds.

The pipeline of potential future use cases for the National Digital Identity Service includes remote onboarding and account opening, governmental administrative services for remote onboarding and remote document signing on the eGovernment portal, and integration with the government’s Document Management System to help the digitalization of the public sector.