A piece of legislation that will give Government approval to companies that issue digital certificates to make on-line transactions will today become law.

The move has been described as an important step towards making Bermuda an e-business centre in today's world.

The Certification Services Provider regulations have been launched by the Ministry of Telecommunications and are the final set of rules that will put the Electronic Transactions Act into full practice.

Minister of Telecommunications Renee Webb said: "This is a significant step for Bermuda is realising its vision to be the foremost location for sophisticated and secure e-business.

"In this age where security of transactions is increasingly being seen as crucial for business, certificates allows consumers and citizens to secure safely and securely over the Internet and to secure any payments they make. They will also allow citizens to communicate securely with Government, an issue that is crucial for Bermuda."

Bermuda was the first off-shore jurisdiction to have an electronic transactions act in 1999, but has already been pipped at the post by other jurisdictions in the setting up of regulations to allow digital certificates - a kind of electronic signature which enables people in different countries to sign legally binding deals.

Both Dublin and Hong Kong have put in place their version of the Certification Services Provider regulations, which will mean that anyone with the certification has met fairly stringent criteria to be allowed to produce digital certificates.

Now Bermuda is catching up and has become the first offshore jurisdiction in this half of the world to have this, beating Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands.

The CSP regulations were "gazetted" in Friday's Royal Gazette and become effective today.

Stephen Davidson, vice president of marketing of Quo Vadis, currently the Island's only provider of digital certificates, said: "The Electronic Transactions Act validated the legitimacy of electronic records and signatures. In essence, the Act says that all electronic signatures are legally binding, but you have to prove that the signature is valid unless it was created using an 'accredited digital certificate'. Signatures from accredited certificates are automatically accepted as valid and binding.

"The new CSP regulations outline the process that a digital certificate authority must go through to have its certificates accredited. QuoVadis is currently working with the Ministry of Telecommunications and E-commerce to process its application as the first Bermuda-authorised CSP."

Ms Webb said on Friday: "I am pleased to be able to announce the launch of the Certification Service Provider Authorisation Scheme. From Monday (today) companies, such as Quo Vadis here in Bermuda, which issue electronic certificates to enable people to authenticate themselves, will be able to seek approval for their services.

"My Ministry, in liaison with businesses on the Island, has developed criteria that companies will need to meet, to enable me to assess, with respect to the Electronic Transactions Act, that they are sufficiently competent to issue certificates to the public."

She added that within business, certificates were also increasingly being used to allow important clients to transact business on-line and for employees to authenticate themselves when working off-site.

Ms Webb said: "With the increasing important role that certificates are playing in e-business it is clearly vital that the businesses which issue certificates are competent, honest and technically up to the mark.

"It is for that reason I decided a scheme to assess their competence was required. The criteria used has been developed, as I mentioned, with business on the Island, but it also has been drawn up to be compatible with that used in other International schemes in both North America and Europe. I firmly believe it will be the first offshore CSP scheme to become recognised by the European Union.

"I will be welcoming applications from both Bermudan and non-Bermudan companies. I anticipate that CSPs in many other countries may well want to be authorised in Bermuda."

According to Nigel Hickson, E-commerce advisor to the Minister, companies such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the banks may also apply for the certification.

He said: "It will allow organisations both in Bermuda and those in other countries to demonstrate to their clients their compliance with standards that are compatible to those being introduced both in the European Union and North America.

"The scheme requires the ministry to put arrangements in place whereby they can assess the conformance of applicants to the criteria and standards contained within the regulations. To undertake this, the ministry proposes to contract experts, where required, to assess the applications made. To offset this cost there will be a charge of $10 000 per application made."

For further information on the scheme go to the Ministry's web site at mtec.bm.