QuoVadis has become the first provider to roll out Switzerland's first national electronic ID, after signing up the Swiss Bar Association and its 9,000 members as new clients.

The 11 year-old company, which has expanded internationally out of humble beginnings in Bermuda, is at the forefront of electronic security and identity technology in Switzerland.

The Swiss Government announced SuisseID in 2009 as both an economic stimulus for the IT sector and as a public sector boost for e-commerce.

The programme will create the country's first standardised electronic credential, a digital certificate carried on a secure smartcard. The goal is that a SuisseID credential will be accepted by many different businesses and websites, easing the burden of managing access control lists and passwords.

QuoVadis chief executive officer Roman Brunner said: "QuoVadis has operated in Switzerland for more than five years as a Government-accredited issuer.

"In Europe there is significant interest in using digital certificates to enable online efficiency with proper security. We have invested heavily to prepare for SuisseID, which is generating significant momentum across the region for secure online transactions".

Stephen Davidson, co-founder of QuoVadis, said yesterday that the company's Bermuda-based technical team had worked in association with their Switzerland-based colleagues to roll out the SuisseID.

He added that one of the company's young Bermudian employees, Edwin Bento, was now in Switzerland to help with training and support issues.

"Our teams have been working flat out since Suisse ID was announced last year," Mr. Davidson said.

"Switzerland, as a whole, is quite security conscious using the Internet and there's been a great deal of interest in our digital signatures.

"It's seen as a way of doing business efficiently and it's seen as quite a green thing to do, in that you can reduce the amount of paper being used."

The SuisseID credentials have several uses: they may be used instead of passwords to access a variety of participating websites, to encrypt information for privacy, and to create legally valid digital signatures. The Swiss Bar Association will use SuisseID to confirm lawyers' qualifications and to allow digital notarisation of documents using digital signatures and PDF files.

In 2010, the SuisseID programme intends to issue 300,000 credentials. To help achieve critical mass, the Swiss Federal Government will subsidise the cost of issuing the certificates, and has offered incentives for corporate "pioneer projects" to use them. So far, more than 200 organisations have signed up to become SuisseID-enabled.

For the mass production of the SuisseID smartcards, QuoVadis is working with Trueb AG, a leading international provider of electronic cards and governmental identity documents.

QuoVadis also has operations in the Netherlands, where it participates in the PKI Overheid programme for e-government transactions, and the UK.

Mr. Davidson said the SuisseID programme would provide ongoing business for the company as it expanded and as IDs were renewed every three years.

As more governments rolled out ID cards, Mr. Davidson expected demand for applications usable on the Internet to increase. With its track record, QuoVadis will be placed to compete in that business.

SuisseID credentials will be issued to both individuals as well as to business representatives, validating the relationship and role with the organisation linked with their identity. QuoVadis is one of two providers authorised to issue for both individuals and businesses.

Michael Scott, Bermuda's Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce, said: "The Government of Bermuda congratulates QuoVadis on this exciting development.

"QuoVadis was first accredited in Bermuda in 2002 under our local Authorised Certification Service Provider law and, now with operations and clients in many countries, is one of our Bermudian e-commerce success stories."