Business
Signed, sealed, delivered: Why it’s time to embrace the future of e-signatures

Despite the fact that digital signatures have been around for some time, a perceived haziness around the legality of signing documents in this way has so far hindered widespread adoption.
This lack of clarity in the law has discouraged some organisations from implementing electronic documents, especially smaller businesses that don’t have access to the same level of legal expertise as their larger competitors.
However, following the Law Commission’s recent ruling that e-signatures can now be treated as equivalent to written ones, the supremacy of the traditional handwritten signature could finally be coming to an end.
This announcement means any and all documents can now be legally signed by typing a name or even simply clicking an “I accept” button. From business contracts, to credit agreements and land sales, any legal ambiguity around electronic signatures has effectively been removed, providing a much-needed boost to the process of how consumers and businesses work with one another.
So, as adoption continues to grow, what exactly are the key advantages of e-signatures and why should organisations in all industries be ready to embrace an electronic future?
Business benefits
In a nutshell, the use of electronic signatures allows business processes to be fully digitalised, thereby eliminating the need for documents such as contracts to be signed, transported and filed in paper format.
Instead, these documents can be sent to the relevant parties via email, or distributed securely through cloud-based file-sharing services.
For businesses, this can drastically reduce operational costs – by enabling them to save money on paper, postage, mailing supplies etc. – as well as saving a significant amount of time. E-signatures streamline and accelerate the entire contract process, providing a much faster turnaround time for everyone involved.
They are also much more convenient. No matter their size or industry, businesses today operate in a geographically dispersed world, with customers, partners and suppliers frequently located in multiple different countries. Electronic signatures are therefore a much more convenient method of authentication than the paper-based alternative.
Then we come to the issue of security. This has traditionally been a major barrier to the adoption of electronic signatures, with businesses worried about an increased risk of fraud or breach of confidentiality. However, with identity and authentication issues taking centre stage, they are actually safer and more secure than traditional paper documents.
Modern e-signing platforms incorporate a range of features designed to minimise the risk of fraud. For example, they typically collect signatories’ IP addresses and GPS coordinates, making the resulting document much more enforceable than a document that has been sent by post.
If this isn’t enough, there are further ways of optimising e-signature technology to ensure customers in transactions are who they say they are. These could include using a multifactor authenticator bound to their identity, a webcam or video links for documents that require witnessed signatures, or a platform that the signatory and witness are able to sign in to from different locations, thereby boosting the potential of electronic signatures even further.

Michael Magrath
Enabling the future of business
The afore mentioned productivity and efficiency benefits of e-signatures are well known among industry stakeholders,providing a huge amount of value to forward-thinking organisations.
The issue is that a reluctance to replace paper processes has often got in the way of widespread business adoption. What’s more, the conversation is often side-tracked by a focus on the technologies underpinning digital signatures, or treated as something for the IT department to grapple with.
To overcome this hesitancy, businesses have to look at the bigger picture and be prepared to transition from conventional methods to a modern way of working.
E-signatures don’t only bring speed and simplicity to the process of signing contracts, they also bring transparency, a greater level of security and an improved user experience. That’s why they will play a vital role in the future of business – as long as organisations are brave enough to take the plunge and move away from slow, paper-based processes.
Ultimately, e-signatures are the future and simply can’t be ignored by any organisation looking to stay ahead of its competitors in what is becoming an increasingly paperless world. Any doubts around their legality have been removed by the Law Commission’s recent ruling.
Michael Magrath, director, global regulations & standards at OneSpan is responsible for aligning OneSpan’s solution roadmap with standards and regulatory requirements globally.
Business
Australia’s Macquarie raises guidance after U.S. winter freeze

By Paulina Duran and Jonathan Barrett
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Macquarie Group lifted its profit guidance on Monday, sending shares to 12-month highs, as its large North American energy business profits from the winter storms sweeping across Texas and other states.
Macquarie said it expects its fiscal 2021 profit to jump by as much as 10%, after warning just two weeks ago that earnings would be “slightly down”.
The energy business unit, designed to move large quantities of gas to meet unexpected demand, has single-handedly increased the overall profit forecast of the investment bank by about A$400 million, analysts said.
“Extreme winter weather conditions in North America have significantly increased short-term client demand for Macquarie’s capabilities in maintaining critical physical supply across the commodity complex,” the company said in a statement.
Macquarie is the second biggest gas marketer in North America, behind oil major BP. It purchases natural gas and moves it along pipelines and grids, typically from an area where usage is low to high-demand markets.
The deadly winter storm that crippled infrastructure and left millions of Texans without power meant electricity generators had to compete for natural gas supplies, pushing up prices sharply in the deregulated market.
The urgent supply situation has provided Macquarie with an unexpected windfall
“Macquarie appears to be capitalising well on volatility and financial market dislocation,” Bank of America Securities analysts said in a note, as it increased its earnings forecasts for the Sydney-headquartered company.
Macquarie’s performance hurt last year by the pandemic, with subdued deal-making and deteriorating economic conditions leading to a rise in impairment charges.
But a strong initial public offering of its majority-owned data analytics software business, Nuix, late last year and a fillip in the energy business have helped push its share price back to pre-pandemic levels.
The company, which also operates Australia’s largest asset manager and investment banking business, is set for extra boost from a rebound in local M&A activity this year.
Macquarie’s shares were 4.31% higher at A$148.39 early on Monday, the highest level in a year, outperforming a broader market that was flat. The share price eased slightly in afternoon trading.
Earlier this month, the Sydney-based financial conglomerate had forecast full-year earnings for the group to be “slightly” lower than in fiscal 2020.
Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets division contributes close to 40% of its group earnings. Analysts had previously raised concerns that the pandemic could erode profits from the division if high energy-use industries shuttered.
(Reporting by Paulina Duran and Jonathan Barrett; Additional reporting by Shriya Ramakrishnan; Editing by Peter Cooney, Jane Wardell & Shri Navaratnam)
Business
Baidu-Geely EV venture names Mobike co-founder as chief

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Baidu Inc and automaker Geely hired Mobike co-founder and former chief technology officer Xia Yiping as chief executive of their new electric vehicle venture, the search engine giant said on Monday.
Baidu last month had announced it would set up a company with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to leverage its intelligent driving capabilities and Geely’s car manufacturing expertise.
“Xia has extensive management experience in the field of smart cars and mobility services,” Baidu said in a statement. “We welcome Xia Yiping to join Baidu’s auto company and look forward to his contribution to Baidu and the automobile industry.”
Reuters reported Xia’s appointment last week, citing people familiar with the matter.
Xia served as Mobike’s chief technology officer until the company was acquired by food delivery giant Meituan in 2018. Prior to Mobike, he worked at Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler.
(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang, Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
Business
UK firms report strongest hiring intentions in a year – CIPD

LONDON (Reuters) – British businesses have the strongest hiring intentions in a year and fewer are planning to make redundancies as the economic outlook has brightened over the past three months, a human resources industry body said on Monday.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said 56% of businesses planned to increase staff numbers in the coming months, up from 53% in late 2020 but below the 66% planning to hire staff a year ago before the pandemic.
The proportion of firms planning redundancies dropped sharply to 20% from 30% in the last quarter.
However the CIPD said unemployment was likely to rise sharply if finance minister Rishi Sunak does not extend jobs support for businesses at his March 3 budget.
“It is far too soon to rule out further significant private sector redundancies later in the year if the government does not extend the furlough scheme to the end of June or if the economy suffers any additional unexpected shocks,” said Gerwyn Davies, a senior labour market advisor to the CIPD.
A costly furlough programme that is supporting around one in five private-sector employees during the current lockdown is due to end on April 30.
The British Chambers of Commerce warned last week that one in four of its members planned to make job cuts if the support ended while they were still feeling the impact of the pandemic.
The CIPD said hiring plans were strongest in healthcare, finance, education and IT, and weakest in the hospitality sector which is bearing the brunt of the current lockdown.
The survey, run jointly with recruiters Adecco, covered 2,000 employers between Jan. 5 and Jan. 30.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)