Official-assisted authorisation service to start in June

The official-assisted functions of the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations will become available in June. In the official-assisted service, parties that cannot grant electronic mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations can grant electronic mandates and act on behalf of other parties. These parties include business partnerships, educational institutions, parishes, public organisations and foreign companies.

Suomi.fi e-Authorizations is an electronic authorisation service in which you can manage your own mandates and the mandates of the organisations that you represent and for which your right to represent can be determined from registers.

With the official-assisted service, the self-service can also be used by organisations in whose case the right to represent cannot be unambiguously determined from the Trade Register or the Register of Associations.

The official-assisted authorisation service, which has been under development since 2019, will become operational in June 2020 as planned. The functionality allowing the service to be provided has been developed as part of the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.

What are the main features of the new service?

In the official-assisted authorisation service, parties that cannot grant electronic mandates in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations can grant electronic mandates and act on behalf of other parties. The service is intended for organisations whose representatives are not registered in the Trade Register (such as parishes, educational institutions, business partnerships, estates of deceased persons granted a Business ID, public organisations and foreign companies).

With the new service, persons with no online banking codes or those who are otherwise unable to use electronic means can also grant electronic mandates.

In the service, the mandates presented in the application are entered by the official in the authorisation register on behalf of the applicant.

How is the mandate application prepared and submitted?

A company or an organisation can only apply for the right to grant a mandate for its employees. After the right to grant a mandate has been registered, the persons with a right to grant a mandate can grant mandates for transactions in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. In the future, companies and organisations can manage their mandates independently.

The details of the assignor and assignee and the scope of the mandate to be granted must be given in the mandate application. The mandate application must be signed by the assignor or the legal representative of the assignor. Depending on the assignor, the authority to sign is shown with one or more documents appended to the mandate application.

Depending on the assignor, there are three ways to submit a mandate application:

• electronic mandate application (only for Finnish companies and organisations)
• walk-in service (mainly intended for persons acting as assignors)
• application sent by post (mainly intended for foreign organisations that must present certified and legalised documents).

Electronic mandate application

Electronic mandate application service is available on the Suomi.fi Web Service and it has three parts:

• Preparation of the mandate application, in which the assignor is shown how to get the required appendix documents and how to submit the mandate application.
• Completion of the mandate application, in which the assignor determines the mandates to be granted and the parties to whom they are granted.
• Sending of the mandate application. Before sending the application, the party preparing it must get the signatures and appendices required for the application. Submitting the application requires strong identification.

It is not yet possible for persons acting as assignors or foreign companies and organisations to submit electronic mandate applications.

Walk-in service

The walk-in service can be used by all those that need to register mandates (mandate signatories or their agents). The agent must present all necessary appendix documents at the service location.

To find the service locations where you can submit your application, go to Suomi.fi Web Service > Instructions and support.

Sending the application by post

You can also send the mandate application by post. This option is mainly intended for foreign organisations and for those Finnish organisations that cannot submit their mandate applications electronically.

Preparing to make a mandate application

The instructions for the official-assisted authorisation service will be published in June when the service starts. Companies and organisations that need the service should already make preparations for submitting their mandate applications:

• For more information on Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, go to: suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/information-on-eauthorizations
• You must appoint at least two persons for whom the registration of the right to grant a mandate is applied.
• Select the mandate themes that each of these persons is authorised to manage. The right to grant a mandate can only be granted for specific mandate themes.
• To find out more about mandate themes, go to: suomi.fi/e-authorizations/mandate-themes
• You can also use a mandate specifier to narrow down the right to grant a mandate so that it only applies to a specific suborganisation. However, mandate specifiers can only be used for a limited number of mandate themes. Find out more about them so that you are well-prepared for the changes in June.
• You should determine which members of your organisation are authorised to sign the mandate application on behalf of the organisation. The mandate application is submitted on the form that will become available in the Suomi.fi Web Service in June.
• If the power of attorney appended to the mandate application is signed manually, all signatories must also append copies of their personal identity cards to the application. If the power of attorney appended to the mandate application is signed electronically using the organisation certificate of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency or a professional ID, no copies of the personal identity cards are needed.

Detailed instructions on the official-assisted authorisation service will be published on Suomi.fi when the new service becomes available in June.

Frequently asked questions

Our municipality uses the e-services of Kela and the Finnish Tax Administration. Do we need to submit a notification of joining the new service or apply for a permit to act as assignors?

No. The official-assisted authorisation service will be available to all users without any separate notifications or registrations.

Do you need to apply for Suomi.fi IDs in order to use the official-assisted authorisation service?

No. When logging in to Suomi.fi services requiring identification, you must use strong electronic identification tokens, such as online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card. The same applies to the official-assisted authorisation service.