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The release of a commercially live product in 2018 saw Cygnetise gain its first paying customers.  Since then, the product and technology has continually improved, driven by market demand whilst over-zealous ambitions have been prudently reined in by modest levels of investment and resource.  

Unlike many, Cygnetise have chosen to focus their blockchain based business outside of cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Understanding the potential of distributed ledger technology in industry, they have successfully developed and launched an application which is revolutionising the management of authorised signatories. 

What Is Authorised Signatory Management?

Every organisation needs to manage the ‘signing’ or approval responsibilities of their employees, i.e. “who is authorised to do what?”.  These individuals are known as authorised signatories (or delegated authorities) and are recorded on a formal company register or list.  Keeping track of these authorities, especially in larger organisations is fundamental to the business operations and administration.

However, as other areas of business processes have benefitted from technical advancement, authorised signatory management has been left behind as part of the often manual, paper-based (at best file transfer) worlds of back-office or secretarial duties. 

Indeed, it’s the business administrators, company secretaries, operational clerks and auditors who will recognise the challenges of managing signatory lists in the traditional way.

The challenges are two-fold. Firstly, the lists are dynamic. Not only do signatories join or leave their organisations but their capacities as a signatory also change. Secondly, the lists are time critical. An outdated list may expose an organisation or business to fraud or misrepresentation.  These challenges are felt by companies of all sizes, across many sectors.

Coming from a background of financial operations and technology development, Cygnetise set out to resolve these challenges. Recognising authorised signatories are typically kept on physical registers (ledgers) and manually shared between multiple parties, Cygnetise developed their digital application which empowers the user to strengthen, streamline and share the way authorised signatory lists are managed. 

Whilst not the most glamorous of blockchain applications, Cygnetise now has nearly 40 enterprise paying customers, so clearly have already proven that their solution is in demand.

Determined to be business and customer centric, Cygnetise is working with their customer community, delivering what they actually want in an Agile manner.

Continuing from its inception, Cygnetise evolves and synchronises with market demands as they become more sophisticated. This approach is applicable to both the front-end product and also the use of the underlying technology. 

Quoting Steve Pomfret, Cygnetise’s CEO: “Our customers don’t care that the technology used is blockchain, although they do care about the inherent benefits this technology provides.” 

Cygnetise Authorised Signatory Management complementing e-signing

The Cygnetise application is NOT an e-Signature product.

The Covid-19 situation and more specifically the acceleration to implement remote working, has catapulted the question of authorised signatures to the forefront of many management meetings. Whilst the  is being demystified, the risk of “who” is signing has become a talking point.  This applies not only to the individual’s identity but in what capacity are they signing, i.e. are they authorised?  This authority or permission of the signer is not something an e-signature product covers but where Cygnetise absolutely complements the e-signing offerings. 

An example: Banking Past and Present: 

Going back in time for perspective: businesses and organisations invariably operated with multiple bank accounts, but the questions were the same. Who is authorised to sign the cheques with the company cheque book, or authorise other documented transactions?

Today, each organisation has their own way of managing their registers of authorities and typically use internally produced Word document templates. These registers are manually updated, manually collated and manually distributed. At best, they may be circulated as a file attached to an e-mail. Not the most secure or efficient process. 

This process is replicated with all manner of required signing approvals, including legal documents, purchase orders, vendor agreements, timesheets and NDAs.  In all these examples an authorised signature is needed to:

1. ensure that the correct person internally is making the approval and;
2. that the counterpart has comfort that the correct person is authorised to be party to the agreements.

The Future: Banking Mandate Changes

The big prize is the potential for revolutionising the business banking mandate change process by offering a secure, flexible digital solution. This will enable companies to update their authorities of who can authorise a whole range of financial transactions. Currently a major administrative headache, paper-based and taking up to two weeks, the process may be replaced with a safe, efficient application which can be fully integrated into existing technology platforms.

A number of tier 1 banks already accept the Cygnetise protocol for the management of these mandates.

The future of cheques and other paper-based transaction documentation may be limited, with e-signatures set to completely replace ‘wet ink’, but the requirement to authorise those transactions is here to stay.

A start-up milestone for Cygnetise has been achieved by the navigation of the lengthy and testing procurement processes with a number of global corporate giants (including banks), resulting in a now, enterprise grade and future-proofed application.  

Recognition

Cygnetise is being recognised and is gaining in reputation. In 2019 Cygnetise gained a coveted place in the , securing places in two of their accelerator programmes in both the UAE and Japan.  

In 2020 Cygnetise won the Enterprise Blockchain category at CityAM’s , and now have a firm platform on which to scale. 

They have also been included in the  for recognition of their innovation in this industry sector.  

Currently the majority of their paying customers are companies providing corporate services, typically to trusts, funds, SPVs, family offices and offshored holding companies. These all provide natural distribution platforms to connect with thousands of these company entities.  Importantly this presents the corporate service providers with a source of revenue as they offer their customers the Cygnetise service – an attractive, additional proposition to that of efficiency gains and cost/risk reduction.  The product is not limited to financial services spanning multiple industry sectors.  The NHS has publicised the challenges it has in controlling it’s authorised signatories across it’s complicated organisational structures.

With the Cygnetise application facilitating company entities from 15 jurisdictions, a move toward remote working, an appetite for digital transformation and a technology architecture that enables inter-operable blockchains, we can expect to see this company creating a huge corporate community which is potentially the foundation for many other blockchain based applications. 

Steve Pomfret, Founder and CEO of Cygnetise