Scrive QES is not a standard self-serve provider. It is designed to work within Scrive's own document signing products, where Scrive manages the full signing workflow on your behalf. Standalone use via the eID Hub API, where your platform provides the document workflow, is possible but requires a separate arrangement. See Getting access below.
Introduction
Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) are the highest level of electronic signature defined under eIDAS, carrying the same legal standing as a handwritten signature across all EU member states. Unlike Advanced Electronic Signatures (AdES), a QES is backed by a qualified certificate issued by an accredited Trust Service Provider and requires strong identity verification before signing can take place.
Scrive is itself a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP), accredited on the EU Trust List. Scrive QES uses Swedish BankID as the identity provider: the signer first proves who they are through BankID's authentication, after which Scrive issues a qualified certificate and produces the cryptographic signature over your document.
Typical use cases include employment contracts, financial agreements, public procurement and other regulated workflows where Sweden's strong eID ecosystem is already in play.
How it works
The signer is redirected to a signing flow powered by Swedish BankID. Once they have authenticated, Scrive produces a qualified signature over a SHA-256 digest of the document you provide. eID Hub returns the raw signing material: the data-to-be-signed representation (DTBSR), the signer's qualified certificate chain in PEM format, and the base64-encoded signature. Your platform, or Scrive eSign, then embeds this into the final signed document.
Because identity verification and signing happen in a single, continuous flow, there is no separate authentication step required.
Using it via eID Hub
When configured for standalone use, Scrive QES is the provider scriveQES and supports signing only, not authentication. You pass a SHA-256 digest of the document and a document title (shown to the signer during the BankID flow), and eID Hub returns a signUrl to redirect the signer to. Once complete, completion data contains the DTBSR, certificate chain and signature for you to embed.
The document title must comply with Swedish BankID's character requirements and be non-empty.
Getting access
Standalone use of Scrive QES via the eID Hub API requires an individual arrangement, covering the document workflow, certificate issuance and how you handle the returned signing material. If you want to provide your own signing flow or integrate QES into a platform that isn't Scrive eSign, get in touch with Scrive to discuss your use case.