Brazilian company Serasa has received authorization to provide digital certification services for electronic documents and signatures, allowing electronic documents certified by Serasa to have the same legal validity as physically signed documents. Serasa was founded in 1968 and provides economic, financial, and information services. Other authorized or pending authorization digital certification providers in Brazil include Serpro, CertiSign, and Unicert. The Provisory Measure 2200 established rules for guaranteeing the legal validity of electronic documents through digital certification.

1. Thls pnn ed artír:,e nay ct De photocop e a~d s for the exc!us ve L,A o 'v1s rica Aoki ror a
multi-use licence please contact Ala'" Mowa' ún +44 2C -2340606.
September 23 2002 - Brazil
I New company swells the rank~ of digital cerrtication providers
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Brazilian company Serasa has received authorization to provide certification serviees for digital
doeuments and electronie signatures. This means it can bestow on an electronie doeument the same
legal validity as a doeument that has been signed by hand and notarized.
Serasa was founded in 1968 and is one of the largest companies in Brazil providing economie and
financial analysis, as well as information and databank services. Other companies that have been
authorized, or are in the proeess of seeking authorization, to provide digital eertification services
include Serpro, CertiSign and Unicert.
The Provisory Measure 2200, published last August, established the rules to be followed ín order to
guarantee the legal validity and integrity of e-doeuments through digital certification (see
Government launches digital certification system). The legality of electronie eommunications is
recognized by the courts when they have been certified by authorized companies such as Serasa.
So far, there has been no court actíon in Brazil contesting the validity of certified eleetronie
documents or signatures.
Erica Aoki, Stroeter, Royster & Ohno Advogados - Advogados AssoGiated with Steel Hector & Davis
LLP, São Paulo
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