Postident
The Postident procedures are methods of personal identification of people that are carried out by the employees of Deutsche Post AG . The procedures were introduced to ensure that the requirements of the Money Laundering Act, which banks are legally obliged to record the customer's identity when opening an account , are as conveniently as possible . In the case of the Postident procedure, one speaks of an impersonal legitimation test .
However, the procedure carried out in a post office is not limited to banks, but can also be used in conjunction with the Signature Act or for sending documents to a contractual partner including signing a document.
species
Postident procedure
Deutsche Post AG offers the following Postident procedures:
- Postident by post office (before 2015 - formerly: Postident Basic ) - parcel shop is not sufficient - is used to identify people in Deutsche Post branches in accordance with the provisions of the Money Laundering Act.
- Postident by postman (before 2015 - formerly: Postident Comfort ) offers, in addition to Postident by post office, the delivery of a letter and identification by the delivery person.
- Postident by postman + signature (before 2015 - formerly: Postident Special ) offers identification by a deliverer as well as the handover of a personalized document for signature without complete data transfer from the ID card.
- Postident through video chat has enabled people to be identified since 2015 without them having to go to a branch. The ID card is viewed in video chat by a Deutsche Post call center.
- Postident through online identification function can be carried out with the Postident app or the AusweisApp2.
Former Postident Procedure
- The Postident for Trust Center was used to identify people in accordance with the requirements of the Signature Act through a certified process. This Postident procedure has been discontinued.
procedure
Companies (mostly banks, but also mobile phone providers) enter into a contractual relationship with Deutsche Post AG and receive a customer number for billing purposes.
- In the Postident by post office variant , the company then usually creates a Postident coupon with an individually defined reference number for the company-internal assignment of the identification document. In a branch of the Deutsche Post AG the customer presents his identity card or passport . Postident can be accepted and processed in post offices and agencies with electronic post offices and is therefore available in almost all post offices . The employee scans the ID card with a special small flatbed scanner using software from Bundesdruckerei, compares and supplements the recorded data and prints it out on a PostIdent sheet. The recorded data and the ID scan are then stored on a Deutsche Post server in Germany and can be queried by the client if necessary. The software checks the identity card for authenticity, but can also only process machine-readable identity cards with certain minimum standards. The customer signs on the sheet as in the ID. At the end, the employee confirms the information with a signature, date and day stamp and sends the sheet and any other documents to the client. Since April 10, 2018, this variant has also been available without printing the form, if the customer signature is not required depending on the type of contract.
- In the variants Postident by postman or Postident by postman + signature , legitimation is carried out by the postman on site at the recipient. This is particularly critical with Postident by postmen , since effective contracts can be concluded here.
- With the Postident variant via video chat , there is also no need to visit a Deutsche Post branch. Instead, a person can identify himself / herself with a Deutsche Post call center employee via video chat . With this method, which is also possible on mobile devices with the help of the Postident through the video chat app, the ID document is viewed via the device camera and an ID photo is saved. The identification process is completed by entering an SMS transaction number (mTAN).
- The Postident through the new identity card procedure can be carried out by those who have an electronic identity card (nPA) with activated eID function . Identification takes place by uploading copies of documents and reading out the ID data. After a comparison with postal address information, the required data is provided to the client in digital form.
The Postident procedure is usually free of charge for the customer. The costs are settled between Deutsche Post AG and its contractual partner or client.
Postident through German embassies
In the past, the Postident procedure could also be carried out by German embassies. However, after a change in the legal situation, embassies can no longer carry out identity checks in accordance with the Money Laundering Act (e.g. when opening accounts and taking out loans) until further notice.
Additional services
Companies that send a document to be signed with Postident by postman + signature must first have it approved by Deutsche Post once. This is to avoid that unreasonable contracts can be presented to the customer. Furthermore, it is stipulated that the persons are to be informed in advance of the pending identification and that any documents to be signed must also be transmitted.
Other providers
Other shipping companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland offer similar identification procedures, see the diagram in the entry identification purposes .