Italy has a record number of remote signatures: 3.4 billion

Italy accelerates dematerialisation. According to the latest data released by the Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale (AgID) in the first half of 2025, the country's digitisation process set a new record. The number of remote digital signatures generated exceeded 3.4 billion, while the number of time stamps issued - which allow the validity of an act to be 'frozen' on the date it was signed - reached 2.5 billion. In the same period, 32.7 million qualified digital signature certificates were active, of which almost 80% were remote signatures.

The digital signature, compulsory for public administration since 2012, is now a tool used in every professional sector.

"The digital signature is a fundamental element for thedigital transformation of the country," emphasises Agid's director of innovation and digital transition, Antonio Maria Tambato. If the pandemic was the 'big bang' for the electronic signature, the latest data tell us that it has become the non-tangible but essential pillar of every economic transaction, because it guarantees integrity, authenticity and legal validity and eliminates the need to physically print or archive documents, saving costs and time. In addition, it greatly reduces litigation'.

But a signature alone is sometimes not enough to guarantee legal security over time. There is also a double guarantee to armour acts, as lawyer Caterina Epifanio, digitisation expert at Partners4Innovation, explains. "In practice, the time stamp should be accompanied by the digital preservation process," says Caterina Epifanio, "to ensure full opposability and verifiability in the long term.

On the other hand, standardised preservation is not an isolated issue, but the final piece of a digital document life cycle. Precisely in order to take a snapshot of the state of the art and promote the implementation of the Guidelines on document management, AgID has recently launched a survey aimed at the Public Administration and public service managers. The objective is to collect precise data to ensure that the country's digital information assets are managed according tohigh and uniform security standards and to make corrections where necessary.