Beyond shopping, 5.3 million households had access to financial transactions like electronic banking and stock trading by the end of last year. The rate of growth for e-commerce has been exponential for the past several years. Clearly, e-commerce still has much room for growth. Electronic signatures permit parties to identify those with whom they are doing business, and to ensure that information they are sharing has not been tampered with or modified without both parties' knowledge. Organizations are increasingly able to enter into contracts worth thousands or millions of dollars - without ever having to drive across town or fly thousands of miles to personally meet with a client or potential business partner.
Consumers can also benefit from electronic signatures.
For example, loan and insurance applications could be conducted fully online - eliminating much unnecessary paperwork, cutting costs and increasing transaction speeds. Even the costs and inconvenience of government paperwork would drop as warranties, notices, disclosures and other regulatory requirements are delivered electronically. But for e-commerce to continue growing and producing greater prosperity, the government must get its act together. There is no consistent and predictable national framework of rules governing the use of electronic signatures. More than 40 states have enacted electronic authentication laws, and no two laws are the same.