The law that President Clinton signed last week allowing businesses and consumers to seal a wide variety of legally binding arrangements with electronic rather than handwritten signatures raised the speed limit on e-business development, analysts say.
They project that many enterprises awash in documents, especially financial services, real estate and government itself, will accelerate efforts to use computer transactions to limit paperwork once the law takes effect in October. Such a transition is expected to save billions of dollars annually in administrative costs and cut some online transactions -- like setting up a trading account or applying for a home loan -- from days to minutes.
News: Cryptography
