CAcert Organisation Assurance Program sub-policy
for countries in Europe

Author: Teus Hagen
Creation date: 20080501
Status: DRAFT p20080920
Next status: policy 2009

0. Preliminaries

This CAcert sub-policy extends the Organisation Assurance Policy ("OAP") by specifying how the CAcert Organisation Assurance Program ("COAP") is to be conducted by the assigned Organisation Assurer ("OA") under the supervision of the Assurance Officer ("AO") for entities within the defined scope.

1. Scope

This sub-policy is applicable to:

• Organisations registered in Europe with an official Trade Office Registry (CAcert "Approved Registry", also denoted as "Registry").

Approved Registries are tabled in paragraph Appendix 1 of this sub-policy.
The table in Appendix 1 will denote for every Approved Registry a date of full acceptance (Registry Entry Draft status). Before that date the Registry entry is accepted as operational similar in effectiveness with a policy in DRAFT as defined in the Policy on Policy document. Addition of new Registry entries is by means of the routine Policy on Policy process, and is controlled by the Policy email list group, on submission by Organisation Assurer.

Registries subjected to acceptance as Approved Registry are tabled in paragraph Appendix 2. Appendix 2 is not a formal part of this sub-policy.

2. Requirements

This section describes any scope-specific requirements that are not otherwise defined in the Organisation Assurance Policy (OAP).

2.1 Organisations

1. The organisation must be registered with an Approved Registry.
2. The Approved Registry must have a mandate to register certain types of organisations (e.g. private companies, clubs Societies & Associations, partnerships, cooperatives, mutual societies, foundations, etc.)

2.2 Unincorporated Organisations

Registered Names. Where an approved Registry specifically maintains a register for local entities that trade without formal incorporation, the Registry entry will present independent evidence of the name, as demanded by OAP#5.d. This may apply to organisations such as Sole Traders, Doing-Business-As traders (DBAs), Partnerships, Church and Religious groups, etc.

Such entities have differing legal statuses with different liabilities. The named entity may not be capable of legally becoming a Member of CAcert, independently and separately from the individuals within. The Organisation Assurer (OA) must then take care to identify which individuals are Members, and which are therefore the natural legal entities behind the names.

The general standard for assurance of an unincorporated entity with a Registered Name is that the result is equivalent to assurance of an individual Member, or Members, with the addition of the Registered Name.

There is no limit to the number of Registered Names that a Member may have.

Foreign Entities.
Where a local Registry requires foreign entities to register, this registration may be used for Organisation Assurance.
For example: companies are frequently incorporated in the United Kingdom, but operated primarily in another European country. These foreign entities may require to register locally and submit financial and/or yearly reports, extracts of home documents, reports from professionals such as accountants, etc, to authorities in the operating country.

2.2 Records

Records supplied by the Registry must be one of the following forms:

1. Formal originals on paper, where they are extracted from the Registry in an independent manner by the OA;
2. Digital statements from an online service provided by the Registry, acquired by the Organisation Assurer by the OA in an independent manner;
3. Historical supplemental documents may be accepted where it can be shown that material changes have not been made (e.g., via absence of subsequent submissions in official document listings). Such acceptance should be applicable to the particular jurisdiction, as documented by the Organisation Assurer, and under any process he determines.

The set of records supplied by the Registry is called the Extract.

3. The Trade Office Registry

Approved Registries follow the European style of Chambers of Commerce (e.g Chambers of Commerce in continental Europe, Companies House in the United Kingdom and Ministry of Justice, Finance, or Commerce in Eastern Europe).

3.1 Criteria for acceptance of a Registry

An Organisation can be accepted for Assurance under this policy if registered with a formal Trade Office Registry. The criteria for an Approved Registry is:

1. The Registry follows the general model of Trade Offices and thus is a formal authority for dealing with local trade matters affecting organisations;
2. The Registry is formally empowered to register corporate entities (organisations) under national law;
3. The Registry has a reliable search facility service that provides reliable documentary evidence of the registration entry of an organisation. The service may carry costs which are reimbursed from the organisation applicant;
4. The Registry (or, its search facility) can provide an Extract of the registration of the entity, below.

3.1 Extracts

The Extract is the set of records provided by the Registry. The Extract is to include the following information:

1. Full name of the legal entity,
2. Representative(s) of organisation (e.g. Company, Partnership, Sole Trader),
3. Type of organisation,
4. Location (which must be within the area the Approved Registry is responsible for),
5. Identifier or number, a unique regsitration id within Registry.

Organisation Assurance is available to any active entity which can provide the above Extract.

4. Assurance Process

4.1 In general

The Organisation Assurer should take note of the following:

1. Each Organisation Assurance is for one legal entity only, but may include multiple names (e.g. trading names);
2. The Organisation Administrator (O-Admin) must be an Assurer and must be delagated by the Applicant;
3. All organisations must be verified by Extract from an Approved Registry. The Organisation Assurer may conduct a Registry check (search).

4.2 Process requirements for the Organisation

For legal entities requesting Organisation Assurance under this subsidiary policy:

• The Representative must be duly authorised to sign on behalf of the organisation, and may be:
  1. The Secretary as verified in the Extract. This is the preferred and best option;
  2. A full Director of the managing or Executive board, as verified in the Extract;
  3. Any other Representative must prove that they are duly authorised to sign on behalf of the entity (e.g. via explicit written delegation or under organisation bylaws and rules). This will require due diligence to be conducted by the Organisation Assurer, to the standard and/or for approval by the Organisation Assurer.

4.3 Process requirements for Individuals

For Individuals requesting Organisation Assurance under this subsidiary policy:

1. The individual Member must be a CAcert Assurer;
2. The individual Member may act as her own Organisation Administrator.

4.4 Process requirements for Partnerships

For Partnerships requesting Organisation Assurance under this subsidiary policy:

1. The Partners must be verified via the Extract;
2. The applying Partner (signatory) must be an CAcert Assurer;
3. Where the Applicant is not the managing Partner, further due diligence should be conducted (e.g. verification that the role and title of the Applicant is suitable). If in doubt approval should be obtained from each of the Partners who should be individually Assured.

4.5 Application Form: CAcert Organisation Assurance Programme (COAP) Form

On the CAcert Organisation Assurance Programme Form (COAP Form), the following must be specified:

1. Licensing Authority must be specified as the Approved Registry which issued the Extract;
2. The unique registration Identifier must be provioded where issued (a Registry may not issue a unique Identifier for sole traders and partnerships);
3. Type of entity that is registered, according to the classification created by the Registry.

The essential purpose of the information is to permit the Organisation Assurer and others to clearly and accurately identify the Organisation as actively registered within the Registry, as well as its Representatives.

Appendix I

Table of accepted Trade Office Registries for EU countries

The following table defines the accepted Registries for Europe.

Table of accepted Trade Office Registries for other European countries

Appendix 2

This Appendix is part of Work in Process by definition.

Table of Trade Office Registries for EU countries which Registries are in process of acceptation

The orange diamond ♦ denotes a Registry being accepted. The red bullit • denotes a Registry awaiting feedback from that country to be accepted for organisation registration Extracts.