Certified Copy

A certified copy is a copy that carries a signed statement from someone who has seen the original. The statement says that the copy is a true copy of the original document. It usually gives the certifier's name, profession or office, the date and a signature, often with a stamp.

The purpose is practical. A passport or a diploma cannot be handed to everyone who asks for it. The original stays with its owner, and the recipient gets a copy that a third person vouches for.

The statement is narrow. The certifier confirms that the copy matches the document shown. The certifier does not confirm that the original is genuine, that its contents are correct, or, unless the statement says so, that the person presenting it is the person named in it. A certified copy of a forged document is a faithful copy of a forgery.

That depends on national law and on who is asking for the copy. There is no EU-wide list of people who may certify. In different countries and for different purposes, the certifier may be a notary, a lawyer, a public official or the body that issued the original. Certification of a copy by a notary is one of the lighter forms of notarisation.

The receiving body often has rules of its own. A bank, a court, a company register or a regulator may accept only certain certifiers, may ask for particular wording, or may want the certification to be recent. The safe order is to ask the recipient what it accepts and then find a certifier who fits.

A copy going abroad can need a further step. The receiving authority cannot know a foreign notary's signature, so it may ask for an apostille on the notary's certification, or for legalisation where the country is outside the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961.

Firms ask for a certified copy when they cannot see the original document themselves. Anti-money laundering law requires a firm to verify a client's identity. When the client is in the office, a member of staff can look at the passport. When the client is in another country, the firm receives only an image. A certified copy puts a trusted third person between the client and the firm: someone who did see the original.

The practice comes from national rules, supervisors' guidance and firms' own procedures built up under the earlier EU directives. Those sources differ by country, so a firm should check what its own supervisor expects.

The method has a weakness. The firm then has to judge a second document, the certification itself, often signed by someone it does not know.

No. The words "certified copy" do not appear in the regulation. Article 22(6) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 gives two means of obtaining what is needed to verify identity. The first is "the submission of an identity document, passport or equivalent and, where relevant, the acquisition of information from reliable and independent sources". The second is the use of electronic identification means at assurance level substantial or high "and relevant qualified trust services" under the eIDAS Regulation.

The record-keeping rule speaks of copies, not certified copies. Article 77(1)(a) requires a firm to retain "a copy of the documents and information obtained in the performance of customer due diligence", "including information obtained through electronic identification means". For transaction records, Article 77(1)(c) asks for "the original documents or copies admissible in judicial proceedings under the applicable national law". That is the closest the text comes to a quality requirement for a copy.

More detail is left to a lower level. Article 28(1) set 10 July 2026 as the deadline for the Anti-Money Laundering Authority to draft regulatory technical standards on the information to be collected for due diligence, including the reliable and independent sources that may be used to verify identity. The regulation applies from 10 July 2027. Until then national law applies, and it may be more specific about copies.

They give a firm a way to verify a remote client that does not start from a paper copy. Under Article 22(6)(b), electronic identification at assurance level substantial or high and relevant qualified trust services stand beside the identity document as a means of verification in their own right.

Recital 66 explains the intention. Electronic identification under the eIDAS Regulation "should be taken into account and accepted by obliged entities for the customer identification process". Where it is not available to a customer, for example because the customer lives in a third country, "verification should take place through relevant qualified trust services".

What the firm keeps changes as well. Article 77(1)(a) expressly covers information obtained through electronic identification means, so the file holds that information where it would otherwise hold a stamped photocopy.

This does not make certified copies disappear. Documents outside the identity check, such as a foreign company's constitutional documents, may still be requested as certified copies.

An electronic copy cannot be refused as evidence only because it is electronic. Article 46 of the eIDAS Regulation states: "An electronic document shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it is in electronic form."

The rule is about admissibility. It does not say that a scan is equal to the original or to a certified copy, and the weight a court gives to it is left to national law.

A document that is electronic from the start is in a stronger position. If the issuing body applies a qualified electronic seal, Article 35(2) gives the document a presumption of integrity and of correctness of origin. The recipient can then check the file itself and does not need a third person to compare it with an original.