Grant a mandate for transactions as a person

When you grant a mandate, you act as the assignor. Your details will automatically be searched for in the Population Information System.

There are four stages to granting a mandate for transactions

Step 1: Choice of parties

The person to whom you grant the mandate must be competent and at least 18 years old.

When you grant a mandate

• to a person, who has a Finnish personal identity code, you will need their last name, first name or preferred first name and personal identity code. 
• to a company or organisation registered in Finland, you will need the name or business ID of the company or organisation.

You can also grant a mandate to a company that is not registered in Finland, if at least one mandate has previously been registered for the company using the Mandate service provided by officials. To grant a mandate, you will need the VAT ID of the EU country or the national business ID of the country with which the previous mandate is registered. Please note that in the authorisation register the country code of the country of registration has been added to the start of the national business ID.

If you wish, you can grant a mandate to several persons, companies and organisations at once. The granted mandate is the same for everyone: you are the assignor, all the assignees can act in the same matters and the mandate is valid for the same period of time. 

Step 2: Choice of mandate themes

Familiarise yourself with mandate themes before granting any mandates.

When granting a mandate, select the mandate theme you wish from the list in Suomi.fi. You will then only see the mandate themes that are available for private persons.

You can browse the list or search for a mandate theme by its name or part of its name. Check from the description of the mandate theme what an assignee can do on your behalf with each mandate.

You can select numerous mandate themes at one time. You will have to select at least one mandate theme before you can go on.

If the mandate theme you have selected uses a mandate specifier, you can, if necessary and before moving on, restrict or target the mandate to apply to certain elements or subjects only. Only use the specifier when you have received more detailed instructions on the e-service in which the mandate is to be used. The use of a specifier is not compulsory, and you may grant a mandate without one.

Step 3: Specifying the period of validity

A mandate must always have a start and end date.

You can specify a mandate’s period of validity by giving the relevant dates or you can select one that lasts 1, 5, 15, 20 or 25 years. The shortest period of validity for a mandate is one day and the longest is 25 years.

Step 4: Mandate validation

You will receive a notification, if the mandates to be granted overlap with previously granted mandates or if you cannot grant a mandate to the person you have selected. You can remove these mandates and continue with the validation of other mandates.

Check mandate details

• You are the assignor.
• The assignee is a person, company or organisation that can act on your behalf.
• The mandate themes you have selected and the period of validity of the mandate are correct.

If you wish to change the details before the mandate is validated, you can go back over these steps.

The mandate you have granted becomes valid as from its start date when you have validated it.

You will see the mandates for transactions you have granted in granted mandates. When you select an assignee, you will see a list of all the mandates granted to this assignee. Select a single mandate to see its details.

If you have a large number of granted mandates, you can:

• search for mandates granted to a specific person, company or organisation by name or identifier
• search for mandates granted for certain mandate themes or with certain specifier
• limit the list based on the period of validity of the mandates.

The assignees can see the mandates for transactions they have received in received mandates. 

You will see the mandates whose period of validity has expired or those which have been invalidated prior to their expiration in expired mandates.

If you use Suomi.fi Messages, you will receive the details of new mandate requests there. 

You will see the mandate requests sent to you on the received mandate requests in Suomi-fi e-Authorizations. 

You must approve a mandate request i.e. validate the mandate, so that the party submitting the request will have the right to act on your behalf. Validation means that the mandate is valid from its start date. 

You can also reject a mandate request. If the request is rejected, the mandate will never become valid and it will be invalidated from Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. A party submitting a mandate request will not receive notification that the request has been rejected: you will have to do that yourself, where necessary.

If you have a large number of mandates, you can:

• search  for mandates requested by a specific person, company or organisation with a name or identifier
• search for mandates requested for certain mandate themes or certain specifier
• limit the list based on the period of validity of the mandates
• you can select several or all mandate requests to be accepted at the same time.

To accept or reject a mandate request:

1. Select one or more assignees in the received requests. If you select one, you will see a list of all requests by this assignee. If you select more than one, you will see all requests from all selected assignees.
2. Select one or more mandate requests from the list for approval.
3. Check the details of the mandate(s) in the summary. 
4. Remove from the list any mandate requests that you do not want to approve.
5. If necessary, edit the period of validity of the mandates that you want to approve.
6. Validate the mandate(s). If you validate a mandate that overlaps with an existing mandate, the already existing mandate will be invalidated. 
7. You can see validated mandates in your granted mandates, and the assignee will see these in received mandates.

You can use a mandate for transactions you have previously granted as a template for a new mandate.

You can copy the following as a template for a new mandate

• an existing mandate or an expired mandate
• a mandate that has previously been granted to a person, a company, or organisation
• a mandate that has been granted for certain mandate themes previously.

The mandates for transactions that you have granted in Suomi.fi e-Authorizations are valid for a specific length of time when they are granted. You can also invalidate a mandate prior to its expiration.

How to invalidate a mandate:

1. Select one or more assignees in the granted mandates. If you select one, you will see a list of all the mandates this assignee has. If you select more than one, you will see all the mandates of all selected assignees.
2. Select one or more mandates from the list for invalidation.
3. Invalidate the mandates you have selected.

You will see the invalidated mandates on the Expired Mandates page. The assignee will not be informed that the mandate has been invalidated, and you must notify them of the matter where necessary.

If you have mistakenly granted the wrong mandate, the mandate must be granted again. Remember to also invalidate the mistakenly granted mandate.