Yes, provided they are duly signed by the debtor.

Direct debit mandates granted by debtors to creditors may be in physical format (paper) or electronic format and must always be signed by the debtor and stored by the creditor.

Electronic direct debit mandates must bear the debtor’s electronic signature, given that a handwritten signature is not possible in a purely electronic form. Under the applicable legislation, in order for an electronic signature to be equivalent to the handwritten signature contained in the documents, and consequently considered valid for a direct debit mandate, it must be:

(a) in the form of a qualified electronic signature (e.g. using a 'Chave Móvel Digital', which allows its users to attach a qualified electronic signature to electronic documents free of charge); or

(b) in another form of electronic signature, provided this was previously agreed between the creditor and the debtor.

A direct debit mandate may be granted electronically through channels directly provided by the creditor or via a PSP (e.g. home banking, point-of-sale terminal or ATM), provided one of the two prerequisites mentioned above is met. If the direct debit mandate is granted through PSP channels, strong customer authentication must be applied.