IBM, VI tie up to offer secure payment solutions for online shopping

IBM India Ltd. has tied up with Venture Infotek Group (VI) to offer services

that will facilitate secure credit card payments for goods, services and

subscriptions carried out on the Internet. According to VI director Piyush

Khaitan, the services will start in next 30-45 days. This is the first of its

kind in the country, which is expected to provide better security in

transactions through the Net.

This business-to-costomer solution will be built around IBM’s Net.Commerce.

IBM and VI will provide payment engine software to Web merchants to enable their

e-commerce Web sites to now accept credit card transactions online. This will be

a service available to all mechants, Internet Service Providers and banks on ‘pay

and use’ basis, said Mr Khaitan.

The service will allow the buyer to not divulge his or her credit card, debit

card or smart card number to the Web site. The buyer has to key in a unique

number (not printed on the card) which is received by the Internet Merchant

Payment Server of VI. The server will verify and send the actual card number to

the bank for further verification.

The Internet Merchant Payment Server will be developed by IBM and VI, while

the latter will operate it. The server will be connected to VI’s existing

Payment Processing Infrastructure, set up as a joint venture with Equifax Inc.

IBM will develop and provide the solution to integrate the various merchant

servers and the server for facilitating online credit card transactions.

To begin with VI will only process credit card transaction over the Net. Mr

Khaitan pointed out that as debit and smart cards became popular in the country,

VI would start offering services on transaction through these cards too.