Fidelity National To Offer Clients Secure Vault Payments

NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based electronic payments organization that oversees the development and management of rules for automated clearinghouse transactions, today announced that Fidelity National Information Services will offer processing of Secure Vault Payments to its bank clients beginning later this year. Secure Vault harnesses the ACH system to enable consumers to make online purchases through their banks. Financial institutions participating in Secure Vault authenticate online shoppers and authorize and confirm their payments. That enhances security by eliminating the need for merchants to secure bank and account information from consumers' checks. By the fourth quarter, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity says it will make processing and settlement of Secure Vault transactions available to its 9,000 financial-institution clients worldwide. Metavante Corp. made a similar announcement earlier this year (CardLine, 3/15). A NACHA spokesperson says 34 Synovus-owned banks offer Secure Vault, including Columbus Bank & Trust. A number of other banks are poised to launch the service this summer, including Savings Bank of Maine, the spokesperson says. Last month, Apple Vacations Inc. announced the addition of Secure Vault as a payment option on its Web site, joining igourmet.com as one of the first retailers to offer the service to consumers.