IMGCAP(1)]
NYCE Payments Network LLC, a unit of Milwaukee-based Metavante Technologies Inc., Tuesday announced it will pilot an e-commerce payments system that enables consumers to make purchases without sharing their PINs or account information on a merchant's Web site.
San Jose, Calif.-based Verient Inc. will provide the technology for the service, NYCE SafeDebit. The pilot is scheduled to begin sometime early next year.
NYCE president and CEO Steven Rathgaber tells ATM&Debit News a "major"merchant will be involved with the pilot, with more to be announced.
He declined to name the retailer.
"We're starting relatively modestly on purpose just to make sure all aspects of the service model are functioning as we think they will, and then we'll expand at the pace that the market and our partners can facilitate," Rathgaber says.
Consumers who want to use SafeDebit can choose the option, if it is rolled out nationally, on participating merchants' Web sites during the checkout process.
The Web site will transfer the purchaser to participating financial institutions' online-banking sites.
There, they can log in as they normally would to bank online and choose SafeDebit for their payment. SafeDebit creates virtual debit card information for one-time use and automatically fills in the required payment fields on the merchant's checkout screen. "It's a pretty tight, seamless integration between the financial institution and the merchant site for facilitation of payment," Rathgaber says.
Financial institutions that participate in the NYCE electronic funds transfer network have the option of joining SafeDebit, Rathgaber says.
This is NYCE's second foray into attempting to enable PIN-debit purchases over the Internet.
The previous version of SafeDebit used a CD-ROM to provide PIN information.
"That was a service we developed, and safe to say, it was ahead of its time," Rathgaber says.
NYCE decided to keep the name in hibernation for about nine years and dusted it off for this new venture, Rathgaber says.
"A whole bunch of things have changed in the last eight or nine years," he says.
Consumer are more Internet-savvy but are not making as many purchases as merchants would like because of security concerns, Rathgaber says.
