New online credit card authentication standards guarantee online payments

Dubai, UAE, 20^th May 2003

Online merchants and credit card holders in the Middle East are set to benefit from today’s announcement of a collaboration between Comtrust, the e-solutions business unit of Etisalat, and GPayments, the Sydney-based payment authentication company.
The new relationship will see the introduction of e-payment solutions based on the new credit card authentication standards set by Visa and MasterCard - Verified by Visa and MasterCard’s SecureCode. The new standards are designed to enhance credit card usage online by introducing a new level of security drastically reducing the threat of online credit card fraud.

“There has been a call for a global requirement for issuing banks to adhere to the new credit authentication standards,” said Bahram Boutorabi, CEO, GPayments. “These standards have been introduced to encourage the uptake of e-commerce, by adding further protection to cardholders and merchants as well as banks.”
The partnership means, for the first time, regional issuing banks, as well as merchants, will have access to credit card authentication solutions compliant with the new standards in the Middle East.

According to Comtrust, GPayments was chosen for a number of reasons. “GPayments has been involved in the evolution of the new standards from the start. They have extensive experience in the implementation of solutions based on these standards throughout Asia and Australasia,” said Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, General Manager, Comtrust.

“Also GPayments’ solutions are unique in the sense they support both Verified by Visa and SecureCode, eliminating the need to deploy multiple solutions catering to each standard, making them extremely effective and cost efficient as well as reducing implementation time.”
Comtrust and GPayments say, the uptake of Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code will mean the region’s online merchants, who sign up for the service, will have guaranteed online payments.

“For the first time merchants in the Middle East will be able to have complete confidence in online transactions. Verified by Visa and SecureCode based solutions allow the processing of payments after first having the payment authenticated with the issuing bank. This system also provides greater protection to cardholders and issuing banks,” said Julfar.

The new credit card authentication service offered by Comtrust and GPayments has built-in checks and balances to authenticate the identity of transacting parties as well as ensuring correct and validated authorizations for the payment to take place.

Cardholders first register with their issuing bank, of which there are over 50 in the GCC alone, to set a secret personal password or pin to help protect their card against unauthorized use. When a cardholder makes a purchase at a participating merchant website, the issuing bank confirms the identity of the cardholder with the online merchant by requesting the cardholder to enter the password or pin that they have previously registered.

“This is the equivalent to signing a sales docket in the real world,” said Boutorabi. “This new model dramatically increases security of online payments, reducing merchant exposure to fraud and disputes. These global authenticated payments standards will go a long way towards eliminating e-commerce disputes and fraud.”
The partnership between Comtrust and GPayments will see the introduction into the Middle East of new products and services, adhering to the credit card authentication standards, by the end of 2003.

“We will provide the necessary mix of secure hosting, connectivity, specialist software implementation and managed services, allowing issuing banks to register their cardholders for the service and then to authenticate and authorize subsequent online payment transactions,” said Julfar.
According to Comtrust, the new relationship means a complete set of credit card authentication solutions is now available in the Middle East. “Our partnership with GPayments provides the necessary expertise and resources needed to deploy these much needed solution across the region. For the first time issuing banks can now locally source solutions compliant with the new global standards for credit card authentication set by Visa and MasterCard,” said Julfar.

“As a leading regional provider of e-business solutions, we have always taken the lead to drive e-commerce into the region. The results of this partnership will greatly enhance the regional digital economy. Online merchants and consumers alike will have even greater confidence in e-commerce knowing that banks are implementing solutions to further secure online transactions.