BT Ignite is hoping to bolster its fortunes with a new hosted,
secure payment authentication solution pitched at the banking
community.
British Telecom's e-commerce solutions offshoot has enrolled Arcot
Systems - a specialist authentication company in California - to
help develop its 3-D Secure offering. BT Ignite will then offer 3-D
Secure to organisations that issue credit cards via an application
service provider (ASP) model.
The service is being introduced in preparation for the introduction
of the Visa Authenticated Payment Programme in April 2002, which
will enable banks and card issuers to validate cardholder
identities during online transactions. Card issuers will be liable
for online card fraud and will have to have Visa-approved
authentication offerings installed.
"We believe we can do it [offer the solution] more cost-effectively
than if issuers do it themselves," said John Hale, 3-D Secure
product manager at BT Ignite.
Hale stated that the offering was ready, but that BT Ignite would
not make it go live until it gets a customer. And this could take
some time.
While Hales admitted that BT Ignite was talking to some card
issuers, he said it was nearly impossible that any such vendor
would be interested in the service before the April 2002 deadline.
"Virtually everybody we have spoken to has said they probably won't
do anything until the liability shift arrives," said Hale. "I don't
anticipate anyone going live until April next year."
BT Ignite refused to reveal its pricing or revenue projection for
the offering, and Hale admitted that much was riding on how many
users the banks manage to attract.
"It's difficult to tell [how much money will be generated] because
we don't know how many card holders will actually say they want to
take up this service."
Initially, BT Ignite will offer the service in the UK, but it also
has plans for European expansion in the coming months.