HSBC is to offer its retail customers a new service to authenticate
card payments online and help reduce disputed transactions, a
problem which has cost UK retailers tens of millions of pounds
annually.
The high-street bank's merchants will use software from
ClearCommerce to authenticate and record card-not-present
transactions made online or over the phone, via a Web portal
developed by the bank.
The service, which is being tested by a small number of HSBC's
70,000-plus merchants, will integrate with the main payment
standards from Visa and Mastercard. It is due to be launched in
spring.
Paul Baker, HSBC senior project manager, said without a proper
authentication system there is no way to prove that the cardholder
has shopped at a merchant's Web site as there is no audit
trail.
"We looked at finding a partner that would support all the payment
standards on the market and also agile enough to keep up with
Internet security standards," he said.
Previously HSBC provided limited card payment services for its
merchants by using specialist software suppliers.
So far, however, retailers have been slow to adopt the payment
authentication standards pushed by the card giants. Concerns have
been raised that members will be saddled with the extra cost of
having to link their systems to a raft of competing online payment
standards.