Visa USA is reporting a growing number of merchants, financial institutions and e-commerce service providers signing up to its Internet payment authentication process, 'Verified by Visa'.
Verified by Visa enables Visa card issuers to validate the identity of their cardholders in real time, during online payment transactions. Each time cardholders make purchases at participating online stores, they are automatically presented with a Verified by Visa window where they enter their personalised password.
"Until now, online retailers have not had a reliable method of verifying a cardholder’s identity during an online transaction. In addition, many consumers have lingering concerns about the security of online shopping, and this has become the major barrier to the widespread acceptance of e-commerce," says Jim McCarthy, senior vice president of e-Visa, a division of Visa USA.
Cardholders will be able to sign up for the new service this autumn by visiting the company's Web site.
Financial institutions to have signed up to Verified by Visa include Bank of America, First USA, Fleet Credit Card Services, a subsidiary of FleetBoston Financial, Providian Financial, SouthTrust and SunTrust. Visa says it is working with the top 50 online merchants and other e-commerce service providers to integrate the Visa Payer Authentication software into their payment servers.