A consortium of Identrus member financial institutions is to release an open specification for B2B payment initiation over the Internet. The consortium, known as Identrus Project Eleanor, will publish the specs in October 2000.
"Eleanor Payments initiation products redesign the payment process to meet the needs of B2B buyers, sellers and third parties to safely, simply and quickly settle global transactions electronically via the Internet," says Bill Cameron, of CIBC and chairman of Identrus Project Eleanor group.
Eleanor Payments enable financial institutions to offer a range of payment instruments to their business customers. Businesses can choose to accept payment: by payment order, with no obligation to the buyer; by payment obligation, where the buyer guarantees the payment; or by bank-mediated certified payment, where the bank guarantees the payment.
Eleanor Payments will originate payments through national and international payment systems, including the interbank Swift network.
Sun Microsystems and iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions have developed the open Eleanor Payments specifications and reference implementation for integration of the Identrus specifications into Eleanor Payments products.