Caisse d'Epargne is the first acquiring bank in France to support the Verified by Visa programme, and is planning to be first-to-market to offer the new service. News of the French bank's conversion to the Visa authentication service comes a week after Barclaycard, the UK's largest credit card issuer, announced plans to promote Verified by Visa to all of its business customers.

Verified by Visa allows consumers to protect their Visa accounts from unauthorised use by selecting a personalised password for Web purchases. Each time cardholders make purchases at participating online stores, they are automatically presented with a Verified by Visa window where they enter their password and authenticate themselves to the issuer.

Caisse d'Epargne is to use Arcot's TransFort solution to initiate and manage the authentication process for Verified by Visa based on the Visa 3-D Secure Interoperability Standard.

Jacques Schuhmacher, e-payments director of Caisse d'Epargne, says the roll-out of the programme "will enable French merchants to tap into buyers outside of France and transact across borders in complete security".

Like its French counterpart, Barclaycard Merchant Services is the first UK bank to be equipped with Visa’s 3-D Secure standard. Bill Thomson of Barclaycard Merchant Services comments: "Online fraud is a major concern for many of our merchants and costs UK businesses £55 million pounds each year in chargebacks. Verified by Visa provides a simple, cost-effective solution to guaranteeing online payments, helping to boost cardholder confidence in internet shopping and, in so doing, helps to increase revenue for our merchants."