Johannesburg, 29 Oct 2004
A password system developed by Visa International to enable better authentication of credit cardholders when they make purchases over the Internet has been introduced to SA.
"First National Bank (FNB) is the first South African bank to provide the Verified by Visa (VBV) service to credit cardholders and online merchants, further reducing the opportunities for credit card abuse," says Jan Kleynhans, FNB Card CEO. "Online shopping just got a whole lot safer."
Kleynhans says for ordinary credit card fraud prevention, the banking industry is looking to smart cards that will provide chip and PIN authentication, but for reducing online exposure, FNB has introduced VBV.
FNB says Visa plays a pivotal role in developing innovative payment technologies as part of efforts to pioneer universal commerce, which is the ability to conduct commerce anywhere, anytime, in any way.
Kleynhans says VBV provides an additional security measure for combating e-commerce fraud and is a 3D Secure protocol that is being implemented in over 65 countries, representing 99% of the world`s e-commerce transactions.
Alan Scoular, FNB Card systems manager, says VBV is an authentication technology that uses Secure Sockets Layer encryption and a Merchant Server Plug-in to pass information and query participants to authenticate the cardholder during an online purchase, and protect payment card information as it is transmitted via the Internet.
VBV requires both merchants and credit cardholders to be registered with the service. After enrolment, the cardholder is ready to shop at any participating merchant site, where the merchant has integrated the VBV Merchant Server Plug-in.
Scoular says the card`s participation in the service is validated and the card user authenticated before the transaction is processed as usual.
"Authentication is a key element of the service, with the user being authenticated to the merchant and the bank being authenticated to the user with a personal assurance message, providing two-way assurance," says Scoular.
Kleynhans says FNB has set a target of adding 100 South African merchants to the international network of 25 000 merchants already participating in the VBV service.
"This is easy to use technology that seamlessly makes online shopping safer and should allay consumer concerns about online shopping security," concludes Kleynhans.
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