Bank seeks to address security fears

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is hoping to benefit from users' distrust of spending online by routing ecommerce payment requests directly through its own network.

The bank says its UK-focused payment service, Roynet Direct, provides a secure payment gateway for business-to-consumer retailers. Rather than payments being handled by the retailer's website, requests are routed directly through RBS's network at its Edinburgh headquarters.

RBS said it has clients ranging from car sales sites to flower sellers for the system which was launched last week.

"We saw a need for merchants who want to trade on the internet and have a bank name associated with the payments. There is a great deal of consumer comfort by association to the bank," said Rob Jamieson, head of technology for channel development at RBS.

Researcher IDC claimed in a recent survey that one in five people won't shop online because of security fears.

Jamieson explained that upon arrival at the virtual checkout, the online shopper is taken to the RBS payment page on the bank's network. The bank authenticates the card details and confirms payment to the retailer. The customer is then returned to the retailer's website.

The software, co-developed by online transaction firm QSI Payments, ensures a cardholder's details are re-routed directly to the bank during internet trading via a secure, authentication-based payment system.

"Without payments there is no commerce in ecommerce. Our architecture addresses the scepticism towards existing epayment processes pervading the marketplace today," said Keith Monaghan, vice-president of European operations at QSI.

The QSI software supports a variety of payment types from credit and debit cards to loyalty schemes, on devices from PCs to cash machines, and in any environment from websites to call centres. Other companies evaluating QSI's software are HSBC and Mastercard.

First published in Computing