CyberCash Inc. said that
Barclays Merchant Services has selected its secure payment technology as the
foundation of Britain’s first bank-owned Internet payment system.
Barclays Merchant Services, which handles credit and debit card purchases at
about 125,000 shops and businesses across the UK, will offer ePDQ, a ‘virtual’
version of Barclays Merchant Services’ PDQ point-of-sale terminals used by UK
businesses to process credit and debit card transactions.
ePDQ works in the same way as the point-of-sale terminals, but over the
Internet. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.
“Barclays Merchant Services has taken an important step in
offering its customers the convenience of online shopping and adding to the. . .development of electronic commerce,” said Bruce Wilson, executive vice president, global business development at
CyberCash.
The ePDQ service is similar to CyberCash’s CashRegister Internet payment
service already available to merchants in the United States. Merchants can
provide a full, online shopping experience to their customers with a service
providing credit card payment authorization and settlement to their bank account. The service operates 24
hours a day, seven days a week, enabling sales to be completed with customers
all over the world, regardless of differences in time zones.
“ePDQ provides the opportunity for UK businesses to begin trading online,”
said Tony Slater, sales and marketing director of Barclays Merchant Services.
“. . .ePDQ gives retailers greater piece of mind knowing established names such
as Barclays Merchant Services and CyberCash are behind it.”
Barclays Merchant Services is one of the UK’s largest acquirers and processors
of plastic card transactions. In 1997 over 860 million purchases were made
with credit and debit cards in retail outlets belonging to Barclays Merchant
Services’ retail customers in the UK.
