Mastercard International has formed an agreement with Trintech Inc which allows the charge card firmÆs banking members to use TrintechÆs net payment processing software to offer web versions of their plastic charge cards. The deal opens up an expanded market of 23,000 Mastercard-affiliated banking firms for San Jose, California-based Trintech, which has now signed up two of the three largest card firms, Visa and Mastercard, leaving only American Express.
Trintech claims that its Payment Net Issuer software, which allows banks to run card user authentication and credit checks before processing the transaction, will help save banks the cost of credit card fraud. UK credit card fraud totalled 135m pounds ($217.5m) in 1998, according to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS). Trintech expects to charge between $200,000 and $500,000 per bank for the software and make additional revenue, probably less than $10, for every online card a bank issues. Mastercard and Trintech will jointly market the technology to the card firmÆs members.
