Hewlett Packard Co’s electronic payment subsidiary Verifone Inc has launched its Secure Electronic Transaction Version 1.0-based internet commerce software, claiming to have beaten its competitors, including IBM Corp, to market. HP says the move paves the way for secure financial transactions over the internet. Verifone has a 70% share of the world’s credit card terminals, and it hopes to grab a similar-sized chunk of the internet payment business as well. Verifone has developed software that is comprised of three distinct parts, vGate 4.0 gateway software for the transaction processor, vPOS, merchant software for internet commerce servers, and vWallet an internet browser plug-in for consumers. It has signed up eleven global transaction services companies to take its vGate software, which it reckons will lead to business with 1 million merchants, and 200 financial institutions. The vPos software has been integrated into Microsoft Corp, Oracle Corp, and Netscape Communications Corp’s electronic commerce servers, and its vWallet software licensed by various banks including Wells Fargo Bank, Royal Bank Of Canada, and Sumitomo Credit Services. The banks will license and distribute the vWallet software to their customers. Verisign Inc and GTE Cybertrust, the major provides of digital certificates for SET transaction verification, are also signed up in support. Verifone is shipping all the software now, and selling it bundled with hardware servers through resellers, but will not disclose the cost of each component of the SET software. It is still working on integrating smart-cards into the system.
