STRATEGIC PARTNERS
March 7, 2002
HOUSTON -- PULSE EFT Association has signed a letter of intent to offer SafeDebit, a product that utilizes ATM infrastructure to allow consumers to pay for purchases on the Internet with funds withdrawn from their checking accounts, to its member financial institutions.
PULSE expects to begin offering the service to its 2,000 members in early 2001.
SafeDebit was developed and is licensed by NYCE Corporation, the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based EFT network. The Star Systems network also has signed an agreement to offer SafeDebit to its member institutions.
Web shoppers who see SafeDebit listed as a payment option during an online purchase "check out" process can click on the SafeDebit icon, and then will be prompted to insert a financial institution-issued CD-ROM "card" into the PC's CD-ROM drive. The card is similar in size and shape to a debit card, and like a debit card, contains encrypted account information. In addition to the card, shoppers will be required to enter an individual PIN.
"The process is virtually the same as using a traditional ATM card, and provides customers a new level of security not now available for making purchases over the Internet," said PULSE President and CEO Stan Paur.
Merchants have expressed interest in SafeDebit, Paur added, because processing those transactions is quicker and less expensive than processing credit card transactions.
"By working together -- and making SafeDebit available to our member institutions and merchant processors -- electronic payments networks will expand and enhance e-commerce payment options for millions of cardholders," said Dennis F. Lynch, president and CEO of NYCE Corporation.
PULSE links an estimated 45 million cardholders with more than 46,000 ATMs and 265,000 POS terminals throughout the U.S.
