######################################## #Written by David Tam, 1999. # #davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999# ######################################## From tamda@ecf.toronto.edu Mon Jul 12 18:27:31 1999 Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 13:48:23 -0500 (EST) From: David Kar Fai Tam To: APS 424S Subject: #11-02/09/99-"Banking group preparing Internet billing system" The Globe and Mail, Thursday, February 4, 1999. B3. Canadian chartered banks and other financial institutions are working on a nation-wide seamless bill payment system for the internet. Dubbed "Interac II", the banks hope to standardize a safe and secure method of presenting bills to customers and receiving payments all through the Internet. A pilot project is scheduled with some of the country's largest billers for June of this year. They hope to have a full nation wide program some time in the year 2000. If this standardization becomes successful, it will encourage more electronic commerce on the internet and help e- business to reach its promised goals. If the banks can co- ordinate themselves appropriately and leave behind all politics, they will hopefully be able to repeat the success that has been seen with the Interac system of inter-operable debit card payments and bank machine networks. Such a system on the internet can lead to a nationally accepted method of payment over the internet. As we have seen in Canada, the success of the Interac system is unmatched in the United States. This potential for the so called "Interac II" system can place Canadian companies far ahead in the e-business games compared to competitors in the United States. Canada may acheive a very strong domestic e-business industry and become a model for the rest of the world to follow. However, many promises have been made in the past concerning the internet and e-commerce. The banks and credit card companies have been promising a standardized, secure solution to internet payment for a very long time. Since nothing significant has appeared, there is a lot of skepticism. Perhaps it is only a pyschological barrier and only time will be the solution. When the generation that was born after the internet explosion finally become majority consumers, they may have a different mind set which will enable them to overcome our current barriers.