29 June - 5 July 2000

First local online payment gateway set up

by David Kelleher

While many companies in Europe and the US have been operating 'cybershops' for years, electronic shopping in Malta never really took off.

Basically this was due to three factors: no proper infrastructure was in place, previous attempts were hampered by the local banks' reluctance to accept a local payment gateway and, finally, Maltese were extremely (and still are) sceptical about purchasing stuff online from local outlets.

However this is set to change in the coming weeks with the introduction of Malta's first payment gateway. Designed and set up by local IT company Endeavour, the gateway allows anyone with a website to accept payments from their website.

Contacted by The Malta Business Weekly, a spokesman for Endeavour said that this was a real payment gateway and all transactions were processed by a local bank.

"Transactions are carried out instantly and the cards are debited in real time. Everything is done over a secure line. All data is encrypted," the spokesman said.

Guaranteeing a secure line and confidentiality is a must to ensure that locals will accept to give their credit card details over the Net. That Endeavour have the blessing of Bank of Valletta is in itself a guarantee. Local Internet Service Provider Kemmunet are already making use of the service to enable their subscriber to renew their subscriptions online. And this is but one of dozens of e-commerce and B2B possibilities.

"We're working with BOV at the moment, yet the system is totally independent of the bank we use. For the time being we are accepting Cashlink Cards but not the Quickcash. Visa and Mastercard, irrespective of which bank is the issuer, are also accepted," the spokesman said.

He added: "While we will obviously be working to have all bank cards accepted, we want to make sure that the gateway is up and running smoothly.

Asked why the bank's sudden turnaround, the spokesman said that the total security of their systems convinced the bank that they meant business.

"The payment page is secure and only the payment gateway and the banks have access to the credit card details submitted. The merchant operating the website does not. Moreover, all data transferred is encrypted.

"And even the credit card details stored on the server are encrypted - 128 bit - so even if the server is physically stolen, the data will not be accessible! Basically we asked the bank for every instance when they had trouble with a card payment. Our system does not allow any of these instances to occur," the spokesman said.

Basically, the systems works as follows. Say a company, Maltasack, wants to accept payments online for its range of pencils. You first go to their website and choose what you want to purchase. Once you're finished, you are taken to a secure page where you will submit your personal details.

All data from here on is encrypted. Once you submit your personal details, you will be taken to another page where you will be given a summary of your order. On this page you may enter your credit card details. This is also a secure page.

"When you press 'proceed' your credit card and payment details will be sent to the payment gateway, while the delivery details will be sent to Maltasack. The gateway will display an order summary on screen (only the last four digits of the card number will be visible) and check with the bank whether the payment is valid," he explained.

Once the gateway has a reply from the bank it will send an email to the client with the relevant information (payment accepted or declined). The payment is processed instantly.

The company will also receive an email with the order information. The email does not contain the full credit card number (only the last four digits).

At all times, the encryption used is 128 bit unless Endeavour are limited by outside factors. For an idea of how the system works, visit the online shopping store at: http://www.shout.com.mt/OnlineStore/pages/OnlineStore.htm

Another difference from other online shops like Amazon is the shopping cart system. Built in-house, the shopping cart is always on-screen and updated in real time. Thus unlike Amazon, for example, each item chosen is visible at the bottom of the page.

The company has also developed a highly advanced Internet search engine at:

http://www.shout.com.mt. If you have a website this can also be added to WebShout's database. All you have to do is click on Add URL and fill in the form.

If the website uses META tags for description and keywords and the title tag (a properly designed page should have these tags, they provide more information on the content), WebShout will add these automatically to its database. Users can also choose a password which can be used at a later date to make changes to the site's entry.