Secure e-commerce services initiative

Bank of Valletta and e-shore have joined forces to provide secure e-commerce services to local merchants and on-line shoppers. The initiative will offer the local merchant community a possibility to attend e-commerce workshops to see how their business may benefit by adopting secure e-commerce strategies. The workshops will be sponsored by the two organisations.
BOV chairman Joseph F.X. Zahra said the bank considered e-commerce as a very important part of its future strategy and that it was presently upgrading its systems to be able to better cater for future demands.
Maurice Zarb Adami, chairman of Terranet Ltd and Maltacom plc, said “recent market research suggests that the main reasons keeping merchants and shoppers from moving to e-commerce are related to their concern on security issues. In reality it may be much safer to pass your credit card details over the Internet than it is to give it out at a physical outlet, as long as the on-line merchant you are buying from is using systems you can trust. Maltacom and the Bank of Valletta are two Maltese institutions which people trust and together we want to offer secure systems on which merchants may feel confident to conduct their business, and which shoppers may feel confident to use.”
“Research shows that the market of active on-line shoppers has continued to grow over the last months, and we estimate on-line spending over the last 6 months at half a million Maltese liri.
“Most of this is presently going overseas as on-line shops in Malta are quite limited in number. But the positive note is that the Maltese Internet user is willing to buy on-line.
“As the younger generation become earners, then the growth will become even more acceler-ated,” Keith Fearne CEO Terranet Ltd, pointed out.