First Meeting of Electronic Commerce Work Group November 29, Washington, DC ANSI Accredited Standards Committee X9 - Financial Services - in response to the explosion of payment transaction proposals for the internet, has approved a new work item to develop a single secure electronic payment syntax. The first meeting of the Electronic Commerce Work Group will be Wednesday, November 29 from 9:00am till 5:00pm at the American Bankers Association, 1120 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Agenda Review of Scope of Work Consideration of Federal Reserve Request to expand scope to Bank-Bank messages Presentation from Industry groups with existing payment protocols Assignment of work items New items Next meetings (Jan/Feb. - San Francisco, May - Boston??) A draft scope: The payment syntax described in this standard is designed to order a financial institution to make payment to a merchant from an account of a purchaser based on the near term delivery of low monetary value goods or services. It will be possible to include this payment order in any electronic protocol that is based on communications between the purchaser and the merchant, and between the merchant and a financial institution. This standard does not describe, nor recommend, any particular communications protocol. When used within a complete payment infrastructure, the secure payment order described shall offer privacy and integrity of the purchaser's payment information, and shall prevent the purchaser from successfully repudiating the sending, or the merchant from successfully repudiating the receiving, of a valid payment order. Thus the financial institution can be sure that its customer requested the payment and that the merchant can be accurately identified on the account statement. About ASC X9 ASC X9 is the accredited standards developer which brings together banks, securities trading companies, equipment and software manufactures, associations and others in the financial services industry to develop voluntary nationally accepted standards based on industry consensus. Founded in 1976, ASC X9 was accredited by the American National Standards institute in 1984. The American Bankers Association serves as X9 Secretariat. For more information on X9, contact the secretariat at 202/663-5300, for more information on the Electronic Commerce Work Group, contact its chair, Tom Jones at 602/554-3569.