Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 17:18:39 -0400 From: reagle@rpcp.mit.edu (Joseph M. Reagle Jr.) To: reagle@rpcp.mit.edu Subject: National Bank Brings Internet CyberCash To Canada 06/05/96
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1996 JUN 5 (NB) -- The National Bank of Canada, one of Canada's smaller chartered banks, has signed an agreement with CyberCash Inc. (NASDAQ:CYCH) to bring the Reston, Virginia-based company's Internet payment service to Canada.
CyberCash touts its payment service -- also called CyberCash -- as a secure method of making payments over the Internet using a credit card.
To use the system, a consumer first downloads software called the CyberCash wallet from CyberCash's site on the World Wide Web (http://www.cybercash.com ) or from a participating merchant's site, said Melissa Walia, a spokeswoman for CyberCash. The free software, installed on the user's PC, allows the customer to make purchases via the Internet and have them charged to a credit card.
CyberCash supports major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, company officials said. Walia told Newsbytes that Canadians who wish to use the service will not have to be customers of the National Bank. The bank will work with participating Canadian merchants to provide the CyberCash service.
The CyberCash Cash Register is the merchant piece of the CyberCash system. It works on a merchant's server and receives information necessary to process a credit card transaction. The system is designed to work with an existing financial institution infrastructure, officials said.
CyberCash said it is committed to supporting the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) standard for Internet credit-card transactions, announced recently by Visa and MasterCard. The company claimed it plans to be one of the first SET-compliant Internet payment services available.
Neither Walia nor Bridget Limoges, a spokeswoman for the National Bank, would say how many Canadian merchants have signed up to use CyberCash at this point. However, Limoges told Newsbytes that interest in the technology has been strong.
The CyberCash credit-card payment service, launched in the United States in April, 1995, is expected to be available to Canadians this summer, Limoges said. CyberCash also said it is working on electronic check and coin services, expected to be released in the second half of this year.
(Grant Buckler/19960605/Press Contact: Melissa Walia, Niehaus Ryan Group for CyberCash, tel 415-615-7911, fax 415-615-7901, Internet e-mail melissa@nrgpr.com; Bridget Limoges, National Bank of Canada, 514-394-6494; Public Contact: CyberCash, Internet e-mail info@cybercash.com)
_______________________ Regards, Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. - Albert Camus Joseph Reagle http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle@mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E