VeriSign to deliver direct payment processing to American Express e-tailers

[October 25th 2000]

VeriSign, Inc. has announced that its Payflow payment services will now offer a direct connection to American Express. This will enable Internet merchants to authorize and settle American Express card transactions directly with American Express in real time.

The new VeriSign connection to American Express will enable merchants using Payflow to avoid third party fees for American Express transactions and may provide reduced transaction cycle times. In addition, American Express will market and offer VeriSign's Payflow Services to its small and medium merchants in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Payflow is a secure, reliable payment solution that enables merchants to authorize, process and manage real-time credit card transactions on the Internet. Payflow enables the processing of a wide range of payment types such as credit cards, purchase cards, debit cards, ACH, and Internet checks, and is a scalable solution that can easily grow to accommodate hundreds of millions of transactions per month. Payflow's open architecture offers online merchants an easy-to-deploy payment system at an innovative flat-fee monthly subscription. It supports both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) payment applications.

"We are always looking for ways to bring additional value to our merchant partners. Through our relationship with VeriSign, we are providing online businesses with the benefit of having a direct connection to American Express. As a result, merchants can reduce the costs associated with third-party transaction fees," said Paul Dottle, Senior Vice President, Network Development, American Express.

VeriSign's direct connection to American Express also gives merchants the ability to pass an extra level of data to American Express Corporate Purchasing Card customers including purchase order numbers and sales tax totals. This data allows buyers to perform easy transaction reconciliation and more efficient accounting. Merchants using Payflow payment services seamlessly benefit from the direct connection to American Express without having to change their storefront configuration.

"As Internet merchants continue to improve and refine their online businesses, cost and efficiency remain top-of-mind for them," said Anil Pereira, Senior Vice President of VeriSign's Internet Services Group. "By connecting directly to American Express, merchants using VeriSign payment services are now able to reduce their transaction costs while benefiting from the security and reliability of Payflow services."

Links
VeriSign		http://www.verisign.com