ANSI to work on e-payment -- first meeting coming up

[Rich Salz <rsalz@osf.org>]

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.