CyberSource Expands Global eCommerce Reach

"U.S. eCommerce will grow over 18% in 2007 according to Forrester Research," said Scott Cruickshank, president and COO of CyberSource. "Within Europe, 2007 eCommerce growth rates are forecasted at 27%. Merchants want to pursue markets beyond U.S. borders easily, safely, and with real security. Our goal is to provide eCommerce merchants with products and services that enable them to accept payments from consumers virtually anywhere in the world. This enhancement to our global capabilities is an important step towards that goal."

Many U.S. merchants have limited their access to this global eCommerce opportunity by accepting only payment methods common in the United States. But many of the world's consumers prefer other payment methods. In many countries, popular or even dominant payment methods include bank transfers, direct debits, and locally or regionally issued bank cards such as Maestro, Carte Bleue, CartaSi, Dankort, Solo, Laser, etc.

Accepting locally preferred payment methods can be a costly and complex enterprise requiring months and even years of effort. Some countries require local presence before merchants can accept direct debits, bank transfers and certain payment cards; some require one or more local banking relationships and processing connections to gain market coverage. CyberSource's global payment services shield merchants from the daunting complexity of international eCommerce. Now, one connection with CyberSource provides both the payment network access and banking relationships required to tap global markets, often without requiring the merchant to establish a local presence.

Merchants working through CyberSource can readily accept transactions online from over 190 countries. Among the newest connections are Brazil, Mexico, and India. The direct debit payment method, popular in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain is currently supported, and is being extended to the U.K. In addition to current support for standard bank transfers in over 50 countries, online bank transfers are now supported in Austria, Belgium, China (termed Chinese Debit Card), Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

A key concern for merchants conducting global eCommerce is higher fraud rates. According to CyberSource's 8th Annual Online Fraud Report, merchants say the rate of fraud associated with international orders is two-and-one-half times as high as domestic orders. CyberSource global payment services include Decision Manager, a merchant-friendly fraud portal with the ability to define business rules by country and payment type.

The newly-designed hierarchical management structure of Decision Manager allows merchants to easily manage worldwide order activity and multiple, country-specific screening profiles through one central rules management and review system. In addition to purchase-velocity monitoring algorithms and over 100 validation tests, including IP geolocation and international delivery address verification, this fraud management portal now includes access to an international telephone validation database covering over 100 countries. Merchants can fine tune decision accuracy by supplying additional data from regional validation sources or customer history files through the use of custom fields within the fraud management portal. Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode services are supported worldwide -- particularly useful for merchants needing to comply with the mandate requiring MasterCard SecureCode protection for online Maestro card acceptance as of June 30, 2007. All of these capabilities are available to merchants directly, or as a fully managed screening and order review service delivered by experienced CyberSource fraud analysts.

"Our goal is not just to make the global eCommerce transaction easier," added Cruickshank, "it is to make it safer. CyberSource has always treated payment acceptance and risk management as two sides of the same coin for merchants, so we are taking that same approach as we help them go global."

CyberSource now has payment data security services that accompany the payment transaction to reduce risk and streamline mandated security compliance as merchants conduct global eCommerce. With CyberSource's global payment services, merchants can store payment data in CyberSource's secure systems instead of their own systems. The risk of handling and storing payment data is greatly diminished; "tokens" take the place of the data, which are then used to initiate payment actions on the account. All global payment types and checkout models are supported, including one-click buy, subscription billing, single transaction purchases and credits. Data is easily uploaded and retrieved through the single connection to CyberSource. Merchants seeking Payment Card Industry certification will find these services can accelerate and streamline their efforts.