Internet portal Yehey! and BancNet are to roll out a new online payment gateway, ePayGate, to ATM (automated teller machine) users across the Philippines.
The new payment facility will allow consumers to use their BanNet ATM cards to pay for goods and services via the Internet. Payment will be debited direct from customer accounts held with BancNet member banks and credited immediately to the online merchant.
Dave de Leon, Yehey! chief executive officer, says ePayGate will be targetted at dot-com and traditional brick-and-mortar merchants planning to join the Internet bandwagon, who are currently limited by the use of credit cards for their online transactions. "The availability of an ATM payment facility will enable these companies to process more transactions from end users who purchase goods and services from them, enabling more people to do e-commerce," he says.
BancNet ATM consortium has a network of 32 member-banks and a cardholder base of six million. Initially, there will be only four accredited banks - Allied Banking Corp., Manilla Banking Corp., Chinatrust Banking Corp., and United Overseas Bank.
Yehey.com currently has a total of 15 merchants offering their products and services over the Internet portal, and expects this number to rise to 120 by the end of the year.
The system is built over Microsoft Windows 2000 technology while the database runs on Microsoft SQL Server 2000.