Chasing online payment

THE NEW European headquarters of Chase Paymentech, the specialist online payments firm, will play a key role in researching new online payment methods for the global firm.

Last week the joint venture between US firms JPMorgan Chase and First Data said it would create up to 100 new jobs in Europe over the next three years with about half of those located in Dublin.

The Irish centre is designed to improve support to European clients, help the firm win new European business, but also research alternative payment types and new markets, according to Shane Fitzpatrick, managing director of the European operations.

"Although our core competency is in credit and debit card payments, we are payment agnostic," explains Fitzpatrick. "We don't mind what type of payment people use, we just make sure the proper payment experience is in place. If pepper became a currency tomorrow we would figure out how to process that and turn it into cash."

Fitzpatrick points to PayPal, A Chase Paymentech partner, as something that was initially seen as an alternative payment method but is now considered mainstream - it accounts for more than 20 per cent of all online trade in Britain. The firm is also now supporting Bill Me Later in the US - a new form of payment which Fitzpatrick likens to the "slates" operated by traditional country stores. It has invested in the company, whose payment system has the advantage of not putting consumers card numbers at risk on the internet.

Chase Paymentech already works on behalf of Amazon, Google, AOL, Carphone Warehouse, Symantec, Dell and Yahoo in the European market and supports 600,000 merchants globally.

The company sees a huge opportunity in Europe - e-commerce transactions were worth €102 billion in the region in 2006 but are expected to grow to €253 billion by 2011.

During a previous role at AOL, Fitzpatrick established the European Direct Response Forum, a networking forum for merchants and other interested parties involved in dealing with customer not present (CNP) transactions. Its aims are to improve payment methods and security for the consumer while reducing costs for retailers.

"Our job is to be one or two steps ahead of the fraudster," says Fitzpatrick.