The gateway has been implemented by Compaq India for the server technology and QSI Payment Technologies (Australia) for the software solutions. The gateway will initially accept credit card payments with ICICI Bank as the acquiring bank. Later, it will be able to handle a variety of payment modes such as debit/smart cards and direct bank debits. ICICI proposes to tie up with other banks to enable B2C payments. ICICI has already signed up with over 15 web merchants, which include magiccart.com, eIndia.com and Rediff.com. The business-to-consumer (B2C) gateway will allow shoppers to transact on the internet using their credit cards. In the coming months, the gateway will be available on more than 50 sites. "`Payseal' is already operational on magiccard.com, with online testing underway with other sites.

Five other sites will be operational within the next 10 days," Chanda Kochchar, senior general manager with ICICI said.

In an online transaction, when information travels over the web, it remains vulnerable to unauthorised access. Also, the consumer may not be comfortable leaving credit card details with a net merchant particularly when the transaction cannot be validated by the customer's signature. "With `Payseal', an online shopper will be able to give his card details and payment instructions directly to the gateway in a secure session," said Kochchar. The gateway removes any human interface both at the point of a customer's transaction with a web merchant and subsequently during settlement of the transaction with banking systems.

This will be through secure socket layer (SSL) technology, which enables encrypt transaction data using 280 bit RSA and 128 bit encryption. The gateway's servers are hosted on ICICI's data centre, secured by firewalls and other network security infrastructure.