Nine Payment Affiliates
Expand VeriSign Payment Services to Asia, Australia, Europe, North America
and South America
Mountain View, CA, October 22, 2001 - VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:
VRSN), the leading provider of digital trust services, today introduced
a payment services platform that enables international service providers
to deliver co-branded online payment services to merchants in international
markets. Merchants worldwide will now be able to securely process payments
online through VeriSign's trusted payment services infrastructure.
In conjunction with this announcement, nine international
service providers including CIBC, eSign, Firstream, Paymon, TrustAsia,
and VeriPay among others will be the first affiliates to deploy the
platform in their respective regions. Broad coverage includes Asia,
Australia/New Zealand, Europe, North America, and South America.
Powered by an infrastructure that processed 43 million
transactions worth an aggregate US $2 billion for more than 50,000 domestic
merchants in the third quarter 2001, VeriSign's new payment services
platform will give affiliates the ability to provide secure payment
processing to merchants in their area. The platform provides:
- Secure, redundant,
high-speed connectivity to payment processors;
- Routing real-time
authorization response;
- Connectivity to credit
card, purchase card, Internet check and ACH processing networks in the
US and connectivity to specific local processing partners for each affiliate,
supporting payment types that are used in their region;
- Pre-integration into
over 70 e-commerce applications; and
- Persistent storage
of transaction history.
"Merchants around the world share a common
need: a payment solution that provides real-time connectivity to regional
payment processors" said Anil Pereira, Senior Vice President and
Group General Manager, Enterprise and Service Provider Division, VeriSign.
"We selected nine new affiliates to supplement our payment platform
with their core competencies to provide a superior service to merchants
worldwide."
VeriSign affiliate eSign will deliver payment services
to the growing online merchant base in Australia. "Consumers and
merchants worldwide want to buy and sell products safely online. That's
why VeriSign is expanding its trusted payment services into the global
marketplace, providing protection and integrity at all points in the
payment process," said Gregg Rowley, managing director for eSign
Australia Limited.
According to a Gartner Group study, more than half
of adults who buy on the Web report they are not comfortable entering
personal financial information. Establishing trust has become an essential
component of building a storefront for merchants.
Offering both payment connectivity and online security,
VeriSign provides merchants worldwide with a one-stop shop for all of
their online commerce needs. In addition to the VeriSign payment services,
VeriSign digital certificate services provide a trusted transaction
framework by enabling consumers to verify a merchant's identity before
submitting their payment. VeriSign launched its first global network
of affiliates to deliver co-branded digital certificate services in
1999 and today there are 37.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN) is the worldwide leader in providing digital
trust services that enable everyone, everywhere to engage in commerce
& communications with confidence. Digital trust services create
a trusted environment through three core offerings - web identity, authentication
and payment services - powered by a global infrastructure that manages
more than 5 billion network connections and transactions a day. Additional
news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com.
Statements in this announcement other than historical
data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks
and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results to differ
materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements.
The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, VeriSign's
limited operating history under its current business structure, failure
of the Illuminet merger to close due to the failure to obtain regulatory
or other approvals; failure of the Illuminet stockholders to approve
the merger; the risk that the VeriSign and Illuminet businesses will
not be integrated successfully and unanticipated costs of such integration;
uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations
in quarterly operating results; increased competition; risks associated
with the company's international business and risks related to potential
security breaches. More information about potential factors that could
affect the company's business and financial results is included in VeriSign's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in the
company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2000, Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed on October 10, 2001 and
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31 and June
30, 2001. VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking
statements after the date of this press release.
VeriSign is a registered trademark of VeriSign, Inc.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact Media Relations: Janine Dunne, jdunne@verisign.com,
703-948-4496
Investor Relations: Katie Ochsner, kochsner@verisign.com,
650-426-3512
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