By Felicity Ussher, 15 July 1999 02:00
NEWS Equifax is looking for a bank to back its upcoming online authentication service, after negotiations with NatWest fell through. A senior executive at Equifax said NatWest was too slow and old-fashioned to deal with. He told Silicon.com: "They're all men and women in grey suits. You can tell they don't really believe all that stuff they say about ecommerce driving the modern economy." Equifax is still aiming for an autumn launch of an authentication service, which will provide online merchants with guarantees that their customers are who they say they are. The executive, who declined to be named, said Equifax would charge a 2 per cent commission on every transaction, in return for covering the merchant's risk. But for that, it needs a partner with access to financial clearing services. NatWest seemed the obvious choice, as Equifax last month became a flagship client of its online arm, Magex. NatWest was unavailable for comment.
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