ABSTRACT
The existence of suitable payment systems is critical to the development of e-commerce. One reason for this is that conventional businesses wishing to replicate their operations in the e-commerce world (for example, through the Internet or Digital TV channels) also need to be able to replicate the payment element of those operations. For some businesses this is largely just a question of being able to accept (and achieve instant clearance of) conventional payment cards (i.e. credit, debit or charge cards) over the Internet. For others, matters are more complicated. So, for example, newspapers wishing to replicate their real-world operation are currently hampered by the fact that the on-line payment possibilities for small payments remain limited. Very often they have to resort to a “subscription” model where customers have to sign up for a period of access rather than being able to pay only for such access as they want.
