Can an authorised payment be reversed by a purchaser who claims not to have authorised it?
The Visa and MasterCard international card systems have recently defined the procedures required for banks to incorporate into their Virtual POS terminal the way to check that the Internet purchasers are indeed the holders of the cards being used to make payments. Once these authentication systems have been incorporated into Virtual Point-of-Sale terminals, businesses will no longer have to foot the costs of losses caused by reversals of operations by cardholders who claim not to have made them. From that point onwards, they will be assumed by the bank that issued the card. For the time being, this switching of responsibilities will affect operations made with cards issued by European banks and, from 1 April 2003, it will be extended to cover any Visa or MasterCard. Caixa Catalunya was among the first to adapt its Virtual Point-of-Sale terminal to this new technology, hence protecting virtual businesses from reversals of operations.
