Security firm takes credit in battle with banks

UK banks' unwillingness to underwrite the risk small businesses take by setting up ecommerce ventures has left a gap one security firm is offering to fill.

i trust you.com is launching a service for individuals and SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) called KwikClear that will allow them to accept online credit card payments.

In the past small businesses have found it difficult to sell over the Net because the rules banks have set up to safeguard credit lines do not give SMEs the ability to process credit card payments.

Chris Scanlon, MD of i trust you.com, said he had set the service up in response to requests from customers, including Freeserve and Loot.com.

Scanlon denied, however, that it showed banks had been slow to react to the Internet. He said: "We are working in partnership with the banks in this. The fact they are fully supporting us shows they want to respond to the need out there."

SMEs wanting to sell over the Net will have to install a link to the i trust you site where payment would be processed.

Phil Cooper, founder of DCfor.com - an Internet marketplace for dot-com companies - welcomed the move. He said: "This is a classic example of a market space where the traditional organisations - ie. banks - don't understand the Internet and miss a trick, and in this case i trust you will fill the space profitably."

David Hands, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "If someone is going to take this on and steal a march on the banks, then force them to move faster on this issue, then we would welcome that."

However, not everyone was so positive. Larry Levy, chairman and CEO at dot-com incubator Protégé, said the business would struggle in trying to take onboard risks banks had refused.

Levy said: "If it is successful the banks will move in very quickly. If not, it will be taken out by one or two big hits."