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JETCO Launches CA Service, Virtual ATM By March 17, 2000 Joint Electronic Teller Services Ltd., (JETCO), one of Asia's largest banking consortia, Thursday launched Hong Kong's first privately operated certification authority (CA), which will be offered together with the JETCO Virtual Automatic Teller Machine (VATM). John Tsang, deputy general manager of JETCO said his firm intends to issue the certificate free of charge. This service will target 51 JETCO member banks and their customers in Hong Kong and Macau. Belgian Bank, Chekiang First Bank, Dah Sing Bank, First Pacific Bank, International Bank of Asia and Union Bank of Hong Kong have confirmed participation in JETCO VATM service. When customers apply for the VATM service, a certificate will be offered via e-mail. With this certificate, customers can engage in ATM services, including transactions and balance inquiries, fund transfers and bill payment. Tsang said JETCO aims at issuing over one million certificates. Although the CAs are currently issued for the use of JETCO's VATM service, expansion plans are in the works. "Our mission is to assist member banks in making full use of online banking and e-commerce possibilities in a highly secure manner," said Tsang. To extend the CAs to credit card services, he said JETCO has also reached an agreement with MasterCard and Visa International to issue Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) certificates by the second half of the year. This service offers safeguarding credit card purchases over open networks, including the Internet. Tsang said the certification service allows JETCO to be the payment gateway for e-commerce transactions, processing merchant authorizations and payment messages, and providing an interface with private financial networks. ` For future development, Tsang said, JETCO is seeking recognition from the government on their certification service and cross-reference with the CAs issued by the Hong Kong Post Office.