Czech Version Monex Payment System Launched

PRAGUE — Slovak company Ditec a. s. has started a local Czech
version of so-called payment portal Monex after several months of
experience with running the system in Slovakia. The purpose of Monex is
to provide a secure transfer of money from customer to the merchandiser.

Monex works as trusted third party
among customer, vendor and bank. Both banks and e-retailers can be
members of the system. The customer who has a bank account in a bank
connected to Monex system has the opportunity to choose Monex as the
payment method when purchasing goods or services from an e-retailer,
assuming the vendor is also member of Monex system. In such a case, the
customer is redirected to the Monex
portal where he or she fills the form of order to pay including
authorization as requested by the bank. After completing, the order to
pay is encrypted and sent to the bank.

A bank can either accept or refuse the payment order. In both cases, the
information is sent back to the Monex system. It forwards the
information from the bank to the vendor who can then ship the goods or
provide the requested services. Money is transferred from the bank to
the vendor’s account in the same time. Both buyer and vendor are
sheltered from possible dishonesty of the other party, which is really
important on emerging markets of Eastern Europe; the lack of confidence
in e-business security is the main obstacle preventing people from wider
use of the Internet for purchasing goods and services.

Monex in the Czech Republic works in closed testing mode at the moment.
The limited public service is expected from July 2001. “Our Monex is the
first real payment portal in the Central and Eastern Europe,” said Mr.
Jan Pastejrik, CEO of the AmoNet a.s., the company running the system.
The project is joint venture between two systems integrators from the
region – Ditec from Slovakia and Expert&Partner Engineering from the
Czech Republic.