Leading electronic funds transfer payment provider Cashcard Australia has formed a strategic alliance with Internet payments company QSI.
Cashcard chairman Caji DeSouza said the alliance will help the ATM network giant keep abreast of Internet developments.
Cashcard currently handles all payments for its member banks and building societies through dedicated lines.
The Internet will take such services to "another level", DeSouza said, adding that Cashcard "is looking at opportunities to meet the changing requirements of business".
Cashcard's embrace is the latest in a string of positive developments for QSI, which began developing its suite of electronic commerce payment products only three years ago.
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp last month began implementing a secure Internet transaction system for its merchants using QSI's payment gateway technology.
Last week, enterprise software giant SAP announced it would use QSI's ATM/POS switch solution for SAP's core banking software.
SAP also plans to embed QSI's technology in its MySAP Web portal to support business-to-business e-commerce.
QSI competes in the Internet payments space with companies such as Camtech, and in the past year has trebled its head count to 40 while attracting several million dollars in development capital from Australian and Singaporean sources.
Its products handle electronic payments between customers, merchants and banks. They support a variety of hardware platforms and payments schemes including SSL, SET, Mondex, Visacash, Chipper and Proton.