Net payment player CardPro to list on Mesdaq
By Julian Matthews
Thursday, February 10 2000

Managing director Dr Tan Seng Chuan said the listing would follow its plan to roll-out its latest product CardPro Internet Payment Authorization Service (CIPAS) to 10 countries this year.

"We intend to roll-out to one country a month through partners or agents to enable banks and financial institutions to use the system first. Then we are likely to go for a listing," he said.

Dr Tan was speaking to reporters after the signing of a deal with Indonesian IT company PT Rajawali Tri Manunggal to set up and market CIPAS in Jakarta.

A joint-venture company PT CIPAS Indonesia comprising 60-40 share between CardPro and PT Rajawali will invest up to RM500,000 over the year to grow the customer base for the new service, which will be available commercially in March.

A separate agreement between PT CIPAS and Indonesian Internet service provider SPOT.net was signed for the provision of the broadband Internet access service to support the payment gateway.

Dr Tan said CIPAS is a 100-percent locally-developed online payment solution designed to cater for the fast-growing e-commerce market and for both B2B and B2C applications. International Data Corporation estimates the Malaysian e-commerce market was worth US$46 million in 1999, and projected to increase to US$1.56 million by 2003.

CIPAS runs on UNIX platforms and provides a secure end-to-end verification, authentication, and settlement of credit card transactions. It currently uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocol, the industry standard for open network security, and will support SET by June 2000.

CardPro received MSC-status today from the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC)which enables it to receive tax breaks and import foreign knowledge workers for research and development activities within the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

MDC executive chairman Othman Yeop earlier said the CIPAS system will eventually be "linked" to the MSC's Multipurpose Card initiative, and the national Public Key Infrastructure gateway systems.

CardPro will expand to 60 staff from the current 8 and invest about RM14 million in the MSC over the next five years.

Formed in 1988, CardPro provides software and consultancy for the credit and debit card industry and has customer base of more than 80 financial institutions in 29 countries for its previously-developed products.