Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : e-Commerce the Next 100 Months...... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cm who wrote (1076)	6/4/1998 7:25:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2882

BancAmerica Unit Spearheads Internet Research June 4, 1998 BancAmerica Robertson Stephens, BankAmerica Corp.'s investment banking unit that is now on the auction block, published recently a new research report on the possibilities of Internet commerce, and found them promising. Although research analyst Gary Craft wrote the report, titled "Internet Payments," to aid investors in Internet companies, he offers bankers some useful insights into what the world of so-called "e- commerce" will be like. Craft is confident that the Internet is a viable commercial medium. "We are beginning to see tangible evidence that there is an Internet economy and the attendant birth of a payments industry has occurred," he wrote. Only a few banks, such as First Tennessee in Memphis, advertise on the Internet. Craft argues that the development of "payments processors" like CyberCash and Segue will foster further development of Internet commerce. In sum, Craft suggests, the Internet is a distribution channel that has become a financial reality. There is also a rapidly growing do-it-yourself market on the Internet featuring companies like Trintech that sell tools and applications. Trintech's software permits companies to develop applications that permit them to get paid for Internet commerce. At issue, Craft admits, is the relatively low level of Internet financial transactions. Most merchants, including financial institutions, he wrote, will likely migrate to third-party processors. These, Craft said, "offer very limited up-front costs, effortless integration and the ability to "process transactions over the Internet immediately. In Craft's view, the key issue going ahead is whether merchant acquirers like First Data Corp. elect to send their transaction- acquiring technologies directly to the Internet, or use a third-party like CyberCash. First Data is the largest, private processor of credit cards and a ranked player in the fund administration business. Prior to its acquisition by BankAmerica Corp., Robertson Stephens led the public offering for Security First National Bank, the Internet-only bank based in Atlanta.