• Home
• About this Site
• Contact Us
• RSS Feeds
• eGovRC Toolbar

Help & Print

Help Print

Resize Text

Categories, RSS and More

e-Payment Gateway Analysis - Victoria Online Project (Research Report: #RS-05)

November 2001

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Purpose of this Report

This report was commissioned to determine:

• the appropriateness of implementing a centralised e-payment service as part of the Victorian Online Gateway(VOG)
• specific recommendations on VOG's role in e-payments
• the types of e-payment facilities available
• consumer e-payment trends
• The report's analysis and recommendations will inform the tender specifications and raise associated issues and requirements.

1.2 Findings

The findings were that there are two types of online payments:

1. online purchases (of goods and services), and
2. bill payments.

1.3 Recommendations

As a result of this analysis, it was concluded that VOG should:

• provide a single point of access for consumers that links to all local and state Government online transactions. In addition, all online transactions should be accompanied by the correct meta data to allow them to be searched and collated.
• select a panel of Internet gateway providers that meet price, service and commercial criteria that are mandatory for use on all new online transactions developed by the Departments and Agencies
• encourage any billers who do not currently do so, to allow payment via current EBPP service such as BPAY
• adopt a vision of distributing a 3rd party EBPP product in the short to medium term perhaps once the available products have matured and prices have fallen

1.4 Not Recommended

It is not recommended that VOG build or manage its own Internet payment gateway or EBPP service as this is likely to be more expensive than private sector solutions and cannot leverage private sector service delivery and price improvements. In addition, this is likely to be less responsive, slower to market and limit Department flexibility.

Nor is it recommended that the VOG become a proxy merchant (collect payments on behalf of the Departments and Agencies) for the same reasons. Further, this adds an additional intermediary, which is likely to add to the transaction cost and lead to a lack of single point of accountability and liability (e.g. multiple parties potentially involved in reconciliation).

1.5. Viable Electronic Payment Schemes

There are a variety of electronic payment mechanisms and schemes available in Australia and overseas. However, only the following are currently considered viable:

• Internet payment gateways (that support credit, charge or debit cards) for online purchases of government products and services
• Current Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) manifestations such as POSTbillpay and BPAY for online bill payment

---

Reports

It is the intention of the Victorian Online Gateway project team to make available individual report findings and recommendations for appropriate use by other government organisations. Materials may be downloaded and printed with applicable copyright and other notices included. Any other use including copying, modifying, displaying or transmitting of the content of these reports requires the prior written permission of the Executive Director of Multimedia Victoria.

The E-Payment Gateway Analysis Report is available in word 97 format (1.54mb)

The E-payment Gateway Analysis Presentation was made to the Expert Group on 21 November 2001 and is available in powerpoint97 format (319kb)

Last updated: 28 February 2006

Search, Login and Options