Second life for POLi

Centricom last week soft launched POLi 2, their upgraded online payments service that leverages internet banking platforms.

POLi 2 has already been rolled out to Centricom's UK merchants and is now available for Australian online merchants.

Centricom CEO Simon Warner said the new POLi is a much improved service compared to POLi 1.

"The new version went live last week. It supports Mozilla Firefox and provides a generally enhanced experience," said Warner.

"We listened to the banks, the merchants and the consumers and have developed this version in response to what we heard."

Warner said POLi is starting to gain more understanding, or at least less resistance, from banks who initially, he says, were less than supportive.

"Initially some major online merchants were getting caution messages from their banks about POLi because they didn't understand it. We are overcoming that now."

"Now we find banks are remaining relatively neutral, although there are some encouraging signs."

"TSB in New Zealand have a POLi payments page and things are just going crazy for us right now in Europe, there is so much interest over there."

POLi processed $20 million worth of transactions in the first six months of the year says Warner, despite holding many merchants back while POLi 2 was in development.

"We restricted some merchants who wanted to sign up this year, we encouraged them to wait for the POLi 2 rollout."

All online payment mechanisms must address the security issue. If they are to win the hearts and minds of consumers POLi must ensure that they feel their transaction will not end in tears. Warner says POLi can compete with the likes of PayPal, with its buyer protection program and credit cards that also provide protection for consumers from online fraud.

"We are purposely doing a lot of KYC [know your customer] on our merchants. These are not your average eBay unknowns, our merchants are well known brands like Qantas.

"We are dealing only with reputable merchants, but if there is a dispute it is a normal retail dispute.

"In the event of a dispute, we can provide evidence that a transaction occurred if required, so that's the level of protection that we are providing."

Warner says POLi is yet to record a single fraudulent transaction.