HERNDON, Va. – Participants in NACHA's Internet Secure ATM Payments (ISAP) Pilot have proven that consumer ATM/debit cards can be used on the Internet with transaction authentication and security that are comparable to point-of-sale purchases. The pilot successfully processed 598 transactions in which digital signatures substituted for personal identification numbers. "The success of the Internet Secure ATM Payments Pilot shows that digital signature technology can be used to secure transactions because the signature is transported through an EFT network and validated by the issuing bank," said Elliott C. McEntee, President and Chief Executive Officer of NACHA. The digitally signed transactions were validated 100% of the time, and the average response time for authorizing a transaction was 6-8 seconds. Approved transactions and any denials were successfully returned to the merchant. In addition to successful transaction processing, the pilot withstood attempts to compromise security and commit fraud. The ISAP model is an open, interoperable architecture that is solution neutral. Because transaction security and authentication are comparable to PIN-based debits at the point-of-sale, Internet merchants are provided with "card present" equivalent transactions that are more difficult to repudiate.