Long Route To On-Line Commerce

I have a credit card. And even an ATM card. I would like to do away with my passbook. And not take another look at a cheque ever again. And key in a few numbers and buy some software, or even a PC/TV on-line. Why in the world can't I do it?

Every discussion on on-line commerce comes around to this. Recently, Fortune said that practically everyone has been writing about internet, on-line banking and internet commerce, but few have ever brought anything on-line.

That is true even in the United States where internet is already part of everyday life. Here, with barely 25,000 internet users, internet commerce has hardly made any impact at all. But face its problems we will have to, and it makes sense to learn your lessons from those who have already been there and borne the brunt of it.

The roadblocks to on-line commerce are many. But if there is one that needs to be identified, it is the set of pre-historic banking laws that govern transactions and money matters. What this does is prevent the final act - payments and settlements - from happening on-line.

"Electronic banking facilitates payments in on-line commerce - but this has not become an integral part of the settlement mechanism in electronic commerce,