A computer-implemented draft authentication method for use in e-commerce includes
the steps of establishing partner relationships between a financial institution
and a plurality of World Wide Web (Web) vendors and storing, for each of a plurality
of Web customers, at least one piece of unique identifying information linked to
the Web customer's financial information. Web customers executing drafts or causing
drafts to be executed by the Web vendors and presented to the financial institution
are authenticated by immediately encrypting at least a portion of an identification
data set provided by the Web customer over the network and by successfully matching
the immediately encrypted identification data set with the stored piece(s) of encrypted
identifying information. The Web customer's financial information is then retrieved
only by the financial institution and constraints are established based-on the
retrieved information. The financial institution then honors drafts presented by
the Web vendors with whom the drawee has a partner relationship only when the Web
customer is successfully authenticated and the constraints are satisfied. Only
the identification information (such as biometric data and/or ID and password pairs)
of each of the Web customers is securely replicated from the financial institution
to each of the Web vendors. LDAP-compatible Directory software may be utilized
as the means of storing, processing and replicating the Web customer's identification
information to each of the Web vendors. The financial institution warrants the
security of the system and controls the replication and content of the Directories
at each of the Web vendor sites.
