To process a commercial transaction, a merchant receives a card payment
request from a customer. The merchant redirects the customer to the card
issuer. The authorization computer of the card issuer communicates with
the customer and authenticates the identity of the customer as the true
cardholder of the card presented for payment. In a first embodiment, the
merchant submits an authorization request in response to a card payment
request to the authorization computer. The merchant receives an
authorization confirmation from the authorization computer upon
authentication of the identity of the cardholder. In a second embodiment,
the customer receives an authorization confirmation from the
authorization computer upon the authentication of the identity of the
cardholder. The customer then submits the authorization confirmation to
the merchant. The merchant, in turn, confirms the authorization
confirmation with the authorization computer.