Sun Microsystems has expanded its Sun One platform with an e-payment application to meet a tough new standard for e-banking.

The company's iPlanet Trustbase Payment Services software is for banks that want to offer e-banking to their corporate customers. The software complies with the latest Project Eleanor standard from Identrus, the financial standards body.

David Medeiros, director of global payments research at financial services analyst TowerGroup, said: "Much of the groundwork for corporate online payment has been established with a user authentication infrastructure and the development of general business-to-business [B2B] messaging standards.

"Banks had been constrained from offering these services, due in part to the lack of a common industry standard and platform for web-based payment initiation.

"For online B2B transactions, iPlanet Trustbase Payment Services and Identrus represent the critical first step in making such a capability a reality."

Sun's payment products link the identity of a customer to back-end applications and implements the appropriate method of payment.

Companies that wish to trade with another organisation via the web will use a smartcard issued by their bank to identify both customer and financial institution.

The Identrus payment specification is embedded in the smartcard and works with a company's bank online, linking the company to the appropriate account and verifying its identity. The card makes payment arrangements based on specified conditions, keeps a transaction history and issues a payment instruction.

Guy Tallent, president and chief executive at Identrus, said that Sun had already integrated the trust infrastructure of Identrus, but was pleased it had now added the payment initiation specification to its products.

"Applications such as trusted e-payments are critical for the continued evolution of B2B ecommerce," he said.

The Identrus e-payment standard was defined with the participation of more than 50 global financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, Hypo Vereinsbank and ABN Amro.