Battle Brewing Over Software Standard : Internet: Microsoft, Visa scrap effort to create specs for secure transactions.

NEW YORK —  A battle over software specifications for secure financial transactions on the Internet is expected after Visa and Microsoft on Thursday abandoned a joint effort to create a standard for the industry.

Just three months after announcing plans to work together on a standard for secure credit card purchases on the Internet, the alliance between the two credit card giants, Visa International and MasterCard, appears to be unraveling.

On Wednesday, Visa and its partner, Microsoft Corp., announced specifications for software developers and others to secure electronic purchases over the Internet computer network. But MasterCard, which said in June that it would work with rival Visa on developing a standard, was noticeably absent.

A spokeswoman for MasterCard in New York said the company was disappointed in the specifications and that it decided not to support the standard Visa and Microsoft announced because it was “contrary to what we said we would do in June.”

“MasterCard believes that all such standards should be available equally to all potential vendors,” said Dorie Smith at MasterCard. “We wanted this spec to be vendor-neutral. This spec is all Microsoft.”

The specifications, called Secure Transaction Technology, are a road map for software firms and others to follow in creating applications for secure transactions on the Internet.

But MasterCard says the specifications are not openly available to the industry. Visa and Microsoft said they are making the specifications available at no charge to all credit card brands, financial institutions, software developers and the Internet community.

Analysts said standards battles are typical in areas of embryonic technologies but that if there are too many diverse approaches, they slow development and adoption and ultimately result in a shakeout of differing approaches, as one standard eventually emerges.

“Basically, it is part of the ongoing confusion and chaos surrounding on-line commerce,” said Bruce Guptill, a senior research analyst at the Gartner Group in Stamford, Conn.