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.