The 359,000 members of the $2.9 billion Mountain America CreditUnion in West Jordan, Utah, are among the first to be offered a newonline payment alternative.

The Secure Vault Payments network allows users to makepayments to online merchants and billers through secure, real-timeACH transactions. It's being provided by online banking softwareprovider Jwaala of Austin, Texas, and eWise, a Denver-based paymentswitch operator.

The SVP network was launched last year by NACHA — The Electronic PaymentsAssociation and eWise as an alternative to PayPal and similarservices.

The service allows the user to select the SVP payment option ona merchant's site, which then directs them to their online bankingsite to log in and make the payment.

The companies claim the integrated service is the only paymentoption of its kind that does not require consumers to provideconfidential information, which typically is stored at merchantsites.

Mountain America is one of about 20 credit unions using the Jwaala online banking platform andhas been live since May, the company said. The SVP payment optionis being offered to the rest of the customers and a mobile versionis being developed, Jwaala said.

NACHA said it represents about 11,000 financial institutionsthrough 18 regional payments associations and directmemberships.

eWise said it operates in the United States, England, China andAustralia and has a number of top 50 financial institutions ascustomers of its electronic payments services.