1.   At PayPal, an online payment service based in Palo Alto, Calif., company executives pondered what they could do in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

2.   About a dozen online payment services have emerged over the last year or so.

3.   By acquiring Signio, VeriSign hopes to expand beyond the Internet-security market by offering payment services to online retailers and other merchants.

4.   Checkfree said that the patent did not apply to banks that offered bill payment services to their own customers.

5.   Checkfree, a leading provider of electronic payment services, calls its solution E-Bill.

6.   Firstar operates Elan Financial Services division, which provides payment processing services to merchants.

7.   I saw a newsgroup posting recently from a company offering a middleman payment service for on-line collectors, and it gave me a funny feeling.

8.   In March, it took an equity stake in Billpoint, a payments service offered by eBay, an online auction site.

9.   Like the Postal Service, most banks also contract out to CheckFree to operate their bill payment services.

10.   Microsoft Corp., the largest PC software maker, and Visa International Inc. are expected to set up an on-line payment processing service.