YNOT – Visa International has suspended the privileges of the bank behind internet payment service provider ePassporte, thereby throwing a kink into consumer payment processing at some adult websites and snarling some payments due affiliate programs and their affiliates.Late Thursday, ePassporte emailed its accountholders with the news. Affiliate programs that use the alternative payment service immediately began scrambling to find other means of collecting money from consumers and paying the webmasters who promote their sites.

According to ePassporte chief Christopher Mallick, his company was notified of the action at noon Sept. 2. The suspension was aimed at ePassporte’s banking partner, St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank, his email said, and Mallick’s indicated Visa International provided no explanation for the suspension.

ePassporte services that do not rely on Visa remain functional, Mallick noted.

“The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa Account and your e-Wallet,” he wrote. “At this time ePassporte can no longer issue Visa Cards, and the ability for our Account Holders [sic] to make point-of-sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs has also been suspended.”

Mallick also indicated all ePassporte funds remain safe, and “the ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation.”

“To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa’s reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over 7 [sic] years,” Mallick wrote to its clients. “But that is what Visa has done. As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you.”

An ePassporte spokesman spoke with AVN late Friday, saying the “bank is perfectly fine” and “everybody’s money is safe.” The problem, ePassporte’s business account manager said, was with Visa.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” he told AVN’s Tom Hymes. “It’s an issue with Visa, not with our bank. All of our functions outside of Visa are working perfectly. If people’s funds are in their wallets, they can feel free to contact customer service and do a wire disbursement, but if they can wait, that would be my recommendation. I wouldn’t make any hasty decisions. But we’re not going anywhere; there’s nothing wrong with the business. This was an unforeseen issue, and we’re not exactly sure where it came from on Visa’s side.”