UA91833C2 - Direct currency conversion - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention concerns direct currency conversion, that is automatic currency conversion at point of payment for card transactions. In particular it concerns a method for operating equipment associated with a financial transaction. The method includes the steps of: Presenting a card related to a customer's account. Recording a card number from the card. Applying all or part of the card number to a tree structure, and automatically processing that number by the tree one bit at a time to arrive at an end node of the tree coded with information related to the currency of the customer's card account. Determining the currency of the customer's card account. Comparing the currency of the customer's card account with one or more currencies predetermined for the equipment. Where the comparison indicates different currencies, providing direct currency conversion services. In other aspects it concerns the equipment itself, and a method of preparing a tree structure for use by the equipment.

Description

This invention relates to methods of operating equipment and equipment for direct automatic currency conversion. More specifically, it refers to ways of operating equipment associated with a financial transaction. According to other aspects, it refers to the equipment itself and to the method of forming a tree-like structure, which is intended for use with the help of this equipment.

Credit cards, debit cards, payment cards and all other types of cards are used by consumers to make purchases or receive cash. These transactions, as a rule, take place in trading premises, where an electronic trading terminal (ROb-terminal) is used, and during the transaction, such a terminal establishes contact with other interested parties to obtain permission to conduct the transaction and initiate the transfer of money from the buyer to the seller. Similar transactions take place using computer equipment without the mediation of the seller.

With the increase in the volume of international movements, the globalization of trade and industrial activity and electronic commerce, credit card holders sometimes show a desire to carry out transactions in a foreign country using their card. In this case, the seller would normally have to use a specific currency, which, in the case of retail, would normally be the local currency.

The credit card would also have to have a currency, which would normally be the local currency of the card issuing bank. Traditionally, when performing transactions where two currencies differ from each other, the transaction currency would be the merchant's currency and would appear as such along with the exchange rate as information on the credit card statement. Dynamic currency conversion (0OSS-conversion) allows you to carry out transactions of this type in the currency of the card by determining the currency of the card and performing currency conversion during the transaction, due to which the cardholder in this period of time sees the value expression of this transaction in the currency of the card.

In a simplified example of a tourist making a purchase, the RO5 terminal would have to find the card number and extract the bank identification code (VIM code). The ROB terminal would have to compare the VIM code with the currency, accept it as the currency of the card and make a sale/purchase in the currency of the card.

According to the first aspect, the present invention is a method of operating equipment associated with a financial transaction to determine currencies suitable for use in a card transaction using this equipment. The method includes the following operations. Providing a card that is related to the buyer's account. Registration of the card number from the card. Applying all or part of the card number to a tree structure and automatically processing this number bit by bit through the tree in order to reach the final node of the tree, which is encoded with information related to the currency of the customer's card account. Determining the currency of the buyer's card account. Comparison of the buyer's card account currency with one or more currencies pre-set for the given equipment. In cases where the comparison indicates a discrepancy in currencies, provision of direct currency conversion services.

The technical result achieved by the invention consists in increasing the efficiency of the automatic procedure due to the use of a tree structure to determine the currency of the card number by automatically processing this number bit by bit with the tree in order to reach the final node of the tree, which is encoded with information related to the currency of the client's card account. Traversal through the tree structure is extremely efficient because only data that contains information relevant to the current query is read. This is a particularly favorable factor in cases where the mapping scheme of distribution is of the "many-to-one" type, as is the case in the mapping scheme of the distribution of VIM codes relative to currency codes.

The equipment can be made in the form of a trading terminal (ROB5-terminal), an automated bank machine (ATM) or equipment associated with buying and selling by phone or by

Internet. In the case of purchase of goods by phone or on the Internet, the card elements can be remotely entered manually, and not automatically read by the equipment from the card.

The tree structure can be loaded into the device and stored in it. In this case, all other operations can be performed by this device.

Using the invention, other details can be determined by the card number. For example, recognition of local cards or cards of shopping areas. This can be useful, for example, for checking the validity of the card when visiting duty-free shops and the like. The equipment typically includes a card reader, a computer processor and storage device, a printer, and a user interface. The tree structure can be stored in the storage device as a file. A tree can be a sparse binary tree. End nodes of the tree structure can be encoded with country codes or currency codes. The operation of determining the currency can be a simple interpretation of the codes in the final node. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, this operation can be additional processing, for example, using the final index to find the currency code in the auxiliary table.

The comparison operation may not be performed against the pre-set currency if a match is detected, for example, against the national currency of the country where the equipment is located. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, when no match is found, all currencies of the card and the terminal can be visually displayed so that the buyer can make a choice. The relevant exchange rates may also be displayed.

After data processing and currency selection by the buyer, a receipt can be printed out for confirmation by the buyer. The receipt may include information about the price in the selected currency and in the national currency of the country where the equipment is located, as well as the exchange rate, and all these figures can be recorded for use in preparing the statement of account for the buyer for settlement.

According to another aspect, the invention is an equipment associated with a financial transaction, which includes a device for reading data from a card, a computer processor and a storage device, a printer and a user interface, and a tree structure is stored in the storage device as a file for bit-by-bit processing of the number read by the card reader to reach the final index of the tree, which is encoded with information related to the currency.

According to an additional aspect, the invention is a method of forming a tree structure intended for use in this method and saving it in the form of a file, followed by downloading this file to the equipment associated with a financial transaction, where it is stored in a storage device for use in this methods Before loading, the tree structure can be refined by removing duplicate nodes, mirrored nodes, and one-way nodes.

Below is a description of an example of the implementation of the invention, which is carried out with reference to its accompanying drawings, which are presented: Fig. 1 - a structural diagram of the functional equipment of the trading terminal;

Fig. 2 - binary sparse tree.

As first shown in Fig. 1, a typical card transaction carried out for the purpose of purchasing goods or services involves the presentation by the buyer of his card 1 to the seller. The seller quickly passes the card 1 through the card reader 2, which is part of the PO5 terminal 3. The card reader 2 reads the number 4 from the card 1, and the device C determines the currency of the buyer's card account. The device is then able to present the value to the buyer in the currency of their account, regardless of whether they are in their own country or abroad

When the buyer is in their own country, the device "understands" that both seller and buyer prefer to use the same currency, and the transaction is treated as not eligible for direct currency conversion.

When the buyer is abroad, the device is also able to provide information about the exchange rate and the value in the local currency. The buyer can choose to accept the price in one of the two currencies and confirm the exchange rate that will be applied to the transaction if they choose their account currency. Thus, the buyer is able to read the full details of the transaction before receiving confirmation from the card issuer.

To implement this functionality, a binary sparse tree is stored in the device C as a file. A tree is a sequence of individual routes, each of which is formed by a number of communication channels between nodes. Each node would normally have two external communication channels representing "1" and "0". Thus, the route would have to be a binary number formed from "17x1"0". Routes are created to represent a VIM code in binary form and end with the currency corresponding to that VIM code. It follows that if the VIM code is converted into binary form and cartographically displayed in a tree, it will issue the currency of the card carrying the VIM code.

Fig. 2 is a simplified example of a tree that was formed to decode such four-digit numbers 0001, 0010, 0011, 1001, 1010, 1011 and 1110. It can be seen that binary numbers do not appear in the tree. Instead, a binary choice must be made at each node. An input number, for example 1010, is processed bit by bit by the tree. If the first digit is the left digit, for example "1", then this digit is used in the first node of the tree 21 to follow the route to node 22. (If it was "0", it would follow the route to node 23). At node 22, the next bit "0" is used to traverse the tree to node 24. The next bit "1" is used to traverse the tree to node 25. The final bit "0" traverses the tree to the currency code "OVR" at the final node 25. Note that the tree does not contain any dead end nodes, meaning numbers that are not expected to be there will result in no currency being found.

Such a tree is formed on the basis of information provided by card networks 6 (for example, for Miz or MagwiegSaga cards), information received from issuing banks 7, and any other information useful when linking cards to currencies. Tree formation is an office operation performed by a provider of 8 specialized services.

After the formation of the main tree, it is subjected to multiple processing in order to compress it before its installation in PO5-terminals. These compression processes are explained below. Duplicate nodes are first removed. If two nodes A and B are the same, then all other nodes that point to B can be modified to point to A. After that, node B can be deleted Next, the mirrored nodes are removed. All nodes have two pointers or two currency values. If these two values are the same in a node, then any node that points to a mirror can simply accept the mirrored node's value instead. One-sided nodes can be stored in half the memory space. If only one side of a node has value, such as node 26, then that node can be stored in half the memory space. The compression process is repeated until no further modifications can be made. Compression is also done as part of the office operation.

The tree is formed for its use by the ROb terminal by saving it in the form of a file that is downloaded from the provider 8 of specialized services to the device Z via the Internet 9. It is clear that the tree can be downloaded using RTM (public switched telephone network) or any other means of communication. It should be borne in mind that the source tree contains memory pointers. If 16384 or fewer nodes are present, the entire tree can be stored in less than 64 KB of memory. This is important because in this case each pointer can be replaced by a 16-bit offset within the file. All endpoints are moved to the beginning of the file to ensure correct identification of the fact that an endpoint has been reached. In this case, if the amount of displacement exceeds some given value, it becomes clear that this is not a final node. To determine the currency of the card, the selected part of the card number, for example, the VIM code number, goes through the tree, taking the correct branch at each node depending on the bit values of the number. As shown in the above example, if the card number is ten (binary value 1010), the result is 'YVR'. Currency codes do not necessarily have to be at the end nodes of the tree. They could also represent other information, for example, country codes. In this case, the output from the tree may require additional mapping to establish the appropriate currency code. For example, the country code for France could be mapped to Euros. More complex situations could also arise, such as when A British bank issues a card for settlement in US dollars.

The financial side of the transaction can be managed by a POS terminal or server belonging to the issuing bank or card issuer. The PO5 terminal or server may collect specific data related to

OSsS transactions, and store them in a package of statistical OSS data for transmission to the OSS manufacturer. This firm can be the issuing bank or card issuer or any other party. Such a package can be analyzed and a report can be prepared based on such analysis.

These data allow you to control the operational characteristics. In case of poor operation, the OSS operator may decide to re-configure or withdraw the service. On the other hand, good performance can lead to the initiation of a reward process within the framework of an incentive program.

Ranges of values collected to enable performance measurement include: total number of buy-sell transactions; the total number of potential OSS transactions of the purchase and sale type; the total number of actual USS transactions of the purchase and sale type; the total value of all transactions of the type of purchase and sale; the total cost of potential OSS transactions of the purchase and sale type; the total cost of actual OSS transactions of the purchase and sale type; the total number of refund type transactions; the total number of potential OSS transactions of the reimbursement type; the total number of actual OSS transactions of the reimbursement type; the total value of all refund type transactions; the total cost of potential

OSs-transactions of the reimbursement type; the total value of the actual OSS transactions of the refund type. Amounts in Australian currency are present in the PO5 terminal or server as the main currency.

After the successful transfer of the statistical block to the main computer for downloading currency rates, all statistical counters and totals must be reset to 0.

For statistical purposes, all previous authorized accesses and additional previous authorized accesses shall be ignored. A tip, if added to the cost of an existing transaction, should restore the total amount only by the amount specified in the tip, but not increase the total transaction bill.

However, if the tip is a completely separate transaction, it should be treated as a normal act of sale. An empty transaction should decrease the corresponding totals and decrease the corresponding accounts. Transactions specified as potential OSS transactions refer to transactions that are specified as eligible OSS transactions and may or may not be accepted for execution. Actual transactions specified as OSS transactions refer to transactions that are specified as eligible OSS transactions and are accepted for execution and converted. Final transactions specified as non-OSS transactions refer to transactions that are not specified as eligible OSS transactions at all, i.e. the card prefix was not recognized by the OSS currency recognition module.

Despite the fact that the invention has been described with reference to a specific example of its implementation, it should be understood that various changes can be made to it. For example, a simple modification of the file size to 256 kbytes using 16-bit indexes allows the maximum number of nodes to be increased to 65536. It is also possible to exclude the end nodes from being moved to the beginning of the file.

Those skilled in the art should understand that numerous changes and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in its specific embodiments, which do not go beyond the essence or scope of the relatively broadly described invention here. Thus, the given variants of the invention should be considered in all respects as purely illustrative and non-limiting. - y b, / Shk rak ptptT x tA s y

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Claims (23)

1. A method of operating equipment associated with a financial transaction to determine currencies suitable for use in a card transaction using this equipment, and the method includes the following operations: providing a card that is related to the buyer's account; registration of the card number from the card; application of the entire card number or part of it to a tree structure and automatic bit-by-bit processing of this number by the tree in order to reach the final node of the tree, which is encoded with information related to the currency of the buyer's card account; determining the currency of the buyer's card account; comparing the currency of the buyer's card account with one or more currencies pre-set for this equipment; and, if the comparison indicates a discrepancy in currencies, the provision of direct currency conversion services. 2. The method according to claim 1, according to which the equipment is selected from: a trading terminal (ROB5-terminal), an automated bank machine (ATM) or equipment associated with buying and selling carried out by telephone or on the Internet. 3. The method according to claim 2, according to which, in the case of using a РОб5 terminal or an ATM, the operation of registering the card number from the card involves the use of equipment for automatic reading of data from the card. 4. The method according to claim 2, according to which, in the case of buying and selling, carried out by phone or on the Internet, the operation of registering the card number from the card involves remote manual entry of the number. 5. The method according to any preceding clause, according to which the tree structure is loaded into and stored in the equipment. b. The method according to any previous item, according to which other determinations are made based on the card number. 7. The method according to item b, according to which the other definition is the recognition of local cards. 8. The method according to point b, according to which the other definition is the recognition of cards of trading zones. 9. The method according to any previous item, according to which the equipment includes a device for reading data from a card, a computer processor F(| and a storage device, a printer and a user interface. 10. The method according to claim 9, which includes an additional operation of saving the tree structure in the storage device in the form of a file. 11. The method according to claim 10, according to which the tree is a sparse binary tree. 12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, according to which the end nodes of the tree structure are coded with country codes or currency codes. 13. The method according to any preceding clause, according to which the currency determination operation is a simple interpretation of the codes at the end node. 14. The method according to any of items 1-12, according to which the operation of determining the currency involves using a finite index to find the currency code in the auxiliary table. 15. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the comparison operation is not performed against the predetermined currency if a match is detected. 16. The method according to any one of items 1-14, according to which, when any match is not found, all currencies of the card and the terminal are visually reproduced. 17. The method according to claim 16, according to which exchange rates are also visually reproduced. 18. The method according to any of the previous items, which additionally includes the operation of printing a receipt. 19. The method according to claim 18, according to which the receipt includes information about the price in the selected currency and in the national currency of the country where the equipment is located, as well as about the exchange rate. 20. The method according to claim 19, according to which all visually reproduced numbers are fixed for the purpose of their use in preparing a statement of account to the buyer for calculation. 21. Equipment associated with a financial transaction, which includes a device for reading data from a card, a computer processor and a storage device, a printer and a user interface, and a tree structure is stored in the storage device in the form of a file for bit-by-bit processing of the number, which is read by a data reader to reach the final index of the tree, which is encoded with information relevant to the currency. 22. The method of forming a tree structure for use in the method according to any of items 1-20 and saving the tree structure in the form of a file with subsequent uploading of this file to the equipment associated with a financial transaction, where it is stored in a storage device for use in this way 23. The method according to claim 22, according to which, before loading, the tree structure is refined by removing duplicate nodes, mirrored nodes and one-way nodes.