RU2452019C2 - Processing centre and method of transferring cash in bank payment system - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: processing centre (PC) of a payment card system has a front office (FO), a database (DB) linked to the FO and containing records of transactions performed in the PC and description of serviced bank cards and associated account cards. The FO is configured to, upon receiving, from a terminal (ATM, POS etc) connected with it, a request to transfer a certain amount of cash from a first account card to a second account card, create a first type transaction record in the DB, which corresponds to a transaction for debiting the first account card by said sum, while storing in the first type transaction record information indicating that the debiting transaction is part of the requested transfer. The FO further contains a monitoring module, which monitors the DB for presence of a first type transaction record based on said information, creates in the DB, upon detection of a first type transaction record, a second type transaction record based on data from the first type transaction record so that the created second type transaction record corresponds to a transaction for crediting the second account card by said sum, and increases, in the description o the second account card in the DB, the accessible limit of cash in the second account card by said sum.

EFFECT: faster transfer of cash from one account card to another.

12 cl, 2 dwg

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates, in General, to bank payment systems, and more particularly to the transfer of funds in a payment card system.

State of the art

Currently, consumers are offered a wide and growing variety of banking services, a significant part of which is associated with such a convenient and deeply penetrated everyday tool as a bank card. A few examples of using bank cards in everyday life are receiving money at an ATM (ATM) (for example, from a bank account associated with a card (card account), which has been accrued salary), non-cash payment for goods / services through the POS terminal (s) etc.).

The above-mentioned and similar transparent operations for the user are based on the most complex software and hardware complexes of payment card systems, which, in general, are distributed and interconnected with the ability to exchange data and whose operation complies with numerous technical specifications and protocols and is regulated by applicable laws and by-laws and departmental acts and international treaties, which is described in detail, in particular, in the books “Plastic Cards” , L. Bystrov et al., 5th ed., Moscow: “BDC-press”, 623 pp., 2005 [D1] and “Plastic cards. Practical Encyclopedia ” , Andreev A.A. et al., Moscow: Banking Business Center concern, 310 pp., 2nd ed., 1998 [D2], the contents of which are fully included in this description and form part of it.

More recently, a widely used service was offered for transferring funds from one card account to another card account through a terminal such as ATM. For the current moment, it is characteristic that a significant amount of time (at least one day) usually elapses between the transfer request and the corresponding increase in the available cash limit on the recipient's card account for the transferred amount, due to the functioning of modern payment card systems. In particular, this delay is due to the time costs associated with the operations of debiting funds from the card account of the sender of the transfer and the corresponding accrual of the transferred funds to the card account of the recipient, each of which requires at least authorization, and the fact that the appropriate change the limit on the beneficiary's card account is finally realized only upon clearing, which takes place at the end of the business day. This aspect creates obvious inconvenience to consumers.

Thus, at the present stage, the urgent task is to accelerate the transfer of funds from one card account to another.

This problem is focused, in particular, on the technical solution disclosed in WO 2006/014310, which presents a method and system for transferring funds with authentication (identification). The transfer method provides for international and domestic money transfers using the sender's identification service and allows you to transfer funds after the sender of the transfer has been identified and the transfer amount has been authorized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to provide acceleration, when transferring funds from the sender's card account to the recipient's card account, increasing the available limit on the recipient's card account with minimal modernization costs.

To solve this problem, this application proposes a processing center of a payment card system. The proposed processing center contains a front office, a database associated with the front office and containing records of transactions carried out in the processing center and descriptions of bank cards serviced by the processing center and associated card accounts. The front office is configured to, upon receipt from the terminal connected to the front office of the terminal, request to transfer a certain amount of money from the first card account to the second card account, generate a transaction record of the first type in the database corresponding to the debit transaction of the first card invoices for the mentioned amount, while placing in the transaction record of the first type information that is a sign that this debit transaction is part of the requested transfer. The front office is characterized by the fact that it additionally contains a monitoring module, which constantly monitors the database for the presence of a record of a transaction of the first type, taking into account the above information, generates a record of a transaction of the second type based on at least partially, data from a transaction record of the first type, so that the generated transaction record of the second type corresponds to the credit transaction of the second card account by the mentioned amount, and increase AET, in the description of the second card account in the database, the available limit of funds for the second card account on the said sum.

To solve this problem, this application also proposes a method of transferring funds, implemented in the proposed processing center described above. The method comprises the following steps. Upon receiving from the terminal connected to the front office of the terminal a request to transfer a certain amount of money from the first card account to the second card account, using the front office, a first type transaction record is generated in the database corresponding to the debit transaction of the first card account to the said amount, while in the record of the first type of transaction information is placed that is a sign that the said debit transaction is part of the requested transfer. Using the monitoring module, the database is monitored for the presence of a transaction record of the first type, taking into account the information mentioned. Then, using the monitoring module, in the database, when the first type of transaction record is detected, the second type of transaction record is based on, at least in part, the data from the first type of transaction record, so that the generated second type transaction record corresponds to the credit transaction of the second card account for the mentioned amount. Finally, using the monitoring module, in the description of the second card account in the database, the available limit on the second card account is increased by the amount mentioned.

Preferably, the front office, when forming a transaction of the first type, blocks the funds available on the first card account for the mentioned amount, and the monitoring module is configured to check the status of the debit transaction for the completion of the transaction before generating the record of the second type of transaction.

The monitoring module is preferably configured to, when generating a transaction record of the second type, copy information from the transaction record of the first type to the transaction record of the second type on the terminal on which the request was generated, the transaction reference number, transaction date and time, the recipient's card number, validity period card recipient.

The monitoring module is preferably configured to, before increasing the available cash limit, check for the feasibility of instantly increasing the available cash limit on the second card account based on descriptive data stored in the database.

The present invention, thus, provides the ability to virtually instantly increase when transferring funds from the sender’s card account to the recipient’s card account the available limit on the recipient’s card account in a manner transparent to the user. Moreover, the only new component introduced into the system is the monitoring module according to the present invention.

List of drawings

The above and other aspects and advantages of the present invention are disclosed in the following description of a preferred embodiment, given with reference to the drawings, in which

Figure 1 is a schematic partial illustration of a banking payment system according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a preferred embodiment of a method according to the present invention.

Description of a preferred embodiment of the invention

Next, with reference to FIG. 1, 2 outlines the structure and functioning principles of the present invention, while the description of widely known (in particular, from [D1], [D2]) aspects of payment card systems is not given, so as not to obscure its essence.

At step 201, a user who wishes to complete a transaction of transferring a certain amount of money from his card account to another card account inserts his bank card into terminal 101, such as ATM, and, after successfully passing standard authentication (for example, based on entering PIN code), sets by means of input means of terminal 101 (for example, a keypad, touch screen, etc.) at least the amount of money in the selected currency for transfer and a parameter that uniquely identifies the card account of the transfer recipient (for example,Omer card account or, more conveniently, a credit card number associated with the card account). The user can be informed, for example, visually (on the display screen) of the commission charged by the bank for such a transfer. The terminal 101 generates an electronic message requesting a transfer transaction and transmits it in a known manner (wired, wireless or optical) to the processing center (PC) 100 of the bank serving this ATM.

HRC 100, generally speaking, is a holistic system, which is a set of interconnected software and hardware solutions that provides the life cycle of banking products based on bank cards and, accordingly, is responsible for conducting related operations and managing them. The PC 100 includes a number of subsystems, in particular, the front office 102 directly interacting with the terminals 101.

At step 202, the front office 102 captures the transaction and performs standard authorization in relation to it, in the framework of which, in particular, the following checks are carried out on the admissibility of the requested transfer:

- the correctness of entering the card number of the recipient;

- validity period of the recipient's card;

- currency of the card account;

- the validity of this operation for the card recipient;

- Recipient card status (card account blocking);

- restrictions on a one-time or daily amount of transfers for both the sender card and the recipient card;

- status, validity and authenticity of the sender card;

- Sufficiency of funds for the transfer on the card account of the sender.

If any of the checks is not performed, at step 203 a message is transmitted from the front office 102 to the terminal 101, having received which the terminal 101 informs the user about the refusal to complete the transfer, for example, on the display screen.

Upon successful authorization, at step 204, the first type of transaction record is generated in the database 100 of the processing center 100 by the front office 102, corresponding to the debit transaction of the sender's card account for the amount of the requested transfer. In this case, the front office 102 in a known manner blocks the funds available on the sender’s card account for the specified amount, possibly taking into account the bank’s commission, which is preferably reflected in the description of the sender’s card account in the database 103. The first type of transaction record is entered specific information that serves as an indicator that the corresponding debit transaction is exactly part of the requested transfer transaction. Preferably, a predetermined value <634> is entered in the field "TRANS_TYPE" of the record. The result of this step in a typical case should be the completion of a debit transaction.

In addition to the records of transactions performed in the processing center 100, the database 103 stores at least complete descriptions of the serviced processing center 100 cards and their associated card accounts, which, in particular, are used during authorization at step 202, and various auxiliary information. At the same time, it should be clear for a specialist that the generic term “database” in this application means one or more hardware network storages, which themselves and / or information are logically organized according to the design requirements for the claimed system.

Next, at step 205, the monitoring module 104 of the front office 102 of the processing center 100 corresponding to the present invention constantly monitors the database 103 for the presence of those first-type transaction records containing the above-mentioned specific information is a sign of the debit part of the transfer transaction. If such a transaction record of the first type is detected, the monitoring module 104 checks its status for successful completion in accordance with the rules defined in the front office 102. This action is performed for the reasons that, as is widely known, the transaction life cycle in the front office 102 The processing center 100 consists of several stages and the status "transaction completed" means that no action will be performed on the front office 102, which in this case determines the validity and security the desired increase in the payment limit on the beneficiary's card account, because otherwise, if the debit transaction had not been completed and the payment limit had been increased, then, due to the ambiguity of the status of the debit transaction, it could be concluded that there is an attempted fraud.

At step 206, upon successful completion of the debit transaction, the monitoring unit 104 in the database 103 generates a transaction record of the second type. This step according to a preferred embodiment is implemented as follows. From the transaction record of the first type to the generated transaction record of the second type are copied:

- information about the terminal on which the request was generated, the reference operation number (RRN), as well as the date and time of the operation;

- the recipient's card number specified as a payment parameter in step 201;

- the validity period of the recipient card from the card parameters in the database 103.

Then, the monitoring module 104 for the generated transaction record of the second type establishes the credit type of the transaction, as well as the conditions for servicing the recipient’s card “manual entry of the card number with no card holder”, and in the additional data field reflecting the details of the operation, determines the number of the sender’s card that the client presented at step 201. In addition, for the generated transaction record in the database 103, the data defining the current settlement cycle for the intended credit operation is set accordingly.

After recording the transaction of the second type in the database 103, the monitoring module 104 checks the recipient's card for the admissibility of an instant increase in the available limit on its card account. To this end, the monitoring module 104 checks, according to the BIN-number description table, whether the credit card is a local card of this processing or this card of a third-party bank, and if the card is a local card, it checks the corresponding descriptive information stored in the database 103 and associated with her card account.

At step 207, if it is permissible to instantly change the limit on the recipient's card account, the monitoring module 104, if necessary, determines the current conversion rate from the transaction currency to the recipient's card account currency, and then calculates the transaction amount in the recipient's card account currency, taking into account a certain conversion rate. Then, the monitoring module 104 increases the limit on the card account of the recipient in accordance with the rules defined in the front office 102 — preferably, this sets the corresponding increase in the allowable payment limit in the description of the card account in the database 103. After that, the monitoring module 104 in the record transactions of the second type sets the conversion rate and the amount used when changing the limit on the recipient's card account.

The debit card holder receives confirmation of the successful completion of the debit transaction, after which the holder of the credit card can properly use the funds transferred to his card. For example, if the transfer recipient immediately after increasing the limit on his card account wishes to use his or her card to pay for any goods or services through the POS terminal, the HR 100 with which the POS terminal contacts for this will refer to the card description in a standard way -accounts in the database 103 and takes into account the increased available limit when making the requested payment.

At step 208, at the end of the billing cycle (00 h. 00 m.), The processing center 100 (more specifically, its back office) based on the information from the database 103 in a standard way generates the final information about the operations (debit in relation to the card account sender and credit in relation to the card account of the recipient) and transfers it to the bank branches that maintain the relevant card accounts. Automated banking systems of branches in a standard way carry out accounting entries on customer accounts, usually on the next business day after the day transactions are completed.

It should be emphasized that the known payment card systems do not provide a transfer operation similar to that disclosed above at the front office level.

Specific embodiments of the above terminals and the processing center itself, including its associated rules and its subsystems and storages, as well as aspects of the interaction between them and the operations they perform, are widely known and disclosed, in particular, in [D1], [D2 ]. So, for their implementation in a typical case, specialized computer systems are used, adapted for network operation, with software and hardware components known to specialists and widely used in technology - for example, storages can be implemented on one or more widely known computer-readable media, such as drives on hard drives, RAID arrays, solid state memory, etc., and data exchange can be carried out on the basis of widely known wired and / or wireless network technologies and equipment vania.

The monitoring module of the present invention, in a preferred, but not the only possible embodiment, is implemented as specialized software running in computer systems of a processing center. At the same time, the monitoring module can be implemented as a single hardware-software complex, such as a specialized single-board server (blade server) as part of computer systems, or as a separate computer.

Although the present invention has been described in the context of card accounts, it should be obvious to a person skilled in the art that it can be used in the context of bank accounts not directly related to bank cards.

The invention has been disclosed above with reference to specific options for its implementation. Other specialists may be obvious to other embodiments of the invention, without changing its essence, as it is disclosed in the present description. Accordingly, the invention should be considered limited in scope only by the following claims.

Claims (12)

1. The processing center containing
- front office
- a database associated with the front office and containing records of transactions carried out in the processing center and descriptions of bank cards serviced by the processing center and associated card accounts,
the front office is configured to receive, from a terminal connected to the front office, a request to transfer a certain amount of money from the first card account to the second card account, to create a transaction record of the first type in the database corresponding to the debit transaction of the first card invoices for the mentioned amount, while placing in the transaction record of the first type information that is a sign that this debit transaction is part of the requested transfer,
at the same time, the front office additionally contains a monitoring module for:
- tracking the database for the presence of a transaction record of the first type, taking into account the above information,
- forming in the database, when a transaction record of the first type is detected, a second type of transaction record based on at least partially the data from the first type of transaction record, so that the generated second type of transaction record corresponds to a credit transaction of the second card account for the said amount, and
- an increase in the description of the second card account in the database of the available cash limit for the second card account for the mentioned amount. 2. The processing center according to claim 1, in which the front office, when generating a transaction of the first type, blocks the funds available on the first card account for the said amount, and the monitoring module is configured to check the status of the debit transaction before generating the transaction record of the second type the success of its completion. 3. The processing center according to claim 1, in which the monitoring module is configured to copy information about the terminal, the request number, date and time from the transaction record of the first type into the transaction record of the second type, when creating a transaction record of the second type operations, beneficiary's card number, validity period of the beneficiary's card. 4. The processing center according to claim 1, in which the monitoring module is configured to check before increasing the available cash limit on whether it is permissible to instantly increase the available cash limit on the second card account based on descriptive data stored in the database. 5. A method of transferring funds, implemented in a processing center containing a front office, which includes a monitoring module, and a database associated with the front office and containing records of transactions carried out in the processing center and descriptions of bank cards serviced by the processing center and associated with them card accounts, containing stages in which:
upon receiving from the terminal connected to the front office of the terminal a request to transfer a certain amount of money from the first card account to the second card account, using the front office, a first-type transaction record is generated in the database corresponding to the debiting transaction of the first card account to the aforementioned the amount, while in the transaction record of the first type put information that is a sign that the said debit transaction is part of the requested transfer,
using the monitoring module, the database is monitored for the presence of a transaction record of the first type, taking into account the above information,
using the monitoring module, in the database when a transaction type record of the first type is detected, a transaction type record of the second type is based on at least partially the data from the transaction type record of the first type so that the generated transaction record of the second type corresponds to the credit transaction of the second card account for the mentioned amount , and
with the help of the monitoring module, in the description of the second card account in the database, the available cash limit for the second card account is increased by the mentioned amount. 6. The method according to claim 5, in which when generating a transaction of the first type using the front office, the funds available for the first card account are blocked for the said amount and before generating a transaction record of the second type using the monitoring module, check the status of the debit transaction for success its completion. 7. The method according to claim 5, in which when generating a transaction record of the second type using the monitoring module, from the transaction record of the first type to the transaction record of the second type, information about the terminal on which the request was generated, the operation reference number, the date and time of the operation, beneficiary’s card number, validity period of the beneficiary’s card. 8. The method according to claim 5, in which before increasing the available cash limit using the monitoring module, a check is made for the feasibility of instantly increasing the available cash limit on the second card account based on descriptive data stored in the database. 9. A computer-implemented monitoring module included in the front office of the processing center, additionally containing a database controlled by the monitoring module, associated with the front office and containing records of transactions carried out in the processing center and descriptions of bank cards serviced by the processing center and associated cards accounts, while the monitoring module is configured for:
- tracking the database for the presence of a record of a transaction of the first type, which is formed by the front office in response to a request to transfer a certain amount of money from the first card account to the second card account and corresponds to the debit transaction of the first card account for the said amount, when in this, a record of a transaction of the first type contains information that is a sign that the said debit transaction is part of the requested transfer, and this information is taken into account by the monitoring module when Tracking
- forming in the database, when a transaction record of the first type is detected, a second type of transaction record based on at least partially the data from the first type of transaction record, so that the generated second type of transaction record corresponds to a credit transaction of the second card account for the said amount, and
- an increase in the description of the second card account in the database of the available cash limit for the second card account for the mentioned amount. 10. The monitoring module according to claim 9, further configured to check the status of the debit transaction for the success of its completion before generating a transaction record of the second type. 11. The monitoring module according to claim 9, further configured to, when generating a transaction record of the second type, copy information from the transaction record of the first type to the transaction record of the second type about the terminal on which the request was generated, the reference operation number, date and time of the operation, number beneficiary’s cards, validity period of the beneficiary’s card. 12. The monitoring module according to claim 9, additionally configured to check before allowing an increase in the available cash limit to determine whether it is permissible to instantly increase the available cash limit on the second card account based on descriptive data stored in the database.

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