APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONDUCTING ATM TRANSACTIONS

• US 20200134584A1
• Filed: 10/08/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Terry Pierce
• Original Assignee: Terry Pierce
• Inventors: Pierce, Terry
• Granted Patent: US 11,216,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/211 Software architecture within ATMs or in relation to the ATM network

Abstract

Apparatus and methods 10 are disclosed that provide mainline standard ATMs 12 with enhanced functionality, enabling users 16 to conduct not only conventional transactions such as deposits and/or withdrawals from checking and/or banking accounts, but more sophisticated and complicated transactions that previously have typically required an in-person interaction with a human teller or logging into the user'"'"'s account via a mobile phone, personal computer, or similar device. A terminal handler 40 coordinates enrollment and verification through a database 42, and routes transactions from the ATM to the appropriate corresponding financial institution.

Claims

1. Apparatus for conducting electronic financial interactions via an ATM-type device, including:

at least one credit union-type financial organization, said credit union having at least one member, and the member having at least one account at that credit union;

at least one ATM-type device that (a) is physically accessible to the public at substantially all times, (b) does not require human supervision during normal use, (c) meets at least minimum security and safety standards for ATM installations, and (d) has an interface through which the member can selectively transact financial matters relating to that member'"'"'s at least one account, the financial matters including activities besides depositing and withdrawing and transferring monies between and/or from checking and/or savings accounts, the financial matters constituting at least part of the substantially broad range of electronic financial interactions;

a group of credit unions that includes the at least one credit union-type financial organization, the group cooperating to make available financial services to each other'"'"'s members, such cooperation including each credit union of the group permitting their respective members to conduct “

shared branching”

activities at each of the group'"'"'s physical locations;

a terminal handler to process those interactions with the ATM, including (a) routing the member'"'"'s interactions appropriately to the credit union, (b) routing other interactions that are related to other credit unions in the group of credit unions to the appropriate one of such group, and (c) routing other interactions that are related to financial institutions not belonging to the group of credit unions to the appropriate other financial institution.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the terminal handler directs the interactions relating to any of the group of credit unions to a first electronic network and the other interactions to a second electronic network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the ATM is a Diebold®

machine running Diebold'"'"'s Agilis software.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the terminal handler uses the IFX messaging standard.

5. A method of providing automated electronic financial transactions at the instruction of an individual user, including the steps of:

providing the apparatus of claim 1;

receiving an instruction from a user via the ATM; and

executing the instruction.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a live teller component.

6. An ATM-type device, including:

the ATM-type device (a) being physically accessible to the public at substantially all times, (b) not requiring human supervision during normal use, (c) meeting at least minimum security and safety standards for ATM installations, and (d) having an interface that permits a user to selectively transact financial matters relating to at least one account to which the user has authorized access via the ATM, the financial matters including activities besides depositing and withdrawing and transferring monies between and/or from checking and/or savings accounts.

9. The ATM-type device of claim 6, further including a live teller component.

7. An automated teller machine (ATM) associated with a primary credit union, the primary credit union included in a group of credit unions that are members of a shared branch network, said ATM comprising:

(a) a terminal including;

a card reader;

an interface including a plurality of touch-screen buttons, wherein the plurality of touch-screen buttons include;

a standard ATM button for standard ATM transactions,

a shared branch button for shared branch-only transactions, wherein the shared branch-only transactions include transactions which are only conducted by a member of at least one credit union in the group of credit unions with at least one credit union in the group of credit unions,

a processor, wherein said processor upon execution of software, is configured to;

launch, via the interface including the plurality of touch-screen buttons, an interactive session and receive a selection of one of the plurality of touch-screen buttons, wherein;

when the standard ATM button is selected by the member of the primary credit union or the member of another credit union in the group of credit unions,

receive, via the card reader, an ATM card associated with the member of the primary credit union or the member of another credit union in the group of credit unions, respectively;

when the shared branch button is selected by the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions,

receive an identification entered by the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions in response to a prompt from the ATM to provide the identification, wherein said identification requires said member to enter (a) an account number associated with said member'"'"'s credit union account, (b) an electronically readable card having said member'"'"'s name associated therewith, and (c) a pin assigned to said member'"'"'s credit union account,

verify whether the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions has previously enrolled to use shared branch services based on whether the identification matches a record in a message bridge database,

 

when the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions is verified, permit the shared branch transactions to proceed,

 

and when the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions is not verified, end the interactive session,

(b) a terminal handler configured;

when the standard ATM button is activated by the member of the primary credit union or the member of another credit union in the group of credit unions, to;

route the standard ATM transactions to an ATM network, wherein the ATM network routes the standard ATM transactions to a financial institution associated with the ATM card provided by said member,

when the shared branch button is selected by the member of said at least one credit union in the group of credit unions, to;

route the shared branch-only transactions to the shared branch network, wherein the shared branch network routes the shared branch-only transactions to at least one credit union in the group of credit unions; and

(c) a live teller function which includes integrated audio and/or video conferencing which supports live interaction of a user with a remote teller.