Global method and system for providing enhanced transactional functionality through a customer terminal

• US 7,953,662 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2010
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Citicorp Credit Services Incorporated (Citigroup Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Citicorp Development Center Incorporated (Citigroup Incorporated)
• Inventors: Yu, Wigberto, Bryant, Nancy, Warren, Lucilla, Schechtman, Howard A., Meiroff, Netty
• Primary Examiner(s): Subramanian; Narayanswamy
• Application Number:
  US12/683,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 509 Days
• Field of Search: 705 43- 44, 705/35
• US Class Current: 705/43
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3227 using secure elements embedded in M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3552 Downloading or loading of personalisation data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/206 Software aspects at ATMs

Abstract

A global customer activated terminal (CAT) primarily serves traveling customers who require access to their accounts when they are away from their home financial institution and beyond their local regional financial area. The system provides applications that permit users to access their accounts and utilize account profiles and transaction journals within a generic global system approach, and each transaction set provides access to the user'"'"'s full account profile. The traveling customer is also provided with access to all their accounts linked (as they would locally) to a specific card. The hardware employed in the system supports encryption key downloading, unscrambling and PIN encryption, so that security is instituted at the hardware level. To provide the maximum flexibility at each regional level for product and services offered, regional front end processors and Hosts are the arbitrators of each transaction acceptance and fulfillment, rather than the CAT.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing user access to international account products on a network, comprising:

deploying a plurality of local terminals within each of a plurality of pre-defined business regions of a financial institution with at least one front-end processor as exclusive arbitrator of transaction acceptance and fulfillment for each of said plurality of local terminals within each of said business regions, each of said local terminals sharing a common interface with the front-end processors for all of said business regions;

identifying by a computer process executing on one of the local terminals within one of said business regions a non-local user account type based on a user'"'"'s input received at said one of the local terminals and establishing by the computer process a real-time interactive session directly between the user at said one of the local terminals and said at least one front-end processor for said one of said business regions via said common interface;

receiving by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface the user'"'"'s selection of a language from a list of language options presented for the user at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface;

receiving by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface the user'"'"'s entry at said one of the local terminals of an access code in response to a prompt of the user for the access code in said selected language at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface and verifying by said at least one front-end processor said entered access code;

receiving by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface the user'"'"'s entry at said one of the local terminals of a selection of a transaction from a list of transactions in the selected language consisting of a set of user transactions that is common to each of said business regions presented for the user at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface; and

interactively performing by said at least one front-end processor via the common interface the selected transaction in the selected language for the user at said one of the local terminals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the non-local user account type further comprises transmitting by the computer process executing on said one of the local terminals to said at least one front-end processor a request for user access-specific information and transmitting from said at least one front-end processor to the computer process executing on said one of the local terminals said requested user access-specific information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said user access-specific information further comprises card prefix table information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said list of transactions further comprises obtaining cash, obtaining information, transferring funds, making payments, reviewing recent activity, and obtaining customer service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the non-local user account type based on the user'"'"'s input further comprises identifying the non-local user account type based at least in part on the user'"'"'s input via inserting a bankcard into a card reader of said one of the local terminals.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the non-local user account type based on the user'"'"'s input further comprises identifying the non-local user account type based at least in part on the user'"'"'s input via inserting a credit card into a card reader of said one of the local terminals.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the non-local user account type based on the user'"'"'s input further comprises identifying an expiration date for the credit card and comparing the expiration date to a current date.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said one of the local terminals further comprises a personal computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising printing a record regarding the selected transaction in the selected language for the user at said one of the local terminals.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting by the computer process executing on said one of the local terminals to said at least one front-end processor a request for user account balance information and transmitting from said at least one front-end processor to the computer process executing on said one of the local terminals said requested user account balance information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a line of credit.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type c further comprises a mortgage.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a loan.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a credit card account.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a checking account.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a savings account.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type comprises a money market account.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-local user account type further comprises a time deposit account.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein said non-local user account type further comprises an investment account.

20. A computer system for providing user access to international account products on a network, comprising:

a plurality of local terminals deployed within each of a plurality of pre-defined business regions of a financial institution with at least one front-end processor as exclusive arbitrator of transaction acceptance and fulfillment for each of said plurality of local terminals within each of said business regions, each of said local terminals sharing a common interface with said at least one front-end processor for all of said business regions;

a computer process executing on one of the local terminals within one of said business regions that identifies a non-local user account type based on a user'"'"'s input received at said one of the local terminals and establishes a real-time interactive session directly between the user at said one of the local terminals and said at least one front-end processor for said one of said business regions via the common interface;

said at least one front-end processor being programmed;

to receive via the common interface the user'"'"'s selection of a language from a list of language options presented for the user at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via the common interface;

to receive via the common interface the user'"'"'s entry of an access code at said one of the local terminals in response to a prompt of the user for the access code in the selected language at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via the common interface and verifying by said at least one front-end processor the entered access code;

to receive via the common interface the user'"'"'s entry of a selection of a transaction at said one of the local terminals from a list of transactions in the selected language consisting at least in part of a set of user transactions that is common to each of said business regions presented to the user at said one of the local terminals by said at least one front-end processor via said common interface; and

to interactively perform via the common interface the selected transaction in the selected language for the user at said one of the local terminals.