An electronic-purse transaction method and system

Abstract

Users (302,403,406) of a bank (332,324) put funds into user credit account (112,114,116,118) from which the funds can be transferred to a consolidated e-pures ban account (120) within the bank (332,324). The consolidated e-pures bank account (120) i mirrored in a e-purse database (204), but wih fund allocated to different e-purese (212,214,216,218,226,228) the total of all funds in the different e-purse (212,214,216,218,226,228) beeing equal to the funds in the consolidated e-purse ban account. When a first user (302) wishes to make a purchase from a second user (304), h sends an SMS message (352) to a mobile telephone payment gateway (320) indicating th second user (304) and an amount. The indicated amount of funds is removed from the fir users's e-purese (212). When the purchase is confirmed, the funds are transferred into th second user's e-purse (214), less transaction charges. These funds are immediately availabl to the second user (304).

Description

technical field

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic purse (e-purse) transaction system and method thereof, eg for making payments, in particular using a mobile phone. Background technique

[0002] A new mode of payment that has recently emerged is electronic payment, or e-payment, eg via the Internet or a mobile phone. Electronic payments are fast and do not rely on tools such as magnetic cards, card readers and checkbooks. In general, the development of electronic transactions (e-transactions) via telephone is moving towards the use of SMS to activate transactions. However, the infrastructure and expertise required for telephone-based electronic transactions is beyond the traditional setup and capabilities of banks. In addition, banks generally cannot easily upgrade themselves to state-of-the-art telecommunications and customer relationship management (CRM) technologies. Therefore, it is often seen that banks employ external telecommunications companies...

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