Failure handling system

Abstract

To provide a failure handling system configured to easily respond to a failure in a financial institution system.SOLUTION: A failure handling server (failure handling system) 1 configured to respond to a failure that has occurred in a financial institution system 2 includes: request acquisition means which acquires an account transaction request for a faulty system, which is the financial institution system 2 in which the failure occurred; an alternative system specifying unit which specifies an alternative system, which is a financial institution system 2 alternative for the faulty system from among financial institution systems 2 different from the faulty system; and a substitution request unit which requests the specified alternative system to execute a process which should be executed for the account transaction request by the faulty system.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a failure response system that responds to a failure that occurs in a financial institution system. [Background technology]

[0002] Various technologies have been proposed to deal with the occurrence of a failure in a financial institution system. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a financial transaction processing system that includes a transaction agent response server that performs financial transactions for a financial institution center whose service is suspended, and a linkage server that links the transaction agent response server with an accounting system. In this financial transaction processing system, the transaction agent response server determines whether a financial transaction can be performed using account information sent from the linkage server in response to a financial transaction request to the financial institution center, and if the transaction is possible, executes the financial transaction on behalf of the financial institution center. This makes it possible to perform financial transactions even if the financial institution center is suspended. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-191852 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] As described above, in the financial transaction processing system described in Patent Document 1, the transaction response authorization server acts on behalf of the financial institution center in carrying out financial transactions. In this case, the transaction response authorization server must be configured with a computer system that enables financial transactions to be carried out, just like the financial institution center. Because financial transactions often require complex and extensive processing, building such a computer system is not easy, and therefore realizing the above-mentioned conventional financial transaction processing system is also not easy.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its main purpose is to provide a failure response system that makes it easier to respond to failures by utilizing the resources of each financial institution system. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The inventors focused on transfer transportation, which allows other transportation to be used when a transportation facility such as a railway becomes unable to operate, and discovered that a mechanism similar to transfer transportation, in which a financial institution system's functions are substituted by another financial institution system when a failure occurs in the financial institution system, would be effective. Based on this discovery, the inventors invented the following failure response system. That is, a failure response system according to one aspect of the present invention, which responds to a failure in a financial institution system when the failure occurs, includes: a request acquisition unit that acquires an account transaction request for a failed system, which is the financial institution system in which the failure occurred; an alternative system identification unit that identifies an alternative system, which is a financial institution system that substituted for the failed system, from among financial institution systems other than the failed system; and an substitution request unit that requests the identified alternative system to substitute for the processing that the failed system should execute in response to the account transaction request.

[0007] In the above aspect, if the account transaction request is a request for a money transfer transaction from the system experiencing a failure to another financial institution system, the substitution request unit may request the substitution system to perform processing to transfer money to the other financial institution system on behalf of the system experiencing a failure.

[0008] In addition, the above aspect may further comprise a notification unit that notifies the other financial institution system that remittance will be received from the alternative system in place of the system experiencing a failure.

[0009] In addition, in the above aspect, if the account transaction request is a request for a remittance transaction from another financial institution system to the system experiencing a failure, the substitution request unit may request the substitution system to perform processing to receive the remittance from the other financial institution system on behalf of the system experiencing a failure.

[0010] In addition, in the above aspect, if the request is not accepted by the identified alternative system, the alternative system identification unit may identify a financial institution system different from the financial institution system previously identified as the alternative system as a new alternative system.

[0011] In addition, in the above aspect, the alternative system identification unit may identify, as the alternative system, a financial institution system designated in advance by the financial institution related to the system experiencing a failure and / or an account user of the financial institution.

[0012] In addition, in the above aspect, an identifier of a pre-specified financial institution system is stored in a memory unit of a cash card used by the account user, and the account is further provided with an identifier acquisition unit that acquires the identifier from the cash card, and the alternative system identification unit may identify the financial institution system identified by the acquired identifier as the alternative system.

[0013] In addition, in the above aspect, the system may further include a load estimation unit that estimates the load of each financial institution system according to the request status by the substitution request unit, and the substitution system identification unit may identify an substitution system based on the estimated load of each financial institution system. [Effects of the Invention]

[0014] According to the present invention, it becomes possible to easily deal with failures in financial institution systems. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a failure response system and its communication destination. [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of an alternative setting database. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of an alternative performance database. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a basic procedure of a failure response process. [Figure 5A] 10 is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when a failure occurs in the system of the financial institution from which the transfer is made. [Figure 5B] 10 is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when the system of the financial institution from which the transfer originated has been restored. [Figure 6A] 10 is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when a failure occurs in the system of the financial institution of the transfer destination. [Figure 6B] 10 is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when the recipient's financial institution system is restored. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0016] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the following embodiments are merely examples of methods and devices for embodying the technical concept of the present invention, and the technical concept of the present invention is not limited to the following. Various modifications can be made to the technical concept of the present invention within the technical scope described in the claims.

[0017] As will be described later, in this embodiment, when a failure occurs in a financial institution system, the failure is handled by utilizing the resources of other financial institution systems. This type of failure handling is realized by the failure handling system of this embodiment. This failure handling system allows each financial institution system to complement each other, thereby improving convenience for users of each financial institution.

[0018] (System configuration) 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a failure response system and its communication destination according to this embodiment. The failure response system according to this embodiment is made up of a failure response server 1. This failure response server 1 is a computer system that responds to failures that occur in each financial institution system 2. The failure response server 1 communicates with each financial institution system 2 and an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) 3 via a communication network 101.

[0019] The financial institution system 2 is a computer system operated by financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies, and receives requests for various account transactions from ATMs 3 via a communication network 101 and executes processing in accordance with the requests. The financial institution system 2 can also receive requests for various account transactions from user terminals such as personal computers and smartphones via the Internet and handle them in the same manner.

[0020] The following describes the detailed configuration of the failure response server 1. The failure response server 1 is configured with one or more computers equipped with a control unit including a CPU, RAM, and ROM, and a storage unit, and this control unit executes each process described below. The storage unit of the failure response server 1 is provided with the following databases: an alternative setting database (DB) 11, an alternative performance database (DB) 12, and a failure status database (DB) 13. The following describes the details of these databases.

[0021] (A)Alternative setting DB11 When a failure occurs in a certain financial institution system 2, the failure support server 1 substitutes the processing that the financial institution system 2 is unable to execute with another financial institution system 2. The database that stores the information necessary to identify the substitute financial institution system 2 is the substitution setting DB11.

[0022] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of the alternative setting DB 11. As shown in Fig. 2, the alternative setting DB 11 stores the account numbers of users who use accounts at financial institutions, information identifying the financial institutions, and information identifying candidates for financial institutions (alternative candidates) that will substitute for account transactions related to the accounts during a failure.

[0023] There may be one or more replacement candidates. These replacement candidates are designated by the financial institution and / or the user. For example, a financial institution may designate another financial institution within the same corporate group as a replacement candidate, or may designate an affiliated financial institution as a replacement candidate. Furthermore, if a user has accounts at both a first and a second financial institution, it is possible to designate the second financial institution as a replacement candidate for the account at the first financial institution, and also to designate the first financial institution as a replacement candidate for the account at the second financial institution.

[0024] The candidate replacements are designated by financial institutions or users through advance notification to the failure support server 1. Alternatively, when a user uses an ATM 3 in a situation where a failure has occurred, the ATM 3 may notify the failure support server 1 of the candidate replacement financial institutions. In this case, the user may input the candidate replacement financial institutions into the ATM 3, which may then be passed from the ATM 3 to the failure support server 1. Alternatively, the identifiers of the candidate replacement financial institutions may be written in the memory of the cash card, which the ATM 3 may read and notify the failure support server 1.

[0025] (B) Alternative performance DB12 The substitution record DB 12 is a database that stores information regarding the record of other financial institution systems 2 substituting for processing that should be executed by a financial institution system 2 experiencing a failure. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of the substitution record DB 12. As shown in Fig. 3, the substitution record DB 12 stores information such as the date and time when the substituted processing (hereinafter referred to as "substitution processing") was performed, the account number of the user who requested the account transaction, information identifying the financial institution experiencing a failure that is the source of the substitution and the financial institution that is the substitute, and information indicating the content of the substitution processing.

[0026] When the failure support server 1 requests substitution processing from the substitution destination financial institution system 2, or when substitution processing is executed, the failure support server 1 registers each piece of information in the substitution record DB 12. The information stored in this substitution record DB 12 is used to confirm the substitution record after the fact, and also to identify the party to subsequently request substitution. This point will be described later.

[0027] (C) Disability Status DB13 The failure status DB13 is a database that stores information regarding the failure occurrence status of each financial institution system 2. For example, the failure status DB13 stores the date and time when the occurrence of the failure and recovery are confirmed, as well as information for identifying the financial institution system 2 where the failure occurred.

[0028] (System Operation) When a failure occurs in a financial institution system 2, the failure support server 1 configured as described above identifies a substitute from among other financial institution systems 2 and makes a request for replacement to that substitute. This series of processes is collectively referred to as failure support processing. Details of this failure support processing will be explained below.

[0029] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the basic procedure for failure response processing executed by the failure response server 1. When a request for an account transaction such as a transfer occurs in a financial institution system 2 experiencing a failure, a substitution request is issued from that financial institution system 2 or an ATM 3 to request that the account transaction be executed on its behalf. When the failure response server 1 receives the substitution request (S11), it identifies an alternative system, which is the financial institution system to be substituted, from among the financial institution systems 2 other than the financial institution system 2 experiencing the failure (S12).

[0030] In step S12, the failure support server 1 refers to the alternative setting DB 11 and extracts alternative candidates associated with the account number of the user who requested the current account transaction. If there is only one alternative candidate, the failure support server 1 identifies that alternative candidate as the alternative system. On the other hand, if there are multiple alternative candidates, the failure support server 1 identifies any one of them as the alternative system, or, if a ranking has been assigned by the financial institution or the user, identifies the alternative system according to that ranking.

[0031] As described above, the failure support server 1 may receive information indicating the alternative financial institution system 2 from the ATM 3. In this case, the failure support server 1 identifies the financial institution system 2 as the alternative system.

[0032] Incidentally, if it takes a considerable amount of time to restore a financial institution system 2 experiencing a failure, it is expected that the number of substitution processes will also be considerable. In that case, if substitution process requests are concentrated on a specific financial institution system 2, the load on that financial institution system 2 will increase, which is a problem. Therefore, the failure response server 1 estimates the load on each financial institution system 2 depending on the status of substitution requests, and identifies an alternative system based on the results. For example, the failure response server 1 determines that a financial institution system 2 that receives many substitution requests has a high load and a financial institution system 2 that receives few substitution requests has a low load, and then identifies the financial institution system 2 that is determined to have a low load as the alternative system. This achieves load distribution and makes it possible to avoid situations such as multiple financial institution systems 2 going down in a chain reaction.

[0033] The estimation of the load on each financial institution system 2 is not limited to the above. For example, the failure support server 1 may acquire information indicating the processing status of each financial institution system 2 from each financial institution at an appropriate timing, and estimate the load on each financial institution system 2 based on that information.

[0034] Next, the failure support server 1 transmits a request for substitution for the current account transaction to the alternative system (financial institution 2) (S13). For example, if the current account transaction is a transfer from an account at Bank A to an account at Bank B, and a failure occurs in Bank A's financial institution system 2, the failure support server 1 transmits a request for substitution for the transfer to the account at Bank B to the alternative system.

[0035] When the substitution request is received from the failure support server 1, the substitution system determines whether or not to accept the request, and transmits substitution acceptance / rejection information indicating the result of the determination to the failure support server 1. When the failure support server 1 receives the substitution acceptance / rejection information (S14), it determines whether or not the substitution request has been accepted based on the substitution acceptance / rejection information (S15).

[0036] If it is determined in step S15 that the substitution request has not been accepted (NO in S15), the failure support server 1 returns to step S12, identifies another financial institution system 2 as the substitution system, and then executes subsequent processing. In this case, the failure support server 1 may select from among the financial institution systems 2 specified as substitution candidates in the substitution setting DB 11, or may select another financial institution system 2 as the substitution system.

[0037] On the other hand, if it is determined that the substitution request has been accepted (YES in S15), the failure support server 1 registers the results of the substitution process in the substitution result DB 12 (S16) and terminates the failure support process. As a result of this failure support process, the process that should have been executed by the financial institution system 2 during the failure is executed by the substitute system, allowing the user to carry out the desired account transaction as usual.

[0038] There may be cases where the alternative system is unable to execute the alternative processing normally. In such cases, the alternative system sends information indicating this to the failure support server 1, and the failure support server 1, upon receiving this information, returns to step S12 and executes the subsequent processing. This makes it possible to execute the alternative processing as much as possible.

[0039] The above-described procedures in the failure response process are basic procedures that are commonly executed regardless of the content of the alternative process, but more specific procedures may differ depending on the content of the alternative process. Examples of specific procedures are described below.

[0040] Below, we will explain the specific procedures for the failure response process and the overall processing flow of each device, including the failure response server 1, assuming two specific cases. The first case is when a failure occurs in the financial institution system 2 of the transfer source during a transfer between accounts, and the second case is when a failure occurs in the financial institution system 2 of the transfer destination. In these cases, a user uses an ATM 3 to instruct a transfer from their own account at Bank A to the other party's account at Bank X. Furthermore, we will assume that the failure response server 1 identifies Bank B's financial institution system 2 (hereinafter referred to as the "Bank B system") as an alternative to Bank A's financial institution system 2 (hereinafter referred to as the "Bank A system") or Bank X's financial institution system 2 (hereinafter referred to as the "Bank X system").

[0041] (1) If a failure occurs in the financial institution system 2 of the transfer source Fig. 5A is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when a failure occurs in the financial institution system 2 of the transfer source, and Fig. 5B is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when the financial institution system 2 has been restored. First, as shown in Fig. 5A, an ATM 3 that has received a transfer instruction from a user sends a transfer request from an account at Bank A to an account at Bank X to the Bank A system that is experiencing a failure (S101).

[0042] The Bank A system that received the transfer request from ATM 3 is unable to process the request normally due to the failure, and so returns an error to ATM 3 (S201). Upon receiving this error, ATM 3 sends a transfer request to Bank X to the failure support server 1 (S102).

[0043] When the failure support server 1 receives a transfer request to Bank X from ATM 3 (corresponding to step S11 above), it registers information indicating that a failure has occurred in Bank A's system (such as the date and time of the failure) in the failure status DB 13 (S301), and sends a substitution request to Bank B's system, which has been identified as the substitution destination, to request that the transfer to Bank X be made on behalf of Bank A's system (S302). This completes the substitution request from the failure support server 1 to Bank B's system.

[0044] When Bank B's system receives the substitution request from the failure support server 1, it determines whether or not to consent to the substitution process, i.e., to the execution of a transfer to Bank X, and transmits the result of this determination to the failure support server 1 (S401). If Bank B's system does not consent to the execution of the substitution process, the failure support server 1 identifies a financial institution system 2 other than the Bank B system as an substitution system (corresponding to step S12 above) and transmits a substitution request to that financial institution system 2 (S302). However, in this case, the failure support server 1 may also determine that the substitution process cannot be executed and transmit information to the ATM 3 indicating that the transfer to Bank X could not be executed. Here, the explanation will continue assuming that Bank B's system consents to the execution of the substitution process and that information indicating this has been sent from Bank B's system to the failure support server 1.

[0045] When the failure support server 1 confirms that the Bank B system has agreed to the execution of the substitution process, it sends a substitution advance notice to the Bank X system to notify the Bank X system that the substitution process will be carried out (S303). The Bank X system confirms from this substitution advance notice that a transfer is scheduled to be carried out from the Bank B system instead of the Bank A system, and then determines whether to agree to the transfer (S501). If the Bank X system does not agree, it sends information to that effect to the failure support server 1. In this case, the failure support server 1 takes action similar to the case in which Bank B did not agree to the execution of the substitution process, such as continuing the process using a financial institution system 2 other than the Bank B system as an alternative system, or sending information to the ATM 3 indicating that the transfer to Bank X could not be carried out. Here, the explanation will continue assuming that the Bank X system has agreed to the execution of the substitution process.

[0046] The Bank B system, which has agreed to the execution of the substitution process, executes the substitution process, i.e., transfer to Bank X (S402), and the Bank X system receives the remittance (S502). In this case, Bank B temporarily pays the transfer amount that should have been borne by Bank A. Thereafter, the Bank X system updates the balance of the recipient's account by adding the transfer amount (S503), and the substitution process is completed.

[0047] The alternative system, Bank B's system, inherits at least the recipient's account number, the name of the sender, and the transfer amount from Bank A's system, and executes the above-mentioned alternative processing. This allows the recipient's financial institution and the recipient to easily carry out the settlement process, for example, in the case of a transfer in response to a request from the recipient. It is also convenient because the name of the sender can be confirmed even in the case of a normal transfer between individuals.

[0048] The Bank B system sends a substitution completion notice to the failure support server 1 indicating that the substitution process has been completed (S403). Upon receiving this, the failure support server 1 sends a similar substitution completion notice to the ATM 3 (S304) and registers information indicating the results of this substitution process in the substitution record DB 12 (S305). Upon receiving the substitution completion notice from the failure support server 1, the ATM 3 displays information indicating that the transfer has been completed on its display unit (S103). This allows the user to confirm that the desired transfer to Bank X has been made.

[0049] Next, we will explain the processing that occurs when the Bank A system, which has experienced a failure, recovers after the above-mentioned substitution processing is completed. As shown in Fig. 5B, the Bank A system, which has recovered from the failure, notifies the failure support server 1 of the recovery (S202). Receiving this, the failure support server 1 registers information indicating that the Bank A system has recovered (such as the recovery date and time) in the failure status DB 13 (S306), and notifies the Bank B system, which performed the substitution processing, that the Bank A system has recovered (S307).

[0050] When the Bank B system receives the notification from the failure support server 1 and confirms that the Bank A system has been restored (S404), it bills the Bank A system for the replacement fee, which is the cost of the replacement process that has already been executed (S405). Here, the replacement fee is the transfer amount that Bank B transferred to Bank X on behalf of Bank A plus a predetermined replacement fee.

[0051] When Bank A's system receives the invoice from Bank B's system, it updates the balance of the account by deducting the amount of the transfer from the account of the transfer originator (S203), and transfers the replacement cost to Bank B's system (S204). When Bank B's system receives this transfer (S406), the post-recovery processing of Bank A's system is completed.

[0052] After the replacement process is completed, Bank B's system, which is the replacement system, records the account number of the transfer destination, the name of the original account holder, the transfer amount, and the account number of Bank B used for the replacement transaction as transaction history. This transaction history is sent to Bank A's system, which has recovered from the failure, and is reflected in the account transaction history of the original account holder in Bank A's system.

[0053] As described above, even if Bank A's system is experiencing a problem, Bank B's system can execute an alternative process, allowing transfers from Bank A to Bank X. Therefore, users of Bank A's accounts can achieve their goal of transferring money to Bank X without waiting for Bank A's system to be restored.

[0054] (2) If a failure occurs in the transfer destination financial institution system 2 Fig. 6A is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when a failure occurs in the destination financial institution system 2, and Fig. 6B is a chart showing the flow of processing related to a transfer when the financial institution system 2 has recovered. First, as shown in Fig. 6A, an ATM 3 that has received a transfer instruction from a user sends a transfer request from an account at Bank A to an account at Bank X to the Bank A system that is experiencing a failure (S111).

[0055] The Bank A system, which has received a transfer request from ATM 3, transfers the money to the Bank X system (S211). However, the Bank X system is unable to process the money properly due to a failure, and returns an error to the Bank A system (S511). Receiving this error, the Bank A system sends a request to the failure support server 1 to receive the money transferred to Bank X (S212).

[0056] When the failure support server 1 receives the receipt request from the Bank A system (corresponding to step S11 above), it registers information indicating that a failure has occurred in the Bank X system (such as the date and time of the failure) in the failure status DB 13 (S311), and sends a substitution request to the Bank B system, which has been identified as the substitution destination, to request that the Bank B system receive the transfer to Bank X on behalf of the Bank X system (S312). This completes the substitution request from the failure support server 1 to the Bank B system.

[0057] When Bank B's system receives the substitution request from the failure support server 1, it determines whether or not to agree to the execution of the substitution process, i.e., the receipt of the transfer to Bank X, and transmits the result of this determination to the failure support server 1 (S411). If Bank B's system does not agree to the execution of the substitution process, then, as in (1) above, the failure support server 1 takes action such as continuing the process with a financial institution system 2 other than Bank B's system as the substitution system, or transmitting information to ATM 3 indicating that the transfer to Bank X could not be made. Here, the explanation will continue assuming that Bank B's system agrees to the execution of the substitution process and that information indicating this has been sent from Bank B's system to the failure support server 1.

[0058] When the failure support server 1 confirms that the Bank B system has agreed to the execution of the alternative processing, it sends information indicating this to the Bank A system (S313). The Bank A system then remits the transfer amount to Bank B (S213). The Bank A system also updates the balance of the transfer source account by deducting the transfer amount from the account (S214).

[0059] The Bank B system, which has agreed to execute the alternative process, executes the alternative process, i.e., receives the transfer to Bank X (S412), and sends an alternative completion notification to the failure support server 1 indicating that the alternative process has been completed (S413).

[0060] The failure support server 1, which has received the substitution completion notice, sends a similar substitution completion notice to the ATM 3 (S314), and registers information indicating the results of this substitution process in the substitution result DB 12 (S315). When the ATM 3 receives the substitution completion notice from the failure support server 1, it displays information indicating that the transfer has been completed on the display unit (S112). This allows the user to confirm that the desired transfer to Bank X has been made.

[0061] Next, we will explain the processing when the Bank X system in which the failure occurred is restored after the completion of the above-mentioned substitution processing. As shown in Fig. 6B, the Bank X system that has recovered from the failure notifies the failure support server 1 of the fact of recovery (S512). Receiving this, the failure support server 1 registers information indicating that the Bank X system has been restored (such as the date and time of recovery) in the failure status DB 13 (S316), and notifies the Bank B system that executed the substitution processing that the Bank X system has been restored (S317).

[0062] When the Bank B system receives the notification from the failure response server 1 and confirms that the Bank X system has been restored (S414), it transfers the transfer amount received from Bank A on behalf of Bank X and requests the specified substitution fee from the Bank X system (S415).

[0063] When the Bank X system receives the remittance and invoice from the Bank B system, it updates the balance of the recipient account by adding the remittance amount (S513) and remits the fee to the Bank B system (S514). When the Bank B system receives this remittance (S416), the processing related to the recovery of the Bank A system is completed.

[0064] As described above, even if Bank X's system is experiencing a failure, Bank B's system can execute an alternative process, allowing transfers from Bank A to Bank X. Therefore, users of Bank A's accounts can achieve their goal of transferring money to Bank X without waiting for the Bank X system to be restored.

[0065] In this embodiment, as described above, the failure response server 1 requests a financial institution system 2 other than the failed financial institution system 2 to take over account transactions, and the financial institution system 2 executes the substitution process, thereby implementing the failure response. In this way, the resources of each existing financial institution system 2 are utilized, making it possible to implement failure response at a relatively low cost.

[0066] (Other embodiments) Although the above embodiment illustrates an example of an account transaction involving a transfer between accounts, the present invention can be applied to various other account transactions. For example, the present invention can also be applied to account transactions that would normally be completed by a single financial institution, such as a withdrawal from an account and a deposit to an account. More specifically, when a withdrawal request is made from an account via ATM 3 to a Bank A system experiencing a failure, ATM 3 receives an error from the Bank A system and requests the withdrawal from the failure support server 1. Upon receiving this request, the failure support server 1 identifies a financial institution system 2 other than the Bank A system as an alternative system and requests the alternative system to perform the withdrawal. If the alternative system agrees to the execution of the substitution process, it instructs ATM 3 to perform the withdrawal. This withdrawal is funded by the financial institution associated with the alternative system. After the Bank A system is restored, the Bank A system remits the withdrawal amount and a specified fee to the financial institution in response to a request from the alternative system.

[0067] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, an example was given of a case where a sudden failure occurs in a financial institution system, but the same applies to planned maintenance, etc., in that normal processing cannot be performed, so the failure response system of the present invention can also be applied to such cases. In this case, the failure response server 1 obtains information regarding the date and time of maintenance from each financial institution in advance, registers that information in the failure status DB 13, and then executes processing similar to that of the above embodiment.

[0068] In the above embodiment, when the alternative system executes a substitution process involving a transfer between accounts, the account used in the substitution process must exist on the alternative system side. Therefore, if such an account is not available on the alternative system side, a new account must be opened when the substitution process is executed. In this case, an account number must be assigned to the account. However, performing such an assignment process each time a substitution process is executed may result in problems such as an increased system processing load. To address this issue, for example, a system in which each financial institution uses the account holder's telephone number in common with the other financial institutions, instead of the traditional account number. Under this system, for example, if a failure occurs in Bank A's system and Bank B's system becomes the alternative system to execute the substitution process, Bank B's system does not need to assign a new account number; it can simply use the account holder's telephone number at Bank A. Because this telephone number can be used by other financial institutions as well, it becomes possible to easily compare the processes executed at each financial institution system 2 in connection with the substitution process (e.g., by using the telephone number as a key to extract the processes already executed in each financial institution system and comparing the details). The above-mentioned identification information is not limited to a telephone number, but may be other information (for example, an email address) as long as it is unique information. [Explanation of symbols]

[0069] 1. Fault recovery server 11 Alternative Settings Database 12 Alternative Performance Database 13. Disability Status Database 2 Financial Institution System 3 ATM 101 Communication Network

Claims

1. In a failure response system that responds to a failure in a financial institution system, a request acquisition unit that acquires an account transaction request for a failed system, which is a financial institution system in which a failure has occurred; an alternative system identification unit that identifies an alternative system that is a financial institution system that will replace the system in failure from among financial institution systems other than the system in failure; an alternative request unit that requests the identified alternative system to take over the processing that should be executed by the system experiencing the failure in response to the account transaction request; A fault response system that includes:

2. If the account transaction request is a request for a remittance transaction from the system experiencing a failure to another financial institution system, the substitution request unit requests the substitution system to perform processing for remittance to the other financial institution system instead of the system experiencing a failure. The fault response system according to claim 1 .

3. a notification unit that notifies the other financial institution system that remittance will be received from the alternative system in place of the system experiencing a failure; The fault response system according to claim 2 , further comprising:

4. If the account transaction request is a request for a remittance transaction from another financial institution system to the system experiencing a failure, the substitution request unit requests the substitution system to perform processing to receive the remittance from the other financial institution system on behalf of the system experiencing a failure. The fault response system according to claim 1 .

5. If the request is not accepted by the identified alternative system, the alternative system identification unit identifies a financial institution system different from the financial institution system previously identified as the alternative system as a new alternative system.

5. A failure response system according to claim 1.

6. The alternative system identification unit identifies a financial institution related to the system experiencing a failure and / or a financial institution system designated in advance by an account user of the financial institution as an alternative system.

5. A failure response system according to claim 1.

7. A pre-designated identifier of a financial institution system is stored in a memory unit of a cash card used by an account user, an identifier acquisition unit that acquires the identifier from the cash card; the alternative system identification unit identifies the financial institution system identified by the acquired identifier as an alternative system; 5. A failure response system according to claim 1.

8. a load estimation unit that estimates a load on each financial institution system according to a request status made by the substitution request unit; the alternative system identification unit identifies an alternative system based on the estimated load of each financial institution system; 5. A failure response system according to claim 1.

Images