Financial transaction processing system and method

A system for processing financial transactions comprising:

• a computer in operative connection with a database means for storing data representative of information for transforming messages between at least one internal message format and a plurality of external message formats including at least one external message format for communicating with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), and wherein the computer is operative to set a message direction corresponding to each message processed by the computer, wherein the message direction is indicative of whether a corresponding message is in the internal message format or one of the external message formats;
• a transforming means in operative connection with the computer for transforming messages between the external formats and the internal format responsive to the message direction corresponding with each respective message and the information stored in the database means;
• a plurality of external devices including at least one ATM, each external device being in operative connection with the computer and operative to send and receive messages;
• and
• processing means operating in the computer wherein the processing means is operative to send and receive messages in the internal format, and wherein the processing means is operative to communicate with the external devices by passing messages through the transforming means.

A method for processing transaction messages in a system including at least one computer in operative connection with a data store, comprising the steps of:

• storing in a data store, data concerning at least one internal message format and a plurality of external message formats including at least one external message format for communicating with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM);
• determining a format of a message with the computer responsive to the information stored in the data store;
• and
• associating with the message a message direction indicator;
• transforming the message responsive to at least one message transformation software component operating in the computer responsive to the message direction indicator, the determined format and the data in the data store, wherein the message is transformed from the one external format to the internal format responsive to the determined format corresponding to one of the external formats, and wherein the message is transformed selectively to any one of the plurality of external formats responsive to the determined format corresponding to the internal format.

A method for processing messages generated by a plurality of devices including at least one Automated Teller Machine (ATM), each of the devices communicating messages in a different device message format, wherein the plurality of devices include a plurality of types of external devices, wherein each type of external device communicates in a corresponding external message format, the processing conducted with a computer in operative connection with a data store, comprising the steps of:

• storing in the data store, data representative of each of the devices operatively connected to provide messages to the system, and storing for each of the devices, data representative of a device message format in which each device communicates at least one device message;
• storing in the data store, data representative of how to produce responsive to each device message in a device message format, a corresponding message in a second message format, wherein the second message format includes an internal message format;
• storing in the data store, data representative of how to process messages in the second message format;
• receiving device messages with the computer from the devices including at least one ATM;
• producing responsive to the device messages, corresponding messages in the second message format through operation of the computer responsive to data stored in the data store, including the computer transforming the external format messages to internal format messages;
• and
• processing with the computer the messages in the second message format responsive to data stored in the data store.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of first external devices, including at least one Automated Teller Machine (ATM), the plurality of first external devices communicating first messages in a plurality of first message formats;
• at least one second external device, the at least one second external device communicating second messages in at least one second message format;
• at least one computer in operative connection with the plurality of first external devices and the at least one second external device;
• wherein the at least one computer is in operative connection with data in at least one data store usable by the at least one computer to convert messages in each of the plurality of first message formats and the second message format to an internal message format, wherein the computer is operative to communicate messages between the plurality of first external devices and the at least one second external device by transforming messages in the plurality of first message formats and second message format to the internal message format, wherein the at least one computer is operative to cause to be associated with each message, a message direction indicator, and wherein the at least one computer is operative responsive to a message direction indicator associated with a message, to cause the message to be converted between the internal message format and one of (i) the first message formats and (ii) the second message format.

In a system including:

• a plurality of authorization systems communicating through authorization system messages in a plurality of authorization system message formats;
• a plurality of terminal devices including at least one Automated Teller Machine (ATM), communicating terminal messages in a plurality of terminal message formats;
• at least one computer in operative connection with the plurality of authorization systems and the plurality of terminal devices;
• at least one data store in operative connection with the at least one computer, the data store including data usable to transform the plurality of authorization message formats and the plurality of terminal message formats;
• computer software adapted to operate in the at least one computer comprising:
• at least one software component operative responsive to the data stored in the data store to cause the at least one computer to transform at least a portion of terminal messages in the plurality of terminal message formats to corresponding messages in an internal message format, wherein the plurality of terminal messages generated by the plurality of terminal devices each have associated therewith through operation of the computer software an incoming message direction indicator, and wherein the at least one software component is operative to cause at least the portion of each of the plurality of terminal messages generated by the terminal devices to be transformed to a corresponding message in the internal message format responsive to the incoming message direction indicator associated with the respective message.

A system for processing financial transactions comprising:

• at least one database including data concerning transaction message formats, wherein the at least one database includes stored transformation information concerning transformation of messages from at least one internal message format to a plurality of external message formats including at least one external message format for communicating with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), and from the plurality of external message formats to the at least one internal message format;
• and
• a computer in operative connection with the at least one database, wherein the computer includes at least one software function operative responsive to the transaction message format data to determine a format of a received message, the received message having either the at least one internal message format or one of the plurality of external message formats and a message direction indicator associated with the received message, wherein the message direction indicator is indicative of either an incoming message direction or an outgoing message direction, and wherein the at least one software function is operative responsive to the stored transformation information and the message direction indicator being indicative of the outgoing message direction, to transform the received message selectively from the at least one internal message format to any one of the plurality of external message formats, and wherein the at least one software function is operative responsive to the stored transformation information and the message direction indicator being indicative of the incoming message direction, to transform the received message from any one of the plurality of external message formats to the at least one internal message format.