Secure payment system

A system for the authentication by a card-issuing financial institution of identifying information of a card-holding user of a public data network, the system comprising:

• a secure data entry device connected to the public data network;
• and
• a gateway device connected to the public data network and to a private data network used for transmitting messages between financial institutions;
• wherein the secure data entry device comprises means for the user to enter identifying information of a card issued by the financial institution, means for the user to enter the user's Personal Identification Number (“PIN”), means for encrypting the identifying information and PIN for secures transmission, and means for transmitting the encrypted identifying information and PIN in a secure manner via the data transmission output over the public data network to the gateway device;
• and
• wherein the gateway device includes means for transmitting the identifying information to the card-issuing financial institution and for receiving an approval response from the card-issuing financial institution over the private data network;
• whereby the approval response provides authentication of the identifying information by the card-issuing financial institution;
• wherein the gateway device further includes means to generate a replacement card number upon receipt of the approval response from the card-issuing institution and
• wherein the Bank Identification Number of the replacement card number is selected such that the payment transaction is directed over the private data network to the gateway device by identifying the gateway device as a card-issuing institution of the replacement card number.