FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

Title of invention:
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AN AUTOMATED PASSBOOK PRINTING

Applicant:
Tata Consultancy Services Limited
A company Incorporated in India under The Companies Act, 1956
Having address:
Nirmal Building, 9th Floor,
Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021,
Maharashtra, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the field of banking operations. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and a system for self printing of a bank passbook by a customer using a Magnetic Stripe Reader.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Passbook printing is a part of daily banking operations for customers. Whenever a customer visits any branch of a bank for passbook printing, he/she has to stand in a queue. When his/her turn comes, the customer has to handover the passbook to the teller / the person inside the counter for e.g. teller/ clerk. The teller/ clerk, enters the account number present on the passbook in the system. The teller/clerk verifies the customer name displayed on the system with that written on the passbook. If the details are verified, the teller places passbook in the Passbook printer and gives command for printing passbook. If there is more number of transactions, the teller has to take out the passbook, turn the page and re-insert. Once passbook printing is complete, the teller shall check and return passbook back to the customer. The customer then again checks the passbook and then leaves the counter. This process has various drawbacks for the customer as well as for the bank

For the customer, he/she has to wait in a queue, due to scalability constraints of bank staff, to get services by the teller/clerk which causes discomfort to the customer. Thus it results in an increased service delivery time and physical efforts to the customer. Moreover, considering multitude of tasks and banking operations that are concurrently happening in a bank, there is a fair probability that the teller / clerk would be busy, further frustrating the customer’s effort and wasting time resulting in poor quality of service.

For the bank, as passbook printing requires an access to client and bank confidential information, hence a dedicated bank employee (teller) is deployed for processing the printing job. This results in waste of human efforts for, though essential but unproductive, passbook printing activity. Moreover, a rush created due to customer queue for passbook printing creates hindrance to smooth functioning of bank operations in addition to compromised security, discomfort, and chaos, affecting other services of the bank. Usually, a separate counter is placed for delivering passbook printing service, occupying a dedicated space on the operations floor.

Thus, in the light of the above mentioned background of the art, it is evident that, there is a need for a system which is convenient for both customer and bank for specifically automated printing of the passbook by customer themselves in banking process.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of this invention is to provide a method/process that enables passbook printing for banking transactions of a customer using the Magnetic Stripe Reader and printer.

Yet another object of the present invention is to enable a method for authentication of the customer for printing passbook by taking inputs from the Magnetic Stripe Reader.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system that enables the customer to access all the transaction information pertaining to the customer's accounts by way of swiping the ATM / debit card in the Magnetic Stripe Reader followed by entering the Personal Identification Number (PIN) associated with the ATM / debit card;

Another object of the invention is to identify and validate the primary account number with the help of an authentication server.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide the system that enables permitting and firing print command through a server to the passbook printer upon verification by the authentication server.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide the system that enables the customer to select the account number for which the passbook has to be printed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Before the present systems and methods, enablement are described, it is to be understood that this application is not limited to the particular systems, and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosures. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application.

The present application provides a method and a system for self printing of the bank passbook for banking transactions using Magnetic Stripe Reader and passbook printer.

In one aspect, a method for verifying the customer and identifying a primary account for which the passbook needs to be printed using a Magnetic Stripe Reader and the Magnetic Stripe Reader is further used to provide inputs to the printer for printing the passbook.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the magnetic stripe reader, also called a magstripe reader, is a hardware device that reads the information encoded in the magnetic stripe located on the back of a plastic card. Magnetic stripe readers can be read by a computer program through a serial port, USB connection, or keyboard wedge, and are generally categorized by the way they read the data present within the card. For instance, insertion readers require that the card be inserted into the reader and then pulled out. Swipe readers require that the card pass completely through the reader.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the Magnetic Stripe Reader and Passbook printer is kept in the bank branch and are connected to the branch network via Local area network (LAN), whereas the printer is also connected to the local area network or to any other computer in the bank branch. The printer setup is controlled by the bank branch administrator. There is always a logical connection between the Magnetic Stripe Reader and the Passbook printer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the customer for printing the passbook, swipes his Debit card on Magnetic Stripe Reader, and enters the 4 digits PIN. Once the customer is authenticated, all the accounts for which passbook can be printed shall be displayed to the customer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the customer confirms the account for which he needs to update the passbook, after this the passbook printing transaction will be fired from the Server to the Core banking server (CBS) and then the transactions for that account will be fetched from CBS.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the customer can select the passbook printing option from the Magnetic Stripe Reader screen. After selection, the customer has to insert the passbook in the passbook printer and confirm the same within the specified time.

In still another aspect of the present invention, after the updation of the passbook, the customer can collect the passbook and leave or if there is more than 1 page to be updated on the passbook, the instructions for flipping the page shall be displayed on the screen.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the Magnetic Stripe Reader comprises of a device selected from a group of but not restricted to point of sale terminals (POS) and an automatic teller machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. This is shown in the drawings example embodiments, however, the application is not limited to the specific system and method disclosed in the drawings.

Figure 1 is a Passbook Printing Architecture diagram (100) illustrating various devices interconnected with a network, for the process of passbook printing according to one exemplary embodiment of the invention.
Figure 2 is a Passbook Printing Process flow (200) illustrating various steps and the components interaction for printing the passbook according to another exemplary embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Some embodiments, illustrating its features, will now be discussed in detail. The words “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” and “including,” and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any methods, and systems similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments, the preferred methods, and systems are now described. The disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary.

Referring to figure 1 is a system architecture diagram (100) illustrating various components interconnected with a network for the process of passbook printing according to one embodiment of the invention.

As illustrated in figure 1, the architecture (100) comprises a customer (102) interaction with a Magnetic Stripe Reader (104), a branch network (106), a Server (108), an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch (110), a core banking solution (CBS) (112), a passbook printer (114), a teller PC (116) and for intercommunication of the component/ devices a LAN connection (118) is provided.

In an exemplary embodiment, the customer (102) interacts with the Magnetic Stripe Reader (104) that can be used to provide inputs to the various components of the system architecture. The Magnetic Stripe Reader (104) is kept in the branch and is connected to a branch network (106) via LAN connection (118). The entered information after swiping the card of the customer (102) is forwarded to the ATM switch (110) through the Server (108) for authentication purpose. The ATM switch (110) stores all the primary account numbers of various customers against the customer card numbers. A customer identification number is obtained from the primary account number which is subsequently used to obtain the other account information After the authentication from the ATM switch (110), the information related to the other accounts (secondary account) of the customer (102) is retrieved from the core banking solution (CBS) (112). The CBS (112) stores the information of all the accounts of the customer which are linked with the primary account number. The customer (102) is then requested to select the account number which is displayed on display module for printing the passbook which has to be printed. After the selection, the customer inserts his passbook in the passbook printer (114) within the given specified time period. The printer (114) is independently connected or can be connected to a teller PC (116) and all other components of the architecture via LAN connection (118).

Referring to figure 2 is a Passbook Printing Process flow (200) illustrating various steps and the interaction of the components for printing the passbook according to another exemplary embodiment of the invention.

As illustrated in figure 2, the pass book printing process flow (200) comprises a customer (202), a Magnetic Stripe Reader (204), a Server (206), an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch (214), a core banking solution (CBS) (216) and a passbook printer (218). The Server (206) further comprises an Passbook printing component (210) and printer drivers (212) which are controlled by the branch administrator.

In an exemplary embodiment, the customer (202) initiates the process by way of swiping his ATM cum Debit card on Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) and enters the 4 digits PIN associated with the said ATM cum Debit card. The Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) can be used to provide inputs to various components of the process. The Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) forwards the card information along with PIN to the Server (206). The Server (206) receives the data and forwards the data to the passbook printing component (210). The passbook printing component (210) processes the request from customer (202) and forwards the request to a switch (214). Then this Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) request is converted into authentication request for the switch (214). The switch (214) stores all the information related to the primary account of the customers. The switch (214) validates the authentication request and after successful validation the primary account information is returned to the passbook printing component as a response.

Further, the passbook printing component (210) forwards this primary account information to core banking solution (CBS) (216) for fetching the other accounts information (secondary account) linked to the respective primary account. A customer identification number is obtained from the primary account number which is subsequently used to obtain the other account information. The core banking solution (CBS) (216) has all the information of all the accounts related to the primary account of the customer (202). The core banking solution (CBS) (216) validates the primary account number for the said customer (202) and after successful validation, it returns all the information of various accounts linked to the primary account number. The said information is returned to the server (206) for further processing. A display module configured with the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) is used to display all the accounts on which the printing of passbook are possible. The customer (202) is asked to select an account for which the passbook has to be done. When the customer (202) selects the account for printing, the request is given to the Server (206).

The Server (206) fires the print request for printing the passbook to Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216). The Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216) validates the print request and sends the transactions to be printed of the selected account as a response. After receiving the instructions, the customer is asked to insert the passbook in the passbook printer (218) within specified time. When the customer (202) inserts the passbook for printing, the passbook printer (218) prints the transaction related to the said account.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION:

The above propose method provides benefits for both banks and its customers which are stated below:

From the Banks point of view:-

1. Work load on teller / clerk is reduced, making him efficient and he/she can concentrate on Pure Banking transactions efficiently.
2. This initiative shall enable banks to increase the debit card usage by their customers.
3. Since this process is faster, it helps in reducing queues and the discomfort for other employees in the bank.
4. Helps in empowering the customer.
5. Helps technology agnostic customers come closer to technology

From the Customers point of view:-

1. Customers can perform passbook printing themselves (self service mode), which is much easier than standing in a queue and waiting to be served from the teller / clerk.
2. There is no need for entering account number manually for determining the account for which the passbook needs to be printed. The account for which the passbook needs to be printed can be identified through the ATM / Debit card.
3. There is no need of any teller intervention as the customer can print the passbook on their own. This shall make the transaction effectively faster.
4. The process shall eliminate or at least reduce queues by considerable extent.
5. Customer doesn’t need to carry ID card or any other document for identification / authentication.

CLAIMS:

1. A method for selectively printing a bank passbook of a customer (202) having one or more bank accounts, characterized by triggering an automated customer authentication process through a Magnetic Stripe Reader (204), the method comprising:

a. obtaining account data from a debit card upon swiping the debit card, followed by receiving a Personal Identification Number (PIN) input associated with the debit card at the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) for authentication;
b. generating an authentication request and transmitting such request form the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) to a Server (206) over a communication network;
c. validating the request at an asynchronous transmission mode (ATM) switch (214) by server to resolve a primary account number associated with the debit card;
d. forwarding the primary account number by the ATM switch to a Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216) through the server to fetch all secondary accounts associated with the primary account;
e. returning by the Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216), after fetching, all the accounts on a display electrically connected with the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204); and
f. prompting the customer (202) to select one account for printing on bank passbook .

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) comprises of a device selected from a group of: point of sale terminal and an automatic teller machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the Server (206) communicates with the ATM switch (214) for validating the request sent by the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) to validate the primary account number of the customer (202).

4. A system for selectively printing a bank passbook of a customer (202), characterized by an automated customer authentication through a Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) , comprising:

a. a Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) configured to generate an authentication request, upon reading a data embedded in a debit card and receiving input for a Personal Identification Number (PIN) associated with the said debit card;
b. a Server (206) configured to receive the generated authentication request by the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) and forward the request to an asynchronous transmission mode (ATM) switch (214) for validating the said request for resolving a primary account number associated with the debit card;
c. a Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216) configured to fetch and communicate secondary accounts associated with the primary account number;
d. a display module electrically connected with the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) is configured to prompt the customer (202) with the primary account number and the one or more secondary account numbers for customer selection; and
e. a printing module electrically connected with the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) is adapted to receive a printing command from the server (206) for a selected account number upon successful validation thereof through the core banking solution.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) comprises of a device selected from a group of: point of sale terminals (POS) and an automatic teller machine.

6. The system of claim 4, the Server (206) connects to the ATM switch (214) that receives and validates the request sent by the Magnetic Stripe Reader (204) to validate the primary account number of the customer.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the Core Banking Solution (CBS) (216) is communicatively linked with the Server (206) and the ATM Switch (214).