Patent ID: 8090657

Claim:
A computer implemented method of authenticating a financial transaction requested by a user using a remote terminal, the method comprising: storing account information in machine readable form at a clearing house, the stored account information relating to one or more financial accounts accessible by at least one individual user, storing identity information relating to each said financial account at the clearing house, the stored identity information including machine readable information corresponding to a unique biological identifier supplied by at least the one individual user, submission by the user of a machine readable bank card, credit card, or debit card carrying information that identifies the clearing house storing the individual user's unique biological identifier, said card i) not visually identifying any particular account associated with the individual user, ii) does not visually identify the individual user's name, iii) does not electronically identify any account associated with the individual user, and iv) and does not electronically identify the individual user's name, submission by the user of the user's unique biological identifier, submission, by the user, of a transaction request at the remote terminal, and transmission from the remote terminal to the clearing house of the user's submitted unique biological identifier and the user's submitted transaction request, comparing, by the clearing house, of the transmitted user's unique biological identifier with the stored identity information, wherein if the user's unique biological identifier matches any of the stored identity information, then the transaction information is compared with the stored account information to which the biological information relates to ascertain whether the requested transaction is allowable, and if the transaction is allowable, processing the transaction.