Patent ID: 7386516

Claim:
A method for providing financial services over a public network accessible by a plurality of customers via respective network access devices with modems and over a private network accessible by a plurality of financial institutions via computers with modems, said financial institutions maintaining respective financial accounts for said plurality of customers, at least some of said financial accounts being maintained at different ones of said financial institutions, said method comprising: for each customer, receiving a computer-readable portable storage medium by a computer interfaced with a respective one of the network access devices to initiate a financial transaction; retrieving encrypted information from the computer-readable portable storage medium by the computer, the encrypted information identifying said each customer's financial account and including a first identifier; receiving a second identifier from said each customer by the computer; decrypting the encrypted information to retrieve the first identifier and identifying the customer's financial account by a decryption processor; re-encrypting the first identifier by the decryption processor; combining the re-encrypted first identifier with the second identifier to generate a request message by the decryption processor; transmitting the request message for authorization of the financial transaction over the private network to a one of the financial institutions that maintains the customer's financial; and receiving authorization of the financial transaction in response to the request message over the private network for the one of the financial institutions.