Patent ID: 8438086

Claim:
A banking system for offering a plurality of financial services to customers via a login, comprising: a host server; a universal session manager operatively disposed on the host server, the universal session manager maintaining the sign-on process; an interface to a plurality of remote servers by which a customer interfaces with the remote servers, the interface generated by the universal session manager, the interface having multiple frames; and a validation module operatively linked to the universal session manager through an electronic network, such that the universal session manager retrieves validation information from the validation database in order to validate a customer; the universal session manager, in conjunction with the validation module, enabling customers of the banking system to access the host server and the plurality of remote servers via a single login to the host server; the host server providing a consolidated homepage, via the interface, that gives a customer summary information on accounts of the customer with the banking system, and the host server further providing links to the accounts in a first frame of the interface, the accounts being respectively maintained by the plurality of remote servers; and upon selection of a link by a customer, the universal session manager: checks, based on information in the validation database, that the customer is allowed access to the remote server; provides access to a particular remote server, by hosting the remote server in a second frame of the interface, so as to allow the customer use of services on the remote server; and simultaneously presents the first frame, containing the links to the accounts, while presenting the second frame; and the universal session manager updating a last accessed time (LAT) variable based on access to the remote server through the second frame, the LAT variable controlling session timeouts; and the universal session manager sending a communication to the remote server upon either customer timeout or logout.