Introduction

Servicing banks and financial institutions utilizing centralized software and using modern channels such as Internet, telephone banking, mobile banking, SMS, email and so on results in reduction of labor costs, service availability during the day and customer satisfaction for receiving easier and more convenient services. According to global statistics, using this method in banks, in addition to prevention from client congestion, reduces the need for development of branches that requires a lot of investment.

These systems have made it possible to access the information using modern technology, have minimized core system changes that require tremendous investment, and will create a modern face for banks. Given the need for banks to provide electronic banking services to the customers through various communication channels, creation of a centralized management system on these channels is a necessity. Integration is one of the most important challenges for banks and especially the banks with rather large number of legacy systems. As a secure gateway, this system integrates entry and exit routes and gives services to various requests of customers through the channels. Communication channels management system can also include suitable adapters in layer of communication with core or set of secondary cores and act as an integrator over separate banking systems and manage customer requests in a correct and controlled way when required.

Advantages

·         Optimal utilization of existing systems in the bank: Using channel management system, banks can keep their existing systems and provide modern banking services to customers.

·         Achieving a single view of bank: Using the channel management system, the customer may receive similar services from any of the service channels, regardless of the centralized bank system in which he is defined.

·         Increasing security: As authentication and controlling all customer accesses to centralized systems are done in a common unit (channel management system), system security is increased.

·         Improvement of information management: As all activities of customers are done through channel management system, concentration on information management can be done in the channel management system and as a result the information management will be done easier.

·         Facilitation of development and changing customer communication channels

Features

As a comprehensive and appropriate solution, channel management system has the following architectural, functional and security features:

Architectural Features

Major architectural features of the system are as follows:

• System programming and development environment based on JAVA and J2EE
• Using various architectural patterns including integration and J2EE
• Appropriate reconciliation of commercial components and open standard
• Observing principles of object oriented programming
• Testability: It is possible to test the system in different layers such as connection points with other systems
• Ease of expandability and offering new services

·         Easy to configure: Configurable through XML configuration files and Graphical user interfaces without changing the application code in various positions

• Independence from hardware and software platforms and operating system
• Hardware independence and supporting Mainframe, Midrange, and PC
• Independence from operating system and supporting ZOS, Linux, and Windows
• Independence from Application server and web server

o    Independence from database

Usage Features

Usage features of the channel management system are as follows:

·         Possibility of defining and removing communication channels and activating and deactivating them, defining services and activating and deactivating them, identifying and changing controlling specifications for channels and services and possibility of managing them

·         Possibility of defining customer requested channels and services, defining location and time of access and identifying funds transfer ceiling for each day and each transaction on any of the customer accounts

·         possibility of collecting and updating customer information from centralized systems

·         possibility of monitoring and recording transactions, all financial and non-financial transactions are traceable and countable

·         Possibility of logging system administrators’ activities, branch staff and data changes, services provided to customers, entry and exit of personnel, and preparation of different related reports

·         Possibility of scheduling of implementation of activities

Operational Features

Operational features of the channel management system are as follows:

·         Supporting banking standards, supporting ISO 8583 and custom format consistent with the bank’s business of Iran based on the standard IFX

·         Supporting different communication channels including ATM, POS, PG, IVR, SMS, Email, Internet, Mobile, FAX

·         Supporting different languages (Multi-lingual capability, at least Farsi and English)

·         Web based user interface for system administration

·         Supporting various communications protocols: currently JMS communications protocols and especially IBM MQ, TCP/IP, HTTP, and VM are supported.

·         Supporting CSV for exchange of information

Security Features

One of the most important requirements of electronic funds transfer (Financial transactions) is to make sure of secure transactions and communication between different components. In the Channel Management System, high level security features have been built keeping in mind the latest security threats.

Some of the main implemented security features are as follows:

• Countering the latest cyber attacks
• Ensuring the accuracy of the message and controlling the integrity of the message in the message path

·         Maintaining confidentiality: message encoding and decoding in the path

·         User authentication and authorization

o    Authentication for external systems in the bank and second level authentication for financial transactions

o    Possibility of system login restrictions based on access identifiers such as IP, specified phone or mobile number

o    Logging successful and failed login attempts

o    Possibility to define different input ports according to user’s role

o    Possibility of role based access level controlling

Transactions Management

·         It is possible to manage transactions that are involved in more than one system

·         Observing principles of concurrency and duplicate transactions prevention

·         High volume transaction processing capability

·         Reporting of transactions based on different parameters

·         Possibility to track the status of a transaction

·         Instant payment processing