MINTS (Millsoft Internet Transaction System) has been primarily designed to process banking transactions using the Internet. Presently the application is designed for banking industry. As the architecture is modular and flexible, it can easily and quickly be modified to process transactions related to other industries as well. Shops can take orders, Travel & Tour industries can track bookings / cancellations, etc.

FUNCTIONALITY

The following functions can be made available to customers of the bank. The pre-requisite is that they must have access to the Internet, using standard browsers such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. The authorized MINTS user can:

• Enquire on Balance of his accounts
• Display or Print Account statements
• Transfer Funds between designated accounts
• Request for preparation of Pay Orders/Demand Drafts
• Request for Issuance of Cheque Books
• Pay Utility Bills on-line
• Request for a Receipt as confirmation of bill payment
• Correspond with the Bank / Branch on electronic mail
• Register on-line as a MINTS User
• Test Drive MINTS

OUTLINE OF OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE

Typically, the bank will make the above services available to its account holders who register themselves as MINTS users. Depending on the policy of the bank, the account holder will be required to fill a Registration Form and send it to his branch. The account holder may also register on-line by filling in the details using his Web Browser. The branch will authenticate the details and approve or reject the application. Once approved, the account holder will be allotted a Registration Number as well as a PIN code. The PIN may be communicated to the user via a PIN Mailer or any other means the bank deems fit.

When a customer wants to access the services offered by MINTS, he will need to log in using the Registration Number and PIN. He may also be asked to key in some other personal details for more secure authentication.

The details provided by the customer while registering will be used to set up the MINTS Data Base. This will contain, at a minimum, the following information:

• Name & Address of the customer
• Accounts which he can use for Funds Transfer
• Utility Bill consumer numbers as well as payment   instructions

SALIENT FEATURES

• Secure three-tier server architecture providing highly interactive, reliable and secure transaction processing on the Internet.
• Many to many relationships provided between Bank Accounts and MINTS Account.
• Choice of login security available to the MINTS Customer.
• Modular design with ISO standard transaction formats between servers
• Data is encrypted (DES 64 bit) as it leaves any server.
• Has all the capabilities of a Cash-Less ATM and more.
• As of now MINTS offers Balance Inquiry, Bank Statement, Funds Transfers, Utility Bills Payments, Cheque Book Issuance Request, Demand Draft Request and e-mailing facility between customer and the bank. Additional features can be added on as and when required.
• For off-line branches the transactions are treated as requests and are affected after being confirmed by the respective branch.
• Very user friendly and attractive screen presentation with state of the art GUI.
• A highly comprehensive and secure transaction log is maintained.
• Transaction request reports generated daily for off-line branches.
• Detailed log and MIS reports generated for monitoring observational controls as well as audit trial.
• Maintainability and extendibility are the two major design considerations of MINTS. Booch/Rumbaugh methodology for Object Oriented design and analysis has been followed.

UTILITIES DATA BASE

If the customer is to be given the option to pay utility bills on-line, interaction with the utility company is essential. The bank will need to obtain billing details for each billing cycle on magnetic media. This data base will be hooked into the system for ensuring the correct payment of utility bills on behalf of the consumer. Bank will have the choice of accepting either the absolute amount only or of partial payment.

ARCHITECTURE

MINTS has been designed to run on three Servers. However, if required, the MTPS and MDBS servers can be the same, giving a two-server implementation. The functions of the servers are as follows:

• The core Server is the MINTS Transaction Processing Server (MTPS), which handles all requests received from the customers via the Internet. The security level selected by the MINTS customer governs login to this server.
• The MINTS Database Server (MDBS) maintains all MINTS related data, the transaction log and the Utilities Database. This server is connected locally via a hardwired link and the data flow is encrypted.
• The Bank Server (BS) is where the account information is stored and updated by the host application. This can be local or remote depending on the resources and logistics of the bank. Data entering and leaving this server is encrypted and authentication will be as per the bank's standards.

The system is almost independent of the Host Application. Since the message format is ISO standard, very little work will be required to adapt to the banking application implemented at the bank, especially if it already has interaction with other applications such as ATMs or SWIFT. It is immaterial whether the Bank uses DB2 or any non-relational file system as MINTS can easily adapt to it by changing the HOST based component of MINTS. Only the piece of software residing on the Bank Server will need tailoring.

In order to ensure the reliability of the system, secure and robust mechanisms have been employed. All posted issues will be tracked. If the MTPS does not receive a complete posting from the bank’s server, the transaction will be rolled back with proper update of the log and intimation to the customer.

SECURITY

A lot of emphasis has been placed on Security. The interest of the customer has always been a major consideration at all stages of the system design and development. Some of the functionality has been reduced to protect the interest of the customer. In relatively more secure geographic areas, some of these reduced functionalities can be re-introduced if required. The security implementations are as follows:

• Windows NT running on NTFS partitioned providing File level security
• Highest level of data encryption available by using SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
• Data Encryption using SET and RSA standards
• Restricting FTP and Gopher Services for additional security
• Disabling the directory browsing and using Virtual directory. All major processing is executed on the MTPS, therefore, the user does not have access to the host application.
• The MINTS system design minimizes a number of risks. For example, predefined information of accounts for funds transfer, Utility Bill and Bankers Cheques. All deliveries to the customer like cheque books and Bankers Cheques will be sent to the address of the account holder.
• Constant messaging between customer and Bank is available. Each transaction is reported to the customer, whether the transaction is accepted or rejected.
• Database security is available such as MS SQL Server or Oracle Server.
• Pages are not stored in temporary area for access later to prevent miss use
• Timeout for login process
• Multi-level User login facility

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

 

The MTPS can be any standard server class machine capable of running Windows NT 4.0 or higher. The configuration will be dependent on the transaction volume that the Bank wishes to handle. A suitable link to the Internet is a requirement.

The MDBS should reside on a separate machine for security reasons. The machine should again be a standard server class machine running Windows NT 4.0 or higher with a configuration to match the transaction and data volumes. The MTPS will interact with the MDBS over a secure hard-wired connection. The RDBMS on this server can be in Oracle, MS Access or MS SQL depending on the requirement and the preference of the Bank.

The end user of MINTS requires a machine that can run any of the popular browsers like Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer etc. which should be Java enabled.