What is it about?

The global trend on the technology used in finance is to connect everyone to everyone. In practice, for a user of any bank or financial institution is much more comfortable if he/she can query and even pay his/her bills (electricity, gas, cable TV etc.) from any store near his/her home, or check his/her account balance or event withdraw cash from the corner store. Adding extra minutes to the son's cell phone account just by sending a message from a cell phone.

For one side, users avoid having to personally go to his/her bank, to avoid queues. On the other hand, the merchant who participates in these transactions are beneficial to see increase customer flow and sales, as well as the fees for transactions made ​​in their store. Finally, for banks and card issuers, there is an increase in transactions and allows them to eliminate the cost of physical facilities.

For all this to happen, it takes technology.

After participating in several projects, CHILE-OFFSHORE has specialized in this interconnection and earned the trust of both our clients, as well as counterparts transaction authorizers (banks, financial institutions, etc.).

Components

To operate the scheme "all connect to all", should participate in the system:

1. Clients - who are card or current account holder, public transport card holder, cellphone owner etc.
2. Agent - corresponding to the commercial establishments that is in possession of a terminal (POS for example)
3. Switch Company - company that provides services for transactions between banks and / or institutions and agents (brokers)
4. Transaction Authorizer (TA) - issuers who authorize transactions (banks, financial institutions, etc).

CHILE-OFFSHORE has specialized in the field of exchange transactions between the company type "Switch" and banks such as Bank Santander, Banck Credit and Investment, and others.

A switch enterprise transactional, Multicaja S.A for example, provide transactional services that connect banks, stores, phone company, etc., with merchants and customers to offer various transactions. Most of this type of company has a large number of terminals (POS) spread across the country. Multicaja for example, has around 4,000 POS spread over the country (until June 2010 according to the information provided by their website).

POS - Switch - Bank/Financial Institution

Most transactions under this scheme are of POS-SWITCH-BANK, and typically correspond to any of these transactions:

• Cash deposit - a current account holder can make a cash deposit into his/her checking account in a store by means of the POS installed the switch company
• Withdraw with a debit card - the same operation as "cash deposit", but now take money out of his/her account
• Monthly Payment of a Credit - well, the holder can also pay a monthly payment of credit in any business near his/her home
• Balance Check - check for the balance of current account
• Transfers between accounts - a holder can make transfers amount his/her accounts
• Mortgage payment - make a monthly payment to his/her mortgage.
• Bill payment - light, water, university credit fee etc. can make payment for services from any merchant that has a POS.

In a simple phrase, in this scenario, the TA (a bank for example) extends its "offices" to all districts and villages of the country.

Technologies Involved

To make all this work, you should be aware of the following:

• Concept - knowledge and development of SWITCH - which is a software to route transactions to different TA (Transaction Authorizer),
• Transaction Flow Development - which is a piece of software that operates within the SWITCH to serve a specific transaction
• Encryption System with HSM - first of all, each transaction must be encrypted and then transfered to its TA (Transaction Authorizer), so two kind of encryption must be done: encryption and encryption translate.
• POS Programming,
• Interfacing with TA - for each TA (transaction authorizer), the switch company must make proper development to make the connection, both passive also active. A passive TA provides a service to the world and wait for SWITCH company to connect with them. An active TA takes the initiative to connect and then swap transactions with SWITCH.
• ISO8583 - protocol data format used in the banking and finance. It requires a solid knowledge and use of this standard.

CHILE-OFFSHORE already has all these technologies at a higher level.