SMS banking for the National Savings Bank

Abstract

The aim of this project is to develop an on-line banking system that provides customers with the facility to check their accounts and do transactions on-line, using Short Message Service (SMS). The system will provide all the bank's facilities to its customers once their authentications [PIN No] match, including viewing account balance information, performing fund transfers, giving the customer an option of changing PIN no, and paying bills on-line.

The current banking system puts the customer into great inconvenience specially by the requirements of his essential physical presence in the banking hall, to execute his transactions. The search for a more convenient operational process is envisage in order to make the customer's task easier an acceptable. The widely used mobile 'phone and its Short Message Service is made use of in order to achieve our desired goal.

The new system will be a partnership between bank and the customer where the input is by a coded text message, and the output is received in a similar manner. The process will depend on the particular request of the customer.

The phone sends an SMS which is processed through the GSM provider and fed into the SMS provider via the SUNTEL switch. The SMS server translates it into a bank understandable message and then directs the message to the appropriate server. The message server on receiving the request takes appropriate step to effect the particular operation.

When compared to the existing system, there are many advantages of this new service. These are, simple and secure, convenient, anytime, anywhere, value added, cheaper and faster, technologically up-to-date, DIY (Do-it-yourself) banking. This new system will enable automation of some of the functions , thus conceiving an efficient, reliable, speedy and cost effective operational model for the NSB.