| 摘要 |
The transaction management system 100 includes a plurality of individually identifiable secure container holding facilities constituted by cash acceptance terminals 112 located at the premises of participating merchants 114 and a plurality of individually identifiable secure containers or cash containers, each adapted to dock with and un-dock from a cash acceptance terminal 112. The merchants 114, in each transaction, deposit transaction documents such as money, cheques, credit card vouchers or the like into the secure container within the cash acceptance terminal 112. Cash money fed into the cash acceptance terminal is scanned, validated and counted into the secure container. The cash acceptance terminals 114 include data entry facilities by means of which data pertaining to transactions is recorded in the cash acceptance terminal. The secure containers and the cash acceptance terminals 112 are adapted for bidirectional communication and the data recorded in the cash acceptance terminal 112 is communicated to the secure container. The transaction management system 100 includes a central server 118 in communication with the data processing system of a number of financial institutions 120. The cash acceptance terminals 112 are programmed to communicate with the server 118. Purchasers 116 are able to use the cash acceptance terminals 112 as banking facilities and, using a cash acceptance terminal with a facility to recirculate and to dispense cash, the system may be programmed to allow the cash acceptance terminals 112 to dispense cash and credit value, thereby allowing a purchaser to use a cash acceptance terminal 112 like an automated teller machine (ATM) to draw cash, to transfer money between accounts, for bill payment or the like. Using an appropriate tracking and scheduling system, the central server 118 is programmed to record the identity and location of each cash acceptance terminal and every secure container in the system 100 as well as the monetary value stored in or to be obtained from each cash acceptance terminal and secure container in the system which enables the system operator and participating financial institutions 120 to manage the flow of cash within the system 100 without necessarily routing each cash consignment through a cash processing centre 124 or financial institution 120. The transaction management system 100 is essentially a cash bank with a cash repository that is not constituted by a conventional vault, but by a virtual repository constituted by the secure cash acceptance terminals 112 and secure containers that are all tracked and audited by the system 100.
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