CAP provides stand-in capability for ATM network (user-perceived uninterrupted access)

Keywords:

Stand-in, Payments, Multi-Protocol

The context:

A large financial institution has an ATM network that connects to a core banking system to authorize withdrawals. The company had experienced two failures of the core banking system, resulting in customers being unable to withdraw money from the ATM system and unable to use their debit cards for payments. This created an unacceptable reputational loss for the company.

The solution:

Using CAP, a stand-in capability was created that can be switched on at a moment’s notice. The stand-in capability allows customers to withdraw a limited amount during the time the core banking system is down, regardless of any current balance they may have. Once the core banking system is back online, the stand-in system relays all payments authorized automatically to the core banking system.

Deployment diagram:

Why CAP:

CAP is capable of interacting with a vast array of data sources, protocols and APIs out of the box. CAP in this case sits directly on the ATM ISO8583 transmission protocol. When not in stand-in mode, it is simply a proxy for the messages. However, in stand-in mode, CAP intercepts the ISO8583 AUTH messages, checks amounts previously withdrawn during the outage and automatically authorises payments up to a predetermined limit.

The story:

The company had suffered two core banking system outages relatively close to each other, one lasting a few hours and another a full day. The reputational impact and customer outrage forced the bank to consider a stand-in option for any future extended outage as an insurance policy.

A decision was made to allow customers a set limit withdrawal during an outage. This was relatively safe as the bank is in a country where legislation allows for easy pursuit of customers withdrawing over and above their current balances. The relatively small risk of overdrawn accounts versus customer loss was considered acceptable by the board.

Placing the CAP Agent in-line with the ATM network allows the stand-in feature to be switched on at a moment’s notice, should it be required. For all other times, it simply forwards all messages.

Performance was an obvious concern giving the volume of messages, but a stress test performed using the CAP stress testing framework showed that the CAP Agent was absolutely capable of handling the load.

Business benefits:

Having an on-demand stand-in option allows the bank a fall-back position for any major system outage. If only ever used once, this greatly reduces reputational risk, helps to reduce customer dissatisfaction and retain customer loyalty,

Rules blocks and components used:

String manipulation

Database rules

Custom functions

ISO8583 multi-protocol rules