Bill Fairchild wrote: >I understand why all accumulated transactions have to be processed in the >correct sequence if they are batched up daily, but why is an individual >transaction not instantaneously and permanently processed with the results >being committed right then? Why is it necessary to run huge batches of >transactions at night? I am guessing that committing the transaction >instantly would take too long for the average customer's patience when >standing at an outdoors ATM in the rain. Are there any other reasons? When I >buy an airplane ticket online, I get my whole transaction complete in one >sitting and do not have to wait until the next day to receive confirmation of >my reservation, but it always takes several minutes to do it online.
Besides/in addition to Mike Schwab's point, credit and signature debit transactions aren't processed in real-time: an authorization is processed, but the actual charge/debit doesn't go through until settlement. <plug>Come to session 11409: The Payments Ecosystem: Security Challenges in the 21st Century<https://share.confex.com/share/119/webprogram/Session11409.html> at SHARE in Anaheim, Monday at 3PM, to learn more about how this</plug> -- ...phsiii ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
