SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFECTING PAYMENT TO A BENEFICIARY INCLUDING A REAL-TIME AUTHORIZATION OF THE PAYMENT

1 . A system for effecting remote payment to a beneficiary including a real-time authorization of the payment, said system comprising:

a personal peripheral payment device, operable to facilitate a payment transaction through use of a conventional banking card payment mechanism, said banking card payment mechanism including entering a password associated with said banking card as well as presenting said banking card during a transaction authorization process.

2 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said payment transaction is completed on the basis of a logical reference architecture in terms of which said beneficiary is associated with a logical reference.

3 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said logical reference architecture is operable to perform a logical name lookup to find a supported beneficiary name and set up a payment profile using payment particulars of said beneficiary.

4 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said payment transaction is facilitated through an electronic commerce website, said website being integrated with said payment device as regards facilitation of said payment transaction.

5 . A system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein said logical reference architecture includes:

one or more payment particulars of each of said intended beneficiaries of said payment transaction; and

a mechanism operable to associate a payment effected from a location on the world wide web of said electronic commerce website with said one or more payment particulars.

6 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said payment transaction includes authenticating a user onto a profile created for said user.

7 . A system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein said authentication of said user includes use of a shared identity mechanism, said identity mechanism being operable to provide an identity token for use in executing said payment transaction.

8 . A system as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said shared identity mechanism is provided in the form of a single-sign-on (SSO) transaction.

9 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said payment transaction is facilitated through a bill payment transaction by means a bill presentment and payment platform integrated with said system.

10 . A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said system further includes a hyperlink provided on either a bill or a bill payment reminder, said hyperlink being operable to invoke an electronic bill payment process on said bill presentment and payment platform.

11 . A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said logical reference architecture comprises:

one or more hyperlinks associated with an intended payment to each of one or more intended beneficiaries; and

a mechanism operable to associate a payment transaction including said one or more hyperlinks with one or more payment particulars of each of said intended beneficiaries of said payment transaction.

12 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said payment transaction includes one or more of the following:

determining payment particulars of one or more of said beneficiaries;

determining a logical name for each of said one or more beneficiaries, said logical name being associated with said payment particulars of each of said beneficiaries; and

facilitating payment to an intended beneficiary through conventional manual entry of a password associated with a banking card of a user and physical presentation of said banking card during said transaction process.

13 . A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said system further comprises a software application operable to facilitate a transfer of funds from a bank account of a user to a bank account of said intended beneficiary through use of said conventional banking card of said user at a peripheral payment device.

14 . A computer implemented method of effecting payment to a beneficiary including a real-time authorization of the payment, said method comprising the steps of:

operating a payment card with regard to a peripheral payment device;

authorising said payment through a user entering their payment card personal identification number (PIN) for processing by said peripheral payment device; and

returning a success or failure result to said peripheral device including a payment reference number so as to enable a transaction flow to be closed.

15 . An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable instructions embodied therein that, when executed by a computer, implements a method of effecting a financial transaction, said method comprising the following steps:

operating a payment card with regard to a peripheral payment device;

authorising said payment through a user entering their payment card personal identification number (PIN) for processing by said peripheral payment device; and

returning a success or failure result to said peripheral device including a payment reference number so as to enable a transaction flow to be closed.