Software

Computer software or simply software is any set of machine-readable instructions that directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations. Computer software contrasts with computer hardware, which is the physical component of computers. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be realistically used without the other. Using a musical analogy, hardware is like a musical instrument and software is like the notes played on that instrument.

Computer software includes computer programs, libraries and their associated documentation. The word software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaningapplication software only.

At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language instructions specific to an individual processor – typically a central processing unit (CPU). A machine languageconsists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. For example, an instruction may change the value stored in a particular storage location inside the computer – an effect that is not directly observable to the user. An instruction may also (indirectly) cause something to appear on a display of the computer system – a state change which should be visible to the user. The processor carries out the instructions in the order they are provided, unless it is instructed to "jump" to a different instruction, or interrupted.

Software written in a machine language is known as "machine code". However, in practice, software is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language.^[1] High-level languages are translated, using compilation or interpretation or a combination of the two, into machine language. Software may also be written in a low-level assembly language, essentially, a vaguely mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language is translated into machine code using an assembler.

Deposit account

A deposit account is a savings account, current account or any other type of bank account that allows money to be deposited and withdrawn by the account holder. These transactions are recorded on the bank's books, and the resulting balance is recorded as aliability for the bank and represents the amount owed by the bank to the customer. Some banks may charge a fee for this service, while others may pay the customer interest on the funds deposited.

Major types

• Transactional account
  Current account (Commonwealth)/Checking account (US)

A deposit account held at a bank or other financial institution, for the purpose of securely and quickly providing frequent access to funds on demand, through a variety of different channels. Because money is available on demand these accounts are also referred to as demand accounts or demand deposit accounts, except in the case of NOW Accounts.

• Money market account

A deposit account that pays interest, and for which short notice (or no notice) is required for withdrawals. In the United States, it is a style of instant access deposit subject to federal savings account regulations, such as a monthly transaction limit.

• Savings account

Accounts maintained by retail banks that pay interest but can not be used directly as money (for example, by writing a cheque). Although not as convenient to use as checking accounts, these accounts let customers keep liquid assets while still earning a monetary return.

• Time deposit

A money deposit at a banking institution that cannot be withdrawn for a preset fixed 'term' or period of time. When the term is over it can be withdrawn or it can be rolled over for another term. Generally speaking, the longer the term the better the yield on the money.

• Call deposit

A deposit account that allows for the withdrawal of funds without penalty, generally without notification to the bank. Often it bears a favourable interest rate, but also requires a minimum balance to take advantage of the benefits 

Bank account

A bank account is a financial account maintained by a financial institution for a customer. A bank account can be a deposit account, a credit card account, or any other type of account offered by a financial institution, and represents the funds that a customer has entrusted to the financial institution and from which the customer can make withdrawals. Alternatively, accounts may be loan accounts in which case the customer owes money to the financial institution.

The financial transactions which have occurred within a given period of time on a bank account are reported to the customer on abank statement and the balance of the accounts at any point in time is the financial position of the customer with the institution.

The laws of each country specify the manner in which accounts may be opened and operated. They may specify, for example, who may open an account, how the signatories can identify themselves, deposit and withdrawal limits and many other matters.

Account structure

Bank accounts may have a positive, or credit balance, where the financial institution owes money to the customer; or a negative, or debit balance, where the customer owes the financial institution money.^[1]

Broadly, accounts opened with the purpose of holding credit balances are referred to as deposit accounts; whilst accounts opened with the purpose of holding debit balances are referred to as loan accounts. Some accounts can switch between credit and debit balances.

Some accounts are categorized by the function rather than nature of the balance they hold, such as savings account, which routinely are in credit.

All financial institution have their own names for the various accounts which they open for customers. Financial institution have a variety of fees for the maintaining of the various accounts and for processing certain transactions.

Telephone banking

Telephone banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution, that enables customers to perform a range of financial transactions over the telephone, without the need to visit a bank branch or automated teller machine. Telephone banking times are usually longer than branch opening times, and some financial institutions offer the service on a 24-hour basis.

From the bank's point of view, telephone banking minimises the cost of handling transactions by reducing the need for customers to visit a bank branch for non-cash withdrawal and deposit transactions.

Operation

To use a financial institution's telephone banking facility, a customer must first register with the institution for the service, and set up some password (under various names) for customer verification.

To access telephone banking, the customer would call a special phone number set up by the financial institution. The service can be provided using an automated system, using speech recognition and DTMF technology or by live customer service representatives.

The types of financial transactions which a customer may transact through telephone banking include obtaining account balances and list of latest transactions, electronic bill payments, and funds transfers between a customer's or another's accounts.

Transactions involving cash or documents (such as cheques) are not able to be handled using telephone banking, and a customer needs to visit an ATM or bank branch for cash withdrawals and cash or cheque deposits.

Authentication

Some financial institutions have restrictions on which accounts may be accessed through telephone banking. The customer would call the special phone number set up by the financial institution, and enter on the keypad the customer number and password. Some financial institutions have set up additional security steps for access, but there is no consistency to the approach adopted. Most telephone banking services use an automated phone answering system with phone keypad response or voice recognition capability. To ensure security, the customer must first authenticate through a numeric or verbal password or through security questions asked by a live representative.

Electronic money

Electronic money, or e-money, is the money balance recorded electronically on a stored-value card. These cards have microprocessors embedded which can be loaded with a monetary value. Another form of electronic money is network money, software that allows the transfer of value on computer networks, particularly the internet. Electronic money is a floating claim on a private bank or other financial institution that is not linked to any particular account Examples of electronic money are bank deposits, electronic funds transfer, direct deposit, payment processors, and digital currencies. Since electronic money has come about, several laws have been made to mandate the growing popularity of electronic money worldwide.

Electronic money can either be centralized, where there is a central point of control over the money supply, or decentralized, where the control over the money supply can come from various sources. Electronic money that is decentralized is also known as digital currencies. The major difference between E-money and digital currencies is that E-money doesn't change the value of the fiat currency (USD, EUR) it represents, but digital currency isn't equivalent to any fiat currency. In other words, all digital currency is Electronic money, but Electronic money isn't necessarily digital currency. Many mobile sub-systems have been introduced in the past few years including Google Wallet andApple Pay.

Uses of Electronic Money Worldwide

• Hong Kong’s Octopus card system: Launched in 1997 as an electronic purse for public transportation, is the most successful and mature implementation of contactless smart cards used for mass transit payments. After only 5 years, 25 percent of Octopus card transactions are unrelated to transit, and accepted by more than 160 merchants.
• London Transport’s Oyster card system: Oyster is a plastic smartcard which can hold pay as you go credit, Travelcards and Bus & Tram season tickets. You can use an Oyster card to travel on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.
• Singapore’s FeliCa: A contactless RFID smart card, used in a variety of ways such as in ticketing systems for public transportation, e-money, and residence door keys.
• Netherland’s Chipknip: As an electronic cash system used in the Netherlands, all ATM cards issued by the Dutch banks had value that could be loaded via Chipknip loading stations. For people without a bank, pre-paid Chipknip cards could be purchased at various locations in the Netherlands. As of January 1, 2015, you can no longer pay with Chipknip.

Online banking

Online banking (OLB) is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a financial institution to conduct financial transactions on a website operated by the institution, such as a retail bank, virtual bank, credit union or building society. Online banking is also referred as Internet banking, e-banking, virtual banking and by other terms.

To access a financial institution's online banking facility, a customer with Internet access would need to register with the institution for the service, and set up some password (under various names) for customer verification. The password for online banking is normally not the same as for telephone banking. Financial institutions now routinely allocate customers numbers (also under various names), whether or not customers have indicated an intention to access their online banking facility. Customers' numbers are normally not the same as account numbers, because a number of customer accounts can be linked to the one customer number. The customer can link to the customer number any account which the customer controls, which may be cheque, savings, loan, credit card and other accounts. Customer numbers will also not be the same as any debit or credit card issued by the financial institution to the customer.

Features

The common features fall broadly into several categories:Online banking facilities offered by various financial institutions have many features and capabilities in common, but also have some that are application specific.

• A bank customer can perform non-transactional tasks through online banking, including -
  
  • Viewing account balances
  • Viewing recent transactions
  • Downloading bank statements, for example in PDF format
  • Viewing images of paid cheques
  • Ordering cheque books
  • Download periodic account statements
  • Downloading applications for M-banking, E-banking etc.
• Bank customers can transact banking tasks through online banking, including -
  • Funds transfers between the customer's linked accounts
  • Paying third parties, including bill payments (see, e.g., BPAY) and third party fund transfers(see, e.g., FAST)
  • Investment purchase or sale
  • Loan applications and transactions, such as repayments of enrollments
  • 
    
  • Credit card applications
  • Register utility billers and make bill payments

• Financial institution administration
• Management of multiple users having varying levels of authority
• Transaction approval process

Some financial institutions offer unique Internet banking services, for example:

• Personal financial management support, such as importing data into personal accounting software. Some online banking platforms support account aggregation to allow the customers to monitor all of their accounts in one place whether they are with their main bank or with other institutions.

Mobile banking

Mobile banking is a term used to refer to systems that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet.

Mobile banking differs from mobile payments, which involve the use of a mobile device to pay for goods or services either at thepoint of sale or remotely, analogously to the use of a debit or credit card to effect an EFTPOS payment.

The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS, a service known as SMS banking. With the introduction of smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers.

Mobile banking has until recently (2010) most often been performed via SMS or the mobile web. Apple's initial success with iPhoneand the rapid growth of phones based on Google's Android (operating system) have led to increasing use of special client programs, called apps, downloaded to the mobile device. With that said, advancements in web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 andJavaScript have seen more banks launching mobile web based services to complement native applications. A recent study (May 2012) by Mapa Research suggests that over a third of banks have mobile device detection upon visiting the banks' main website. 

Mobile banking services

Typical mobile banking services may include:

Account information

1. Mini-statements and checking of account history
2. Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds
3. Monitoring of term deposits
4. Access to loan statements
5. Access to card statements
6. Mutual funds / equity statements
7. Insurance policy management

Transaction

1. Funds transfers between the customer's linked accounts
2. Paying third parties, including bill payments and third party fund transfers(see, e.g., FAST)
3. Check Remote Deposit

Investments

1. Portfolio management services
2. Real-time stock quotes
3. Personalized alerts and notifications on security prices

Support

1. Status of requests for credit, including mortgage approval, and insurance coverage
2. Check (cheque) book and card requests
3. Exchange of data messages and email, including complaint submission and tracking
4. ATM Location

Content services

1. General information such as weather updates, news
2. Loyalty-related offers
3. Location-based services