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By early autumn 2005, RCB will be completely replaced
by e-rsb (Réseau de services aux banques – CB Bank Services
Network), designed to be more efficient and to provide greater capacity.
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Operation of the CB Network
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Groupement des cartes bancaires |
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| In 2004, almost six billion CB bankcard transactions
were made in France, covering both Eftpos payments and ATM withdrawals.
Two billion of these required authorisation requests which are transported
by the Réseau des Cartes Bancaires (RCB - CB Bankcard Network)
or the new e-rsb network. Strong growth in CB activity during the
last decade made it necessary to replace the old network, which would
have reached full-capacity in 2006/2007. The new system was delivered
in March 2003, and after a year of trials on a test platform, it handled
its first operational transactions in March 2004. Today, over three-quarters
of all transactions are already managed by the new network, scheduled
to take over completely next September. Implementing the new system
involved several companies working under the management of project
leader CS Systèmes d'Information. Thales was responsible for
encryption, while France Telecom handled the network aspects. "In
all, around 100 people were involved, both from suppliers and within
CB itself, in the design, production and testing of the system",
explained Pierre Juhen, Director of IT and Networks at Cartes Bancaires.
The e-rsb architecture relies fully on latest generation technology.
Security has also been ramped up through the use of encryption methods
recommended by international operators. In terms of performance, the
e-rsb will handle one transaction in around one second, compared with
the one and a half seconds required by the old network. It currently
provides twice as much capacity (as the previous version), but this
too can be extended at a later date. Briefly, this network handles
around 400 authorisations a second at peak time on record days, such
as 24th December 2004, where the number of transactions reached 8.5
million over a period of 24 hours! Fully compatible with international
networks, the e-rsb network service could be used outside the CB community
following developments brought about by the implementation of the
SEPA. |
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