SYSTEM, CENTRAL CLEARING UNIT AND METHOD FOR EFFECTUATING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT, ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SYSTEM AND METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

摘要

The present invention provides a mechanism for effectuating financial transactions in a virtual environment, wherein each of the users has a virtual wallet which is associated 5 with a bank account. A first pay-on-demand client application is used to access to the virtual wallet of the bank account to be debited and a second pay-on-demand client application is used to access to the virtual wallet of the bank account to be credited. The two pay-on-demand client applications are interconnected via a communication link. The bank accounts of the virtual wallets are managed by computers in the banks. 0 The first and the second pay-on-demand client applications and the bank computers communicate with a central clearing unit comprising means for storing the associations between the virtual wallets and the bank accounts, a client communication interface for communicating with the first and second pay-on-demand client applications, a bank communication interface for communicating with the bank computers, and a processing 5 unit for managing the balances of the virtual wallets in response to instructions from the a -on-demand client a lications and the bank com uters.