Design features of a real-time check-clearing system

The main objectives of this banking operation—to provide a full check-sorting service to the bank branches and to maintain tight control of the operation- led to the system and, in particular, to the special features just described. The sorting technique provides an improved service to many branches, without the need for time-consuming, off-line sorting. The special access method gives a means of real-time collation of several thousand data set members, enabling the financial accounting operations to be very closely controlled. The restart and recovery methods enable the operation to meet delivery deadlines consistently, in spite of the occasional equipment malfunction which is inevitable on a system of this size.