SETTLEMENT SYSTEM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce risks of both a price payer (merchandise purchaser, service client, etc.) and a price payee (seller, service provider, etc.) in electronic commerce. SOLUTION: A purchaser correspondent financial institution processor 3 freezes an account balance in response to a purchaser's request, generates provisional settlement money being money information including provisional settlement information and transmits the provisional settlement money to a merchandise purchaser processor 1. The processor 1 transmits a merchandise purchase request and the provisional settlement money to a merchandise seller processor 2. The purchaser who has received merchandise transmits a real settlement approval request to the processor 3 through the processor 1 on the basis of a merchandise confirmation result, and the processor 2 transmits a real settlement request to the processor 3 on the basis of a check result of the provisional settlement money. The processor 3 performs real settlement about the provisional settlement money on the condition that the real settlement approval request and the real settlement request exist in a database. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO