Paul Robichaux (perobich@ingr.com) writes:

Take a look at the process involved in clearing checks and you will soon see how it can get very strange.

If clearing sounds simple, may I suggest as a general rule of thumb to look at the complexities involved with transaction management in distributed database environment, and multiply the complexity found there by the number of banks worldwide. Then, find a way to factor in a many-to-many instead of a one-to-few achitecture. And that rule of thumb completely ignores the fact that if a transaction is fouled up anywhere along the line, one finds extensive legal liability involved instead of a 'mere' corrupt table in a database. -j

jim