A method for facilitating provision of a warranty relating to a
transaction between two parties in a system which includes an
infrastructure composed of a plurality of locations each associated with
a respective institution which provides services to clients, the method
containing the steps of transmitting a request for a warranty from one
party to the transaction which is a client of the respective institution
to a respective location associated with the respective institution,
which request includes information identifying the other party to the
transaction and information about the nature of the transaction
conducting an exchange of information between the respective location and
a location associated with a institution of which the other party is a
client and transmitting a response to the request from the respective
location to the one party.