Abstract: A portable personal banking system comprises a host computer and at least one portable terminal among a variety of terminals including automatic teller machines and personal computers. The portable terminal provides a range of banking services over an automatically dialed-up telephone connection to the host bank computer. The personal terminal comprises a keyboard and display capability with mininal key requirements and display capacity respectively. Furthermore, during a banking mode of operation, control resides in the host bank computer. Consequently, future modifications or additions to banking services may be implemented without any change to the personal terminal. Also, the costs of providing the present portable personal terminal banking terminals are minimal compared with known home information terminals such as videotex terminals or personal computers.