SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTHORIZING THIRD-PARTY TRANSACTIONS FOR AN ACCOUNT AT A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ON BEHALF OF THE ACCOUNT HOLDER

• US 20050125321A1
• Filed: 12/05/2003
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Tucker, Faith A., Winick, Deborah M., Pullen, Catherine S., Kruse, Kelly, Heise, Carrie L., Tucker, Richard G. Jr., Kane, Marilyn C., Keller, Christopher G., Kaufmann, Stephen M., Van Meir, Vickie M., Poll, Gerard H., Gerstner, Penny L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,381 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

System and method for authorizing third-party transactions for an account at a financial institution on behalf of the account holder. A financial institution can collect process, transmit and confirm authorizations to third parties for electronic payments and direct deposits on behalf of its account-holder customer. In at least some embodiments, a method of processing account-holder requests to authorize third-party transactions for an account includes the establishment of a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants such as employers and billers. The financial institution receives account-holder requests to authorize third-party transactions. Specific requests from among the account-holder requests are matched to third-party participants and forwarded and can be confirmed. The system of the invention can include various engines and data repositories that work together to provide the means for implementing embodiments of the invention.

Claims

1. A method of processing account-holder requests to authorize third-party transactions for an account at a financial institution on behalf of an account holder, the method comprising:

receiving, at the financial institution, the account-holder requests to authorize the third-party transactions;

matching at least one specific request from among the account-holder requests to at least one specific third-party participant;

forwarding the at least one specific request to the at least one specific, third-party participant on behalf of the account holder;

receiving, at the financial institution, at least one participant confirmation from the at least one specific third-party participant; and

forwarding, from the financial institution, an account-holder confirmation of the at least one participant confirmation of the at least one specific request to the account holder.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the at least one specific third-party participant is selected from the pre-existing list.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one of the forwarding of the at least one specific request to the at least one specific, third-party participant and the receiving, at the financial institution, the at least one participant confirmation from the at least one specific third-party participant is accomplished in accordance with participant communication preferences stored in a participant profile for the at least one specific third-party participant, the participant profile being stored in a data repository comprising participant profiles associated with the prospective third-party participants.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the forwarding, from the financial institution, of the account-holder confirmation of the at least one participant confirmation of the at least one specific request to the account holder is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the forwarding, from the financial institution, of the account-holder confirmation of the at least one participant confirmation of the at least one specific request to the account holder is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer program for enabling a financial institution to authorize third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the computer program further comprising:

instructions for receiving account-holder requests to authorize the third-party transactions;

instructions for matching specific requests from among the account-holder requests to specific third-party participants;

instructions for forwarding the specific requests to the specific, third-party participants on behalf of the account holder;

instructions for receiving participant confirmations from the specific third-party participants; and

instructions for forwarding an account-holder confirmation of the participant confirmations of specific requests to the account holder.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for establishing a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the specific third-party participants are selected from the pre-existing list.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for creating a participant profile comprising participant communication preferences for each prospective third-party participant.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for creating an account-holder profile comprising account-holder communication preferences for the account holder.

15. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for creating an account-holder profile comprising account-holder communication preferences for the account holder.

16. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the account-holder requests comprise direct-deposit requests.

17. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the account-holder requests comprise direct-deposit requests.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the account-holder requests comprise direct-deposit requests.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the account-holder requests comprise direct-deposit requests.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the account-holder requests comprise direct-deposit requests.

21. Apparatus to enable a financial institution to authorize third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving account-holder requests to authorize the third-party transactions;

means for matching specific requests from among the account-holder requests to specific third-party participants;

means for forwarding the specific requests to the specific, third-party participants on behalf of the account holder;

means for receiving participant confirmations from the specific third-party participants; and

means for forwarding an account-holder confirmation of the participant confirmations of specific requests to the account holder.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising means for establishing a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the specific third-party participants are selected from the pre-existing list.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising means for creating a participant profile comprising participant communication preferences for each prospective third-party participant.

24. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising means for creating an account-holder profile comprising account-holder communication preferences for the account holder.

25. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising means for creating an account-holder profile comprising account-holder communication preferences for the account holder.

26. A system to enable a financial institution to authorize third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the system comprising:

a user interface to receive account-holder requests to authorize the third-party transactions;

at least one engine operatively connected to the user interface, the at least one engine to match specific requests from among the account-holder requests to specific third-party participants;

a third-party participant interface to forward the specific requests to the specific third-party participants, the third-party participant interface operatively connected to the at least one engine;

at least one data repository operatively connected to the at least one engine, the at least one date repository further comprising third-party participant profiles; and

a fulfillment system to provide account-holder confirmation of the specific requests, the fulfillment system operatively connected to the at least one engine.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the third-party participant profiles further comprise participant communication preferences for the specific third-party participants.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the specific third-party participants comprise direct depositors.

29. The system of claim 27 wherein the at least one data repository further comprises account-holder profiles, the account-holder profiles further comprising account-holder communication preferences.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the account-holder communication preferences comprises at least one of electronic and paper communication preferences.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein the at least one data repository further comprises account-holder profiles, the account-holder profiles further comprising account-holder communication preferences.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the account-holder communication preferences comprises at least one of electronic and paper communication preferences.

33. The system of claim 26 wherein the user interface is operable to receive the account-holder requests from the account-holder over the Internet.

34. The system of claim 27 wherein the user interface is operable to receive the account-holder requests from the account holder over the Internet.

35. The system of claim 28 wherein the user interface is operable to receive the account-holder requests from the account holder over the Internet.