Application processing and decision systems and processes

• US 20070179827A1
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Sandeep, Horton, Dennis, Dixon, Thresa, Garten, Scott, Lu, Shen, Grice, Lee, Hall, Christian, Reddy, Sudhakar, Reid, James
• Application Number:
  US10/928,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20070179827A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

The present invention relates to application processing and decisioning systems and processes. One embodiment of the invention includes a method for automating decisioning for a credit request associated with an applicant. The method includes providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule. The method also includes receiving information associated with an applicant through the user computer interface; receiving information associated with the applicant from at least one data source; and receiving a selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface. Furthermore, the method includes receiving a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface; generating a plurality of decision rules based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant, based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant from at least one data source, and based at least in part on the selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules, wherein an outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained; and based in part on at least the rule flow information, displaying at least a portion of the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface.

Claims

1. A method for generating a rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule;

receiving information associated with an applicant through the user interface;

receiving information associated with the applicant from at least one data source;

receiving a selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

receiving a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

generating a plurality of decision rules based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant, based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant from at least one data source, and based at least in part on the selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules, wherein an outcome associated with at least one of the plurality of decision rules can be obtained; and

based in part on at least the rule flow information, displaying at least a portion of the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule comprises providing a graphical user interface, wherein a user can select information associated with a decision rule by positioning an object on the graphical user interface, wherein the object is associated with at least one decision rule.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a selection of information associated with a decision rule through the user computer interface comprises receiving a signal associated with positioning an object on a graphical user interface, wherein the object is associated with at least one decision rule.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a plurality of decision rules comprises defining at least one decision rule in a near-natural language.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the applicant can be selected from a group comprising:

an individual, an entity, a business, and a commercial institution.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein decision rule information comprises at least one of the following:

an attribute, a criteria, a workflow, a rule hierarchy, a workflow hierarchy, credit data associated with an applicant, a score, a statistical model, a threshold, a risk factor, information associated with at least one attribute, information associated with at least one criteria, information associated with a process performed by an entity, information associated with a business associated with an entity, and information associated with an industry associated with an entity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying the at least one decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained;

generating a test outcome; and

displaying the test outcome on the user interface.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

modifying the at least one decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the outcome.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying the at least one decision rule to selected information, wherein a test outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained; and

displaying the test outcome on the user interface.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

modifying the at least one decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the test outcome.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a selection of information associated with an alternative decision rule through the user computer interface;

generating an alternative decision rule based at least on the selection of information associated with the alternative decision rule through the user computer interface;

applying the alternative decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an alternative outcome associated with the alternative decision rule can be obtained; and

displaying the alternative outcome on the user computer interface.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying the at least one decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained;

generating an outcome; and

displaying the outcome on the user computer interface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the outcome comprises at least one of the following:

denial of a credit line, granting an approval of a credit line, denial of a loan, granting approval of a loan, approval for receiving an offer of credit.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface comprises receiving information through a template associated with the user computer interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the template comprises at least one of the following:

information associated with a user'"'"'s business, information associated with a user'"'"'s industry, information associated with a prospective customer of a user, information associated with a current customer of a user, information collected by a user, and information obtained by a user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the user computer interface comprises at least one of the following:

information associated with a user'"'"'s industry, information associated with a user'"'"'s business, information associated with a prospective customer of a user, information associated with a current customer of a user, information collected by a user, and information obtained by a user.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information associated with an applicant through the user computer interface comprises at least one of the following:

receiving information from an applicant, receiving information entered by an applicant, receiving information from a device associated with an applicant, receiving information from a data source associated with an applicant, and receiving information selected by an applicant.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information associated with an applicant from at least one data source comprises at least one of the following:

receiving information from a financial institution, receiving information from a credit provider, receiving information from a database, and receiving information from a credit reporting database.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein information associated with an applicant comprises at least one of the following:

identity information associated with the applicant, access information to authorize access to credit data from at least one credit reporting agency, information associated with an applicant from at least one risk analysis data source, contact information associated with an applicant, name, current address, social security number, date of birth, an address, a name of a co-applicant, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s spouse, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s driver license, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s employer, and information associated with applicant'"'"'s income.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein information associated with an applicant comprises at least one of the following:

credit reporting data, risk analysis data, check processing service data, blue book data, regional consumer exchange data, and commercial data.

21. A method for testing a decision rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule;

receiving test information;

receiving information associated with a selection of a decision rule through the user computer interface, wherein the decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

applying the selected decision rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

receiving information associated with a selection of an alternative decision rule, wherein the alternative decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome;

applying the alternative rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome; and

displaying the outcome and the alternative outcome through the user computer interface.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one decision rule comprises a decision rule defined in near-natural language.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

modifying the decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the alternative outcome;

applying the modified decision rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain a modified outcome; and

displaying the modified outcome and the alternative outcome through the user computer interface.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

applying the modified decision rule to information associated with an applicant, wherein a result associated with the modified decision rule can be obtained; and

displaying the result on the user computer interface.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the modified decision rule is defined in near-natural language.

26. A method for accessing a plurality of data sources for decisioning a credit request associated with an applicant, comprising:

providing a user computer interface adapted to transform a portion of information from a plurality of data sources, and further adapted to define at least one rule associated with transforming the portion of information from the plurality of data sources;

providing an interface to each of the plurality of data sources;

transforming a portion of data from at least one of the plurality of data sources;

defining at least one rule associated with making a decision associated with providing credit to an applicant;

applying the at least one rule to at least a portion of data from the at least one of the plurality of data sources;

determining an outcome for the at least one rule; and

modifying the at least one rule based on the outcome.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the plurality of data sources comprises at least one of the following:

an internal database, a third-party database, a credit reporting database, a risk database, a commercial database, and a commercial information database.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the applicant comprises at least one of the following:

an individual, an entity, a business, and a commercial institution.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the at least one decision rule comprises a rule in a near-natural language.

30. A computer-readable medium for generating a rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

program code for providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule;

program code for receiving information associated with an applicant through the user computer interface;

program code for receiving information associated with the applicant from at least one data source;

program code for receiving a selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

program code for receiving a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

program code for generating a plurality of decision rules based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant, based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant from at least one data source, and based at least in part on the selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules, wherein an outcome associated with at least one of the plurality of decision rules can be obtained; and

program code for displaying at least a portion of the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule comprises program code for providing a graphical user interface, wherein a user can select information associated with a decision rule by positioning an object on the graphical user interface, wherein the object is associated with at least one decision rule.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for receiving a selection of information associated with a decision rule through the user computer interface comprises program code for receiving a signal associated with positioning an object on a graphical user interface, wherein the object is associated with at least one decision rule.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for generating a plurality of decision rules comprises program code for defining at least one decision rule in a near-natural language.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the applicant can be selected from a group comprising:

an individual, an entity, a business, and a commercial institution.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein decision rule information comprises at least one of the following:

an attribute, a criteria, a workflow, a rule hierarchy, a workflow hierarchy, credit data associated with an applicant, a score, a statistical model, a threshold, a risk factor, information associated with at least one attribute, information associated with at least one criteria, information associated with a process performed by an entity, information associated with a business associated with an entity, and information associated with an industry associated with an entity.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, further comprising:

program code for applying the at least one decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained;

program code for generating a test outcome; and

program code for displaying the test outcome on the user interface.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising:

program code for modifying the at least one decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the outcome.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, further comprising:

program code for applying the at least one decision rule to selected information, wherein a test outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained; and

program code for displaying the test outcome on the user interface.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38, further comprising:

program code for modifying the at least one decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the test outcome.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising:

program code for receiving a selection of information associated with an alternative decision rule through the user computer interface;

program code for generating an alternative decision rule based at least on the selection of information associated with the alternative decision rule through the user computer interface;

program code for applying the alternative decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an alternative outcome associated with the alternative decision rule can be obtained; and

program code for displaying the alternative outcome on the user computer interface.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, further comprising:

program code for applying the at least one decision rule to at least a portion of the information associated with the applicant, wherein an outcome associated with the at least one decision rule can be obtained;

program code for generating an outcome; and

program code for displaying the outcome on the user computer interface.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the outcome comprises at least one of the following:

denial of a credit line, granting an approval of a credit line, denial of a loan, granting approval of a loan, approval for receiving an offer of credit.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for receiving a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface comprises program code for receiving information through a template associated with the user computer interface.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, wherein the template comprises at least one of the following:

information associated with a user'"'"'s business, information associated with a user'"'"'s industry, information associated with a prospective customer of a user, information associated with a current customer of a user, information collected by a user, and information obtained by a user.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the user computer interface comprises at least one of the following:

information associated with a user'"'"'s industry, information associated with a user'"'"'s business, information associated with a prospective customer of a user, information associated with a current customer of a user, information collected by a user, and information obtained by a user.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for receiving information associated with an applicant through the user computer interface comprises at least one of the following:

program code for receiving information from an applicant, program code for receiving information entered by an applicant, program code for receiving information from a device associated with an applicant, program code for receiving information from a data source associated with an applicant, and program code for receiving information selected by an applicant.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein program code for receiving information associated with an applicant from at least one data source comprises at least one of the following:

program code for receiving information from a financial institution, program code for receiving information from a credit provider, program code for receiving information from a database, and program code for receiving information from a credit reporting database.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein information associated with an applicant comprises at least one of the following:

identity information associated with the applicant, access information to authorize access to credit data from at least one credit reporting agency, information associated with an applicant from at least one risk analysis data source, contact information associated with an applicant, name, current address, social security number, date of birth, an address, a name of a co-applicant, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s spouse, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s driver license, information associated with an applicant'"'"'s employer, and information associated with applicant'"'"'s income.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein information associated with an applicant comprises at least one of the following:

credit reporting data, risk analysis data, check processing service data, blue book data, regional consumer exchange data, and commercial data.

50. A computer-readable medium for testing a decision rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

program code for providing a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule;

program code for receiving test information;

program code for receiving information associated with a selection of a decision rule through the user computer interface, wherein the decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

program code for applying the selected decision rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

program code for receiving information associated with a selection of an alternative decision rule, wherein the alternative decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome;

program code for applying the alternative rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome; and

program code for displaying the outcome and the alternative outcome through the user computer interface.

51. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, wherein the at least one decision rule comprises a decision rule defined in near-natural language.

52. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, further comprising:

program code for modifying the decision rule based at least in part on information associated with the alternative outcome;

program code for applying the modified decision rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain a modified outcome; and

program code for displaying the modified outcome and the alternative outcome through the user computer interface.

53. The computer-readable medium of claim 52, further comprising:

program code for applying the modified decision rule to information associated with an applicant, wherein a result associated with the modified decision rule can be obtained; and

program code for displaying the result on the user computer interface.

54. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the modified decision rule is defined in near-natural language.

55. A computer-readable medium for accessing a plurality of data sources for decisioning a credit request associated with an applicant, comprising:

program code for providing a user computer interface adapted to transform a portion of information from a plurality of data sources, and further adapted to define at least one rule associated with transforming the portion of information from the plurality of data sources;

program code for providing an interface to each of the plurality of data sources;

program code for transforming a portion of data from at least one of the plurality of data sources;

program code for defining at least one rule associated with making a decision associated with providing credit to an applicant;

program code for applying the at least one rule to at least a portion of data from the at least one of the plurality of data sources;

program code for determining an outcome for the at least one rule; and

program code for modifying the at least one rule based on the outcome.

56. The computer-readable medium of claim 55, wherein the plurality of data sources comprises at least one of the following:

an internal database, a third-party database, a credit reporting database, a risk database, a commercial database, and a commercial information database.

57. The computer-readable medium of claim 55, wherein the applicant comprises at least one of the following:

an individual, an entity, a business, and a commercial institution.

58. The computer-readable medium of claim 55, wherein the at least one decision rule comprises a rule in a near-natural language.

59. A system for generating a rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule; and

a processor adapted to

receive information associated with an applicant through the user computer interface;

receive information associated with the applicant from at least one data source;

receive a selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

receive a selection of rule flow information associated with the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface;

generate a plurality of decision rules based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant, based at least in part on the information associated with the applicant from at least one data source, and based at least in part on the selection of information associated with a plurality of decision rules, wherein an outcome associated with at least one of the plurality of decision rules can be obtained; and

based in part on at least the rule flow information, display at least a portion of the plurality of decision rules through the user computer interface.

60. A system for testing a decision rule for automated credit request decisioning, comprising:

a user computer interface adapted to receive information associated with an applicant, and further adapted to display and receive information associated with at least one decision rule; and

a processor adapted to

receive test information;

receive information associated with a selection of a decision rule through the user computer interface, wherein the decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

apply the selected decision rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an outcome;

receive information associated with a selection of an alternative decision rule, wherein the alternative decision rule can be applied to a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome;

apply the alternative rule to at least a portion of the test information to obtain an alternative outcome; and

display the outcome and the alternative outcome through the user computer interface.

61. A system for accessing a plurality of data sources for decisioning a credit request associated with an applicant, comprising:

a user computer interface adapted to transform a portion of information from a plurality of data sources, and further adapted to define at least one rule associated with transforming the portion of information from a plurality of data sources; and

a processor adapted to

provide an interface to each of a plurality of data sources;

transform a portion of data from at least one of the plurality of data sources;

define at least one rule associated with making a decision associated with providing credit to an applicant;

apply the at least one rule to at least a portion of data from the at least one of the plurality of data sources;

determine an outcome for the at least one rule; and

modify the at least one rule based on the outcome.