Electronic image cash letter monitoring

• US 20070235518A1
• Filed: 07/07/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (Federal Reserve System)
• Original Assignee: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (Federal Reserve System), Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (Federal Reserve System), Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Federal Reserve System), Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Federal Reserve System)
• Inventors: Lendl, Eric, Purser, Steven, Nori, V., Harris, Steven, Mueller, Randall, Schaadt, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,802,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque

Abstract

Monitoring an electronic check processing status of an image cash letter (“ICL”) and items in the ICL includes processing each ICL item by performing at least one electronic check processing event in connection with the item. For each electronic check processing event and for each item, a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event is created. Each record is associated with the corresponding item and the ICL. A status of each item can be determined based on the information stored in the records corresponding to that item. A status of the ICL can be determined based on the status of the items from the ICL.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for tracking an electronic check processing status of an image cash letter (“

ICL”

) item, comprising the steps of;

receiving an ICL comprising an ICL item for electronic check processing;

processing the ICL item by performing at least one electronic check processing event in connection with the item;

for each electronic check processing event, creating a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event with respect to the ICL item;

associating each record with the item; and

determining a status of the item based on the information stored in at least one record associated with the item.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one electronic check processing event comprises at least one of storing an image corresponding to the item, storing financial data corresponding to the item, storing addenda data corresponding to the item, conducting a reject/repair analysis of the financial data, creating a substitute check file corresponding to the item, creating a new ICL comprising the substitute check file, and presenting the item to a receiving institution for payment.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating each record with the item comprises the steps of:

associating an identifier with the item; and

associating the identifier with each record.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the status of the item comprises one of processed, failed to process, pending, and processed multiple times.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing at least one of a date on which the electronic check processing event was performed and a time at which the electronic check processing event was performed.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event was performed.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event resulted in a processing failure.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ICL received in the receiving step comprises a plurality of ICL items for electronic check processing, each of the items having an individual value, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

performing the processing, creating, associating, and determining steps listed in claim 1 for each of the items;

identifying an incoming ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of the items;

identifying an outgoing ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of all items in the ICL that have been processed for payment presentment;

determining whether the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount; and

determining that all items in the ICL have been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of determining that all items in the ICL have not been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount does not equal the outgoing ICL value amount.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

identifying each of the items that has not been processed in response to a determination that all items in the ICL have not been processed; and

generating a report comprising status information for of each of the items that has not been processed.

8. (canceled)

12. A computer-implemented method for tracking and reporting an electronic check processing status of an image cash letter (“

ICL”

) item, comprising the steps of;

receiving an ICL comprising the item for electronic check processing;

tracking a status of the item during each of a plurality of electronic check processing events, the electronic check processing events comprising at least one of storing an image corresponding to the item, storing financial data corresponding to the item, storing addenda data corresponding to the item, conducting a reject/repair analysis of the financial data, creating a substitute check file corresponding to the item, creating a new ICL comprising the substitute check file, and presenting the item to a receiving institution for payment; and

presenting the status of the item in response to a query to obtain the status of the item.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the step of receiving the ICL comprises the step of receiving an electronic image cash letter file comprising the ICL.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the status of the item for each of the electronic check processing events comprises one of processed, failed to process, pending, and processed multiple times.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the step of tracking the status of the item during each of the plurality of electronic check processing events comprises the steps of:

for each electronic check processing event, creating a record comprising information related to the status of the item for the particular electronic check processing event;

associating each record with the item; and

determining the status of the item based on the information stored in at least one record.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of associating each record with the item comprises the steps of:

associating an identifier with the item; and

associating the identifier with each record.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing at least one of a date on which the electronic check processing event was performed and a time at which the electronic check processing event was performed.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event was performed.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event resulted in a processing failure in a data file.

20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the ICL received in the receiving step comprises a plurality of ICL items for electronic check processing, each of the items having an individual value, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

performing the tracking step for each of the items;

identifying an incoming ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of the items;

identifying an outgoing ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of all items in the ICL that have been processed for payment presentment;

determining whether the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount; and

determining that all items in the ICL have been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount.

21. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of determining that all items in the ICL have not been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount does not equal the outgoing ICL value amount.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

identifying each of the items that has not been processed in response to a determination that all items in the ICL have not been processed; and

generating a report comprising status information for of each of the items that has not been processed.

23. A computer-implemented method for tracking an electronic check processing status of an image cash letter (“

ICL”

) comprising a plurality of ICL items, comprising the steps of;

receiving the ICL comprising the plurality of ICL items;

associating each of the items with the ICL;

processing the ICL by performing at least one electronic check processing event in connection with each of the items;

for each electronic check processing event, creating a record comprising information related to a status of the electronic check processing event with respect to each of the items;

associating each record with a corresponding one of the items; and

determining a status of the ICL based on the information stored in at least one record associated with one of the items.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the at least one electronic check processing event comprises, for each of the items, at least one of storing an image corresponding to the item, storing financial data corresponding to the item, storing addenda data corresponding to the item, conducting a reject/repair analysis of the financial data, creating a substitute check file corresponding to the item, creating a new ICL comprising the substitute check file, and presenting the item to a receiving institution for payment.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of associating each record with a corresponding one of the items comprises the steps of:

associating an identifier with the corresponding one of the items; and

associating the identifier with each record associated with the corresponding one of the items.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of associating each of the items with the ICL comprises the steps of:

associating a tracking number with the ICL; and

associating the tracking number with each of the items.

27. The method according to claim 23, wherein the status of the ICL comprises one of processed, failed to process, pending, and includes items that processed multiple times.

28. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing at least one of a date on which the electronic check processing event was performed and a time at which the electronic check processing event was performed.

29. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event was performed.

30. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of creating a record comprising information related to the electronic check processing event comprises the step of storing an indicator indicating that the electronic check processing event resulted in a processing failure.

31. The method according to claim 23, wherein each of the items has an individual value, and wherein the method further comprising the steps of:

identifying an incoming ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of the items;

identifying an outgoing ICL value amount comprising a sum of the individual values of all items in the ICL that have been processed for payment presentment;

determining whether the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount; and

determining that all items in the ICL have been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount equals the outgoing ICL value amount.

32. The method according to claim 31, further comprising the step of determining that all items in the ICL have not been processed in response to a determination that the incoming ICL value amount does not equal the outgoing ICL value amount.

33. The method according to claim 32, further comprising the steps of:

identifying each of the items that has not been processed in response to a determination that all items in the ICL have not been processed; and

generating a report comprising status information for of each of the items that has not been processed.