DEMAND DEPOSIT ACCOUNT PAYMENT SYSTEM

• US 20120215688A1
• Filed: 02/23/2012
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Inventors: Preston, Patricia, Rozbicki, Richard, Hill, Dennis J., Musser, Paul, Delker, Julie
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,381 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• 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

Abstract

A method and system for processing DDA payment transactions including generating a private virtual identifier, associating the private virtual identifier with a DDA, and generating a public virtual identifier associated with the private virtual identifier. The method can also include distributing the public virtual identifier to consumers, receiving a DDA payment request from a billing entity including the public virtual identifier, retrieving the private virtual identifier in response to receipt of the public virtual identifier, and processing the DDA payment request using the private virtual identifier to facilitate payment to the billing entity on behalf of the consumer. The method and system also authenticates the identity of a user during a transaction.

Claims

1. A method for processing direct deposit account (“

DDA”

) payment transactions comprising;

generating a private virtual identifier;

associating the private virtual identifier with a DDA;

generating a public virtual identifier associated with the private virtual identifier;

distributing the public virtual identifier to a consumer;

receiving a DDA payment request from a billing entity including the public virtual identifier;

retrieving the private virtual identifier in response to receipt of the public virtual identifier; and

processing the DDA payment request using the private virtual identifier to facilitate payment to the billing entity on behalf of the consumer.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the public virtual identifier is used by the consumer to initiate a payment transaction with a billing entity.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the public virtual identifier is provided by the billing entity to a payment network for processing a payment over a computing system interconnecting the billing entity and the payment network.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein upon receipt of the public virtual identifier, the payment network retrieves from a database the private virtual identifier corresponding to the public virtual identifier, the private virtual identifier being communicated over a computer network to a financial institution to transfer funds from the customer'"'"'s DDA account associated with the financial institution.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the private virtual identifier is a number which corresponds to a customer'"'"'s DDA account number.

6. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein the private virtual identifier is the customer'"'"'s actual DDA account number.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further including the step of associating a further public virtual identifier with credit card PAN to permit payment based on the credit card PAN using the further public virtual identifier.

8. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the public virtual identifier is maintained in a password protected database administered by the payment network.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, wherein the password protected database is accessible by the consumer through a computer network of the billing entity.

10. A method for processing payment transactions comprising:

generating a private virtual identifier and associating the private virtual identifier with a financial account identifier used for transferring funds to pay a billing entity;

generating with a processing device a public virtual identifier corresponding to the private virtual identifier and storing the private virtual identifier and public virtual identifier in a database of a payment network;

the payment network communicating with a billing entity using the public virtual identifier to receive a request for payment;

the payment network communicating with a financial institution using the private virtual identifier to obtain funds from the financial institution to settle a payment with the billing entity on behalf of a consumer.

11. The method as defined in claim 10, including generating and storing a relationship between each billing entity and each consumer and generating a unique public virtual identifier for each billing entity /consumer relationship.

12. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein the private virtual identifier is not transmitted to the billing entity.

13. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein the consumer initiates payment using the public virtual identifier on a billing entity computer network.

14. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein the consumer initiates payment using the public virtual identifier on a financial institution computer network.

15. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein the payment network verifies the identity of the consumer and the existence of sufficient funds in the DDA account prior to generating an authorization of payment to the billing entity.

16. A system for processing DDA payment transactions comprising:

computer storage database to store associations between DDA information, a private virtual identifier, and/or a public virtual identifier;

a transaction processing device configured to generate the private virtual identifier and/or the public virtual identifier and associate the private virtual identifier with a DDA and/or the public virtual identifier; and

the transaction processing device being configured to distribute the public virtual identifier to consumers and receive a payment request from a billing entity, the payment request including the DDA routing and account number and/or the public virtual identifier, the transaction processing device being configured to retrieve the private virtual identifier corresponding to the DDA routing and account information and/or the public virtual identifier and process the payment request using the private virtual identifier to facilitate payment to the billing entity on behalf of the consumer.

17. The system as defined in claim 16, wherein the transaction processing device communicates with a server of a billing entity to permit a payment through the transaction processing device to be made through the server of the billing entity.

18. The system as defined in claim 16, wherein the public virtual identifier is unique to a specific consumer and billing entity relationship.

19. The system as defined in claim 16, wherein the private virtual identifier is a DDA number.

20. A method for conducting a payment transaction comprising:

storing at least one payment account in a secure database;

providing a consumer access to the secure database upon entry for a user unique credential;

permitting a consumer to make a payment from the stored payment account;

generating a private virtual identifier associated with the payment account;

generating a public virtual identifier associated with the private virtual identifier;

providing access to the secure database by the consumer through a computer network of a third party billing entity;

providing the public virtual identifier to the billing entity;

receiving payment request from a billing entity including the public virtual identifier;

retrieving the private virtual identifier in response to receipt of the public virtual identifier; and

processing the payment request using the private virtual identifier to facilitate payment to the billing entity on behalf of the consumer.

21. The method as defined in claim 20, wherein the public virtual identifier is generated by a payment network and is unique to a specific consumer and billing entity relationship wherein the public virtual identifier can only be used for payment transactions between the specific consumer and specific billing entity.

22. A system for processing payment transactions comprising:

a virtual vault including a transaction processing device of a payment network and a secure database for storing payment account information and consumer identification information, the virtual vault being accessible by a consumer upon entry of one or more security credentials;

the transaction processing device generating a private virtual identifier associated with the payment account information and generating a public virtual identifier associated with the private virtual identifier, the transaction serving being in operative communication with the database;

a billing entity processing device in operative communication with the transaction processing device, the billing entity processing device permitting a consumer to pay using the public virtual identifier; and

the billing entity processing device transmitting the public virtual identifier to the transaction processing device, the transaction processing device associating the public virtual identifier with the private virtual identifier, the transaction processing device communicating the private virtual identifier to a financial institution to facilitate payment from the payment account to the billing entity.

23. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the database is accessible by a consumer via a vault web application.

24. The system as defined in claim 23, wherein the vault web application is accessible from a web site of the billing entity.

25. The system as defined in claim 23, wherein the vault web application is accessible from a web site of the financial institution.

26. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the virtual vault includes a plurality of payment accounts which are selectable by the consumer to facilitate payment to the billing entity, the transaction processing device generating a public virtual identifier for each of the plurality of accounts.

27. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the transaction processing device compares a request for payment from the billing entity from a user selected payment account and generates a message to the billing entity denying payment if the selected payment account does not have sufficient funds for the requested payment.

28. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the transaction processing device generates a unique public virtual identifier for each relationship of a consumer and billing entity, wherein the unique public virtual identifier is only valid for transactions between the particular customer and particular billing entity.

29. A method of authenticating the identity of a user over a computer network comprising:

providing an application on a computer network of a financial institution for a user to enter a plurality of identifying verifying information during a user registration;

providing the user with a security credential unique to the user;

communicating the user identifying information and security credential to a payment network and storing the credential and user identifying information in a database of the payment network;

operably connecting a third party computer network requiring verification of the user'"'"'s identity to the payment network;

providing a user interface on the third party computer network for a user to enter the unique credential in order to gain access to information stored by the third party;

communicating the unique credential to the payment network;

comparing the credential to the database to determine if the credential matches the user; and

generating a message to the third party which is responsive to the credential matching the user to permit access by the user to information retained by the third party.

30. The method as defined in claim 29, wherein the credential is not stored or maintained by the third party.

31. The method as defined in claim 29, wherein the credential includes one of a user name/password, or hardware token.

32. The method as defined in claim 31, further including generating a public virtual identifier representing private virtual identifier corresponding to a payment account held by a financial institution bank on behalf of the user,

33. The method as defined in claim 32, wherein the third party is a billing entity and the method further including distributing the public virtual identifier to the third party billing entity as designated by the user to permit payment transactions to permit the user to make payments to the billing entity.

35. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to process direct deposit account (“

DDA”

) payment transactions by performing a computer process comprising;

generating a private virtual identifier;

associating the private virtual identifier with a DDA;

generating a public virtual identifier associated with the private virtual identifier;

distributing the public virtual identifier to a consumer;

receiving a DDA payment request from a billing entity including the public virtual identifier;

retrieving the private virtual identifier in response to receipt of the public virtual identifier; and

processing the DDA payment request using the private virtual identifier to facilitate payment to the billing entity on behalf of the consumer.