EFFICIENT TRANSFER OF FUNDS BETWEEN ACCOUNTS

• US 20140074709A1
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Green, Travis Harrison Kroll, Cozens, Narelle, Schmitt, Peter, DePasquale, Michael, Pennarun, Avery, Mizhen, Boris
• Granted Patent: US 10,026,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• 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

A transfer management system receives a request to transfer an amount of funds from a transferring account maintained by a transferring bank to a receiving account maintained by a receiving bank. The transfer management system determines whether the transferring bank maintains an intermediate transferring account, and whether the receiving bank maintains an intermediate receiving account. If the transferring bank maintains an intermediate transferring account and the receiving maintains an intermediate receiving account, the transfer management system transmits to a transferring bank system of the transferring bank an intra-bank transfer request. The intra-bank transfer request is to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the intermediate transferring account. Additionally, the transfer management system transmits an intra-bank transfer request to a receiving bank system of the receiving bank to transfer the amount of funds from the intermediate receiving account maintained by the receiving bank to the receiving account.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a transfer management computer system, a fund transfer request to transfer an amount of funds from a transferring account maintained by a transferring bank to a receiving account maintained by a receiving bank;

determining, by the transfer management computer system, that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account and that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account managed by an administrative entity independent from the transferring bank and the receiving bank; and

responsive to a determining that the transferring bank maintains the first intermediate account and the receiving bank maintains the second intermediate account, the transfer management computer system processing the fund transfer request without initiating a fund transfer between the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account, the transfer management computer system processing the fund transfer request by;

transmitting to a transferring bank system of the transferring bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account maintained by the transferring bank; and

responsive to the first intermediate account receiving the funds from the transferring account, transmitting to a receiving bank system of the receiving bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account maintained by the receiving bank to the receiving account.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the second intermediate account has sufficient funds to transfer the amount of funds to the receiving account;

responsive to determining that the second intermediate account does not have sufficient funds, inquiring at regular intervals whether the second intermediate account has sufficient funds; and

responsive to determining via an inquiry that the second intermediate account has sufficient funds, transmitting the request to the transferring bank system and the request to the receiving bank system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account but the receiving bank does not maintain a second intermediate account;

transmitting, by the transfer management computer system to the transferring bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account; and

transmitting, by the transfer management computer system to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the first intermediate account to the receiving account.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the request to transfer the amount of funds from the first intermediate account to the receiving account is transmitted responsive to the first intermediate account electronically receiving the amount of funds from the transferring account.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein responsive to the first intermediate account electronically receiving the amount of funds from the transferring account, a communication is transmitted to a user of the receiving account indicating that the administrative entity guarantees the user that the receiving account will receive the amount of funds according to the fund transfer request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, that the transferring bank does not maintain a first intermediate account, and that a user that initiated the fund transfer request is trusted by the transfer management computer system;

transmitting, by the transfer management computer system to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the second intermediate account; and

transmitting, by the transfer management computer system to the receiving bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account to the receiving account.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a determination is made that the user is trusted responsive to a trust score determined for the user being above a threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the trust score for the user is determined based on one or more of the following factors:

an amount of time the user has been registered with the transfer management computer system, how frequently the user requests fund transfers, a number of times the user failed to repay a debt after funds were loaned to the user for transferring funds to a receiving account, and one or more credit scores of the user.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, that the transferring bank does not maintain a first intermediate account, and that a user that initiated the fund transfer request is not trusted by the transfer management computer system, transmitting, by the transfer management computer system to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the receiving bank.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a balance of an intermediate account falling below an ideal fund range for a period of time, replenishing the intermediate account by requesting a transfer of funds to the intermediate account.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein ideal fund range is determined using a predictive model that takes into account one or more of the following:

a number of transfers to the intermediate account, an average value of a fund transfer to intermediate account, a number of transfers from the intermediate account, an average value of a fund transfer from the intermediate account, an amount of times that the intermediate account did not have sufficient funds for a transfer, and a number of user accounts with the bank maintaining the intermediate account.

2. (canceled)

3. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

15. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions comprising:

an authorization module configured to receive a fund transfer request to transfer an amount of funds from a transferring account maintained by a transferring bank to a receiving account maintained by a receiving bank; and

a transfer module configured to;

determine that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account and that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account managed by an administrative entity independent from the transferring bank and the receiving bank; and

responsive to determining that the transferring bank maintains the first intermediate account and the receiving bank maintains the second intermediate account, processing the fund transfer request without initiating a fund transfer between the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account, the fund transfer request processed by;

transmitting to a transferring bank system of the transferring bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account maintained by the transferring bank; and

responsive to the first intermediate account receiving the funds from the transferring account, transmitting to a receiving bank system of the receiving bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account maintained by the receiving bank to the receiving account.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the transfer module is further configured to:

responsive to a determination that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account but the receiving bank does not maintain a second intermediate account;

transmit to the transferring bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account; and

transmit to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the first intermediate account to the receiving account.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the transfer module is further configured to:

responsive to a determination that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, that the transferring bank does not maintain a first intermediate account, and that a user that initiated the fund transfer request is trusted by the transfer management computer system;

transmit to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the second intermediate account; and

transmit to the receiving bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account to the receiving account.

18. A computer system for processing a fund transfer request, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program modules comprising;

an authorization module configured to receive a fund transfer request to transfer an amount of funds from a transferring account maintained by a transferring bank to a receiving account maintained by a receiving bank; and

a transfer module configured to;

determine that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account and that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account managed by an administrative entity independent from the transferring bank and the receiving bank; and

responsive to determining that the transferring bank maintains the first intermediate account and the receiving bank maintains the second intermediate account, processing the fund transfer request without initiating a fund transfer between the first intermediate account and the second intermediate account, the fund transfer request processed by;

transmitting to a transferring bank system of the transferring bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account maintained by the transferring bank; and

responsive to the first intermediate account receiving the funds from the transferring account, transmitting to a receiving bank system of the receiving bank, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account maintained by the receiving bank to the receiving account.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the transfer module is further configured to:

responsive to a determination that the transferring bank maintains a first intermediate account but the receiving bank does not maintain a second intermediate account;

transmit to the transferring bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the first intermediate account; and

transmit to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the first intermediate account to the receiving account.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the transfer module is further configured to:

responsive to a determination that the receiving bank maintains a second intermediate account, that the transferring bank does not maintain a first intermediate account, and that a user that initiated the fund transfer request is trusted by the transfer management computer system;

transmit to the transferring bank system, an inter-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the transferring account to the second intermediate account; and

transmit to the receiving bank system, an intra-bank transfer request to transfer the amount of funds from the second intermediate account to the receiving account.