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Real time bank-centric universal payment system

  • US 5,974,146 A
  • Filed: 07/30/1997
  • Issued: 10/26/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1997
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An infrastructure for a real time bank-centric universal payment system comprising:

  • a central processing unit defining an electronic commerce trust system, the system formed from a plurality of financial service provider members subscribing to a common standard having applicability throughout the trust system, the financial service provider members providing transaction processing services to pre-identified customer users and goods and services providers that are account subscribers with the financial service provider member and subject to the common standard of the system, the trust system being interconnected with a central monetary exchange mechanism having authority over the financial service provider members and the exchange of currency among the financial service provider members, the central processing unit further operatively interconnected to communicate with a correspondent processing unit at each one of the plurality of financial service provider members, the central processing unit maintaining a hot file means for authenticating users of the system and for restricting use of the system to subscribing members, said hot file including means for detecting identifications of accounts that are lost, stolen or discontinued and verification means for authenticating a customer user and a goods and services provider with respect to an account transaction, whereby access to the system is denied upon detection of a lost stolen or discontinued identification or the failure of verification of authenticity;

    the correspondent processing units of the financial service provider members being operatively interconnected through a network of transaction access mechanisms linking customer users and goods and services providers with the financial service provider member;

    the central processing unit providing non-revocable real time debit and credit transactions between and among accounts of the customer users and the goods and services provider account subscribers upon verification of;

    (1) the authenticity of the originator and the recipient of a debit/credit instruction with regard to a transaction involving accounts of the user and provider account subscribers when the instruction is received by the central processing unit from a transaction access mechanism, and (2) the availability of funds in the account to be debited in an amount sufficient such that funds in the amount of the transaction are immediately available in real time from the account to be debited for transfer to the account to be credited;

    the central processing unit further maintaining in substantially real time a record of the debits and credits incurred in the accounts of the customer users and the goods and services provider subscribers and a record of the aggregate debits and credits between and among the financial service provider members resulting from transactions of the member'"'"'s account subscribers;

    a settlement mechanism within the central processing unit for maintaining an aggregate log of debits and credits with regard to customer user and goods and services provider subscriber transactions processed with regard to financial service provider members and for calculating respective debits and credits owing and payable among the provider members; and

    a timer whereby at a predetermined time interval net settlement of accounts of the financial service provider members is effected by the transmission of the record of the aggregate debits and credits owing and payable by the provider members from the central processing unit to the central monetary exchange mechanism.

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