Electronic funds transfer method and system and bill presentment method and system

• US 6,173,272 B1
• Filed: 04/27/1998
• Issued: 01/09/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Clearing House Payments Company LLC (The Clearing House LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Clearing House Service Company, LLC
• Inventors: Wood, Albert G., Pawelczyk, Joseph S., Thomas, George F., Cotton, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/066,702
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 705/42, 705/74, 705/69
• US Class Current: 705/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• 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 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A funds transfer system for facilitating electronic funds transfer between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party comprises: a payor station including a device for electronic communication of a payment order, the payment order comprising the payee'"'"'s name, address and an amount owed by the payor to the payee; a home banking system including a computer structured to communicate electronically at least with the payor station, to receive the payment order, and with the trusted third party; a trusted third party system associated with the trusted third party, the trusted third party system comprising a computer structured to communicate electronically with both the home banking system and a bank of the payee. The home banking system computer is operable, upon receipt of the payment order from the payor station, to generate a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and to transmit electronically the universal identifier number to the trusted third party via a communication with the trusted third party system. The trusted third party system computer also being operable, in response to receipt of the universal identifier number from the home banking system, to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, to generate a routing/transit number of the bank of the payee and the payee'"'"'s account number from the universal identifier number, and to communicate electronically with the bank of the payee to facilitate transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account to the bank of the payee.

Claims

1. A funds transfer system for effecting electronic funds transfer between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said system comprising:

a payor station including a device for electronic communication of a payment order, said payment order comprising the payee'"'"'s name, address and an amount owed by the payor to the payee;

a home banking system associated with the payor including a computer structured to communicate electronically with the payor station, to receive the payment order, and with the trusted third party;

a trusted third party system associated with the trusted third party, said trusted third party system comprising a computer structured to communicate electronically with both the home banking system and a bank of the payee;

said home banking system computer being operable, upon receipt of the payment order from the payor station, to generate, from the name and address in the payment order, a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and to transmit electronically the universal identifier number to the trusted third party via a communication with the trusted third party system; and

said trusted third party system computer being operable, in response to receipt of the universal identifier number from the home banking system, to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, to generate a routing/transit number of the bank of the payee and the payee'"'"'s bank account number from the universal identifier number, and to communicate electronically with the bank of the payee to effect electronic transfer of funds equal to the amount owed to the payee to the payee'"'"'s bank account at the bank of the payee.

2. A funds transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the home banking system computer has stored therein a database, supplied by the trusted third party, including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee.

3. A funds transfer system according to claim 2, wherein said home banking system computer is operable to generate the universal identifier number as part of at least one ACH message, together with a special identifier.

4. A funds transfer system according to claim 3, wherein the trusted third party system computer is operable to identify the payee'"'"'s routing/transit and account number using the received universal identifier to facilitate the transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account.

11. A funds transfer system according to claim 3, operable with at least one participating institution, the payee being one of a plurality of customers of the one participating institution, and wherein the trusted third party has stored therein a master database containing previously collected information, including name, address, account number and routing number information of each of said plurality of customers of the at least one participating financial institution;

and

wherein said funds transfer system includes means for forming the database stored in the home banking system computer from the master database.

5. A funds transfer system for facilitating electronic funds transfer between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said system comprising:

a payor station including a device for electronic communication of a payment order, said payment order comprising the payee'"'"'s name, address and an amount owed by the payor to the payee;

a home banking system including a computer structured to communicate electronically with the payor station, to receive the payment order, and with the trusted third party;

a trusted third party system associated with the trusted third party, said trusted third party system comprising a computer structured to communicate electronically with both the home banking system and a bank of the payee;

said home banking system computer being operable, upon receipt of the payment order from the payor station, to generate a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and to transmit electronically the universal identifier number to the trusted third party via a communication with the trusted third party system; and

said trusted third party system computer being operable, in response to receipt of the universal identifier number from the home banking system, to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, to generate a routing/transit number of the bank of the payee and the payee'"'"'s account number from the universal identifier number, and to communicate electronically with the bank of the payee to facilitate transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account to the bank of the payee,

wherein the home banking system computer has stored therein a database, supplied by the trusted third party, including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee, wherein said home banking system computer is operable to generate the universal identifier number as part of at least one ACH message, together with a special identifier, wherein the trusted third party system computer is operable to identify the payee'"'"'s routing/transit and account number using the received universal identifier to facilitate the transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account, wherein said home banking system computer is operable to generate the ACH message such that the universal identifier number resides in an account number field and the special identifier resides in a routing/transit number field; and

wherein the trusted third party system computer further comprises;

means for recognizing the ACH message that includes the special identifier as a message requiring special handling; and

means for substituting respectively the payee'"'"'s account number and payee'"'"'s bank routing/transit number for the received universal identifier and special identifier in the ACH message.

6. A funds transfer system for facilitating electronic funds transfer between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said system comprising:

a payor station including a device for electronic communication of a payment order, said payment order comprising the payee'"'"'s name, address and an amount owed by the payor to the payee;

a home banking system including a computer structured to communicate electronically with the payor station, to receive the payment order, and with the trusted third party;

a trusted third party system associated with the trusted third party, said trusted third party system comprising a computer structured to communicate electronically with both the home banking system and a bank of the payee;

said home banking system computer being operable, upon receipt of the payment order from the payor station, to generate, from the name and address in the payment order, a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and to transmit electronically the universal identifier number to the trusted third party via a communication with the trusted third party system; and

said trusted third party system computer being operable, in response to receipt of the universal identifier number from the home banking system, to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, to generate a routing/transit number of the bank of the payee and the payee'"'"'s bank account number from the universal identifier number, and to communicate electronically with the bank of the payee to facilitate transfer of the amount owed to the payee to the bank account of the payee,

wherein the home banking system computer has stored therein a database, supplied by the trusted third party, including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, bank account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee, said system being operable with at least one participating institution, the payee being one of a plurality of customers of the one participating institution, and wherein the name and address information in the database comprises a descriptor for each of said plurality of customers of the at least one participating institution, each descriptor comprising numerical information corresponding to characters forming the name and address of one of the plurality of customers.

7. A funds transfer system according to claim 6, wherein said payor station device communicates the payment order such that it comprises character information corresponding to the name and address of the payee;

and wherein the home banking system computer comprises;

means for encoding the character information forming the payment by assigning a numerical value to identified nonblank character strings present in the character information;

means for forming a name and address descriptor using the encoded numerical values; and

means for comparing the formed name and address descriptor with the database descriptors until a match is found,

said home banking system computer being operable to transmit to the trusted third party the universal identifier number associated with the matching database descriptor.

8. A funds transfer system according to claim 7, wherein said home banking system computer is operable to transmit the universal identifier number in at least one ACH message.

9. A funds transfer system according to claim 7, wherein said encoding means includes a lookup table to associate nonblank character strings with respective corresponding numerical values.

10. A funds transfer system according to claim 9, wherein said encoding means uses hashing to encode character strings corresponding to rare words.

12. A method for transferring funds electronically between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said method comprising the steps of:

upon receipt by the trusted third party of a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and generated, in response to payee name and address information contained in a payment order from the payor, by a home banking system of the payor from information stored on a database resident at the home banking system, finding, using a table lookup at the trusted third party using the received universal identifier number as a key, a routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s bank account number to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, the routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s bank account number being known to the trusted third party but not being known to the payor or the home banking system; and

communicating, by the trusted third party, with payee'"'"'s bank to effect electronic transfer of funds equal to an amount owed by the payor to the payee to the payee'"'"'s account at the payee'"'"'s bank.

13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

generating the database at the trusted third party, the database including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee, and

distributing, before said finding step, the database to the home banking system.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the universal identifier is received by the trusted third party from the home banking system as part of at least one ACH message, together with a special identifier.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the trusted third party identifies the payee'"'"'s routing/transit and account number using the received universal identifier to facilitate the transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account.

17. A method according to claim 13, wherein the payment order from the payor comprises the payee'"'"'s name, address and the amount owed by the payor to the payee.

24. A method according to claim 14, wherein the payee is one of a plurality of customers of at least one participating institution availing itself of said method and wherein the trusted third party performs the step of previously collecting information including name, address, account number and routing number information of each of said plurality of customers, of the at least one participating financial institution for use in generating a master database, resident at the trusted third party, from which the distributed database is formed.

16. A method for transferring funds electronically between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said method comprising the steps of:

upon receipt by the trusted third party of a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and generated, in response to a payment order from the payor, by a home banking system of the payor from information stored on a database resident at the home banking system, finding, using a table lookup at the trusted third party using the received universal identifier number as a key, a routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s account number to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, the routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s account number being known only to the trusted third party;

communicating, by the trusted third party, with payee'"'"'s bank to effect electronic transfer of funds equal to an amount owed by the payor to the payee to the payee'"'"'s account at the payee'"'"'s bank,

generating the database at the trusted third party, the database including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee; and

distributing, before said finding step, the database to the home banking system, wherein the universal identifier is received by the trusted third party from the home banking system as part of at least one ACH message, together with a special identifier, wherein the trusted third party identifies the payee'"'"'s routing/transit and account number using the received universal identifier to facilitate the transfer of the amount owed to the payee'"'"'s account, wherein in the ACH message received from the home banking system the universal identifier resides in an account number field and the special identifier resides in a routing/transit number field;

the method further comprising the steps of;

recognizing, by the trusted third party, the ACH message that includes the special identifier as a message requiring special handling; and

substituting, by the trusted third party, respectively the payee'"'"'s account number and payee'"'"'s bank routing/transit number for the received universal identifier and special identifier in the ACH message.

18. A method for transferring funds electronically between a payor and a payee by means of an intermediate trusted third party, said method comprising the steps of:

upon receipt by the trusted third party of a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee and generated, in response to payee name and address information contained in a payment order from the payor, by a home banking system of the payor from information stored on a database resident at the home banking system, finding, using a table lookup at the trusted third party using the received universal identifier number as a key, a routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s bank account number to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, the routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s bank account number being known only to the trusted third party;

communicating, by the trusted third party, with payee'"'"'s bank to effect electronic transfer of funds equal to an amount owed by the payor to the payee to the payee'"'"'s account at the payee'"'"'s bank;

generating the database at the trusted third party, the database including name and address information of the payee and the universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee, and not including corresponding routing/transit number, bank account number and taxpayer ID information of the payee; and

distributing, before said finding step, the database to the home banking system,

wherein the payment order from the payor comprises the payee'"'"'s name, address and the amount owed by the payor to the payee, wherein the payee is one of a plurality of customers of at least one participating institution availing itself of said method and wherein the name and address information in the database comprises a descriptor for each of said plurality of customers, of the at least one participating institution, each descriptor comprising numerical information corresponding to characters forming the name and address of one of the plurality of customers.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the payment order comprises character information corresponding to the name and address of the payee, and the home banking system performs the substeps of:

encoding the character information by assigning a numerical value to identified nonblank character strings present in the payment order character information;

forming a name and address descriptor record using the encoded numerical values;

comparing the formed name and address descriptor with the database descriptors until a match is found; and

transmitting to the trusted third party the universal identifier number associated with the matching database descriptor.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said generating step subjects each database descriptor to a hashing algorithm and after said forming step the formed name and address descriptor is subjected to the hashing algorithm, and wherein the comparing step compares the hashed value of the name and address descriptor with the hashed values resident in the database.

21. A method according to claim 19, wherein in said transmitting substep, the home banking system transmits the universal identifier number in at least one ACH message.

22. A method according to claim 19, wherein in said encoding substep, a lookup table is used to associate nonblank character strings with respective corresponding numerical values.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein the encoding substep uses a hashing algorithm to encode character strings corresponding to rare words.

25. A funds transfer system for facilitating electronic funds transfer between a home banking system of a payor and a bank account of a payee, said system comprising:

a trusted third party structured to communicate with both the home banking system and a bank of the payee maintaining payee'"'"'s account;

means associated with said home banking system for identifying a universal identifier number associated with the payee from name and address information in a payment order received from the payor and transmitting the identified universal identifier number to said trusted third party in response to receipt by said home banking system of the payment order from the payor, said universal identifier number uniquely identifying the payee;

means associated with said trusted third party operable in response to receipt of the universal identifier number from the home banking system to identify the payee as a party to receive payment, and for converting the universal identifier number so as to identify the routing/transit number of the payee'"'"'s bank and the payee'"'"'s bank account number; and

means associated with said trusted third party for communicating with payee'"'"'s bank to effect an electronic transfer of funds in accordance with payor'"'"'s payment order to payee'"'"'s account at the bank of the payee.

26. A method for electronic bill presentment between a biller and a potential payor by an intermediate trusted third party, said method comprising:

generating, by the trusted third party, a database including name and address information of the biller and a universal identifier number uniquely identifying the biller;

receiving, at the trusted third party, a biller order from the biller, the biller order comprising the payor'"'"'s name, address and an amount to be paid by the payor to the biller;

upon receipt by the trusted third party of the biller order, generating, at the trusted third party, a bill routing message and transmitting the bill routing message to the payor'"'"'s home banking system, the message including the universal identifier number corresponding to the biller; and

upon receipt by the home banking system of the bill routing message from the trusted third party, routing, by the home banking system, a bill to the payor corresponding to the bill routing message,

wherein, if the mayor chooses to pay the bill, the payor sends a message to the home banking system instructing them to pay the bill, and the home banking system formulates and transmits a message to the trusted third party, the message including the universal identifier number corresponding to the biller, to facilitate an electronic funds transfer of the amount to be paid from the payor to the biller.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein the bill routing message comprises an ACH message, the ACH message being formed based at least in part upon routing information resident in a master database resident at the trusted third party.

28. A method of electronic funds transfer between a payor and a payee by an intermediate trusted third party, the trusted third party having previously distributed to a home banking system of the payor a database including universal identifier numbers uniquely associated with bank accounts including that of the payee;

said method including the steps of;

receiving, at the home banking system, a payment order from the payor, the payment order including payee name and address information;

upon receipt by the home banking system of the payment order, identifying, at the home banking system, the universal identifier number uniquely associated with payee'"'"'s account by correlating the payee name and address information with information stored in the database;

transmitting, by the home banking system, the universal identifier number identified in said identifying step, to the trusted third party; and

converting, by the trusted third party, the universal identifier number into the payee'"'"'s account number and communicating with payee'"'"'s bank to effect electronic transfer of funds to payee'"'"'s bank account of an amount owed by the payor to the payee.

29. A method of facilitating an electronic transfer of funds from a home banking system of a payor to a bank account of a payee, comprising the steps of:

upon receipt by the home banking system of a payment order from the payor that includes character information corresponding to the name and address of the payee, encoding the received character information by assigning a numerical value to identified nonblank character strings present in the received character information;

forming a descriptor of indicia identifying the payee using the encoded numerical information;

comparing the formed descriptor with database descriptors stored in a database supplied by a trusted third party until a match is found; and

transmitting a universal identifier, associated in the database with the matching database descriptor and uniquely identifying the payee, to the trusted third party,

the trusted third party having a computer operable to associate the universal identifier with the bank account number of the payee and to effect the electronic transfer of funds to the payee'"'"'s bank account.

30. A web-based bill presentment method for presenting bills by a biller to a payor using a trusted third party having a resident database including an e-mail address of the payor and a routing number and account number of the biller, as well as a universal identifier number uniquely associated with the routing number and account number of the biller, the payor being a customer of a bank that has a bill presentment server, said method comprising:

receiving, at the trusted third party, a bill presentment order from the biller; and

in response to an inquiry from the bill presentment server of payor'"'"'s bank, transmitting billing information of the biller, including the universal identifier number, to the payor'"'"'s bank, which in turn, by means of the bill presentment server, presents the bill for display to the payor using the e-mail address of the payor,

wherein display means available to the payor is linked to the payor bank'"'"'s bill payment server, and the payor indicates a willingness to pay the bill by clicking a payment icon displayed by the display means and associated with the bill, and in response, the payor'"'"'s bank transmits a payment message to the trusted third party, the payment message including the universal identifier number of the biller, to facilitate electronic transfer of funds to the biller.

31. A method of correlating between at least two entities by an intermediate trusted third party, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the trusted third party, a universal identifier number uniquely identifying a first one of the at least two entities, the universal identifier number being generated from name and address information of the first one of the at least two entities contained in an inquiry from a second one of the at least two entities by correlating the name and address information with information stored in a first database; and

generating, at the trusted third party, by correlating the received universal identifier number with confidential information stored in a second database, confidential information relating to the first one of the at least two entities to identify the first one, the confidential information being known to the trusted third party, but not known to the second one of the at least two entities.

32. A method according to claim 31, further comprising the steps of:

generating the database at the trusted third party, the database including name and address information of the first one of the at least two entities and the universal identifier number uniquely identifying the first one, and not including corresponding confidential information of the first one, and

distributing, before said confidential information generating step, the database so as to facilitate access to the database by the second one of the at least two entities.