Method and system for initiating and clearing trades

• US 7,424,452 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2001
• Issued: 09/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American International Group Incorporated
• Original Assignee: American International Group Incorporated
• Inventors: Varnish, Paul, Feilbogen, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B.
• Application Number:
  US09/848,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20020023045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,685 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36, 705/37, 705/36.R, 235/279, 235/380, 709/246
• US Class Current: 705/37
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A system and method are provided for facilitating the exchange of data between one or more price providers and customers who communicate with the price providers through various portals, each of which may use it own data format. In transmitting data from customer to price provider, the data output from each portal is normalized to a standardized format and then transmitted to the appropriate price provider(s) where the data exchanged with the various portals can be viewed by a trader at a single display or can be exchanged with an automated pricing engine. The customer may also be provided with a universal Web site at which a customer may access any of the portals'"'"' Web sites to simplify access for the customer as well.

Claims

1. A system for electronically exchanging data related to financial transactions, the system comprising:

a plurality of internal systems of a plurality of price providers including a plurality of application program interfaces, each of the plurality of application program interfaces in communication with a respective internal computer system of a respective price provider to provide normalized data to the respective internal computer system, each of said plurality of price providers providing price quotes for trading financial instruments and executing trades for a plurality of customers;

a plurality of electronic portals, at least two of said plurality of electronic portals using one of multiple different portal-specific data formats to allow a particular customer to use any of said plurality of electronic portals to which said customer has access to communicate with said internal computer systems of any of said plurality of price providers;

a plurality of gateways, each gateway being linked to a corresponding one of said plurality of electronic portals, wherein said plurality of gateways translate data received from any of said plurality of electronic portals from a respective first portal-specific format to a second normalized format, and for translating data received in the second normalized format from said price provider to the respective first portal-specific format of the particular portal of said plurality of electronic portals to which the data is routed and

a central transit point that links said plurality of gateways to said internal computer systems of each of said plurality of price providers and through which the normalized data is transmitted to said plurality of price providers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data that is exchanged between the plurality of price providers and the customers comprises at least one of a customer request for a price quote for a trade, a price quote provided by at least one of the plurality of the price providers, a message relating to negotiation of a price for a trade between the customer and at least one of the plurality of the price providers, an instruction to complete the trade, a trade detail data, or free-format text-based conversation.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display at at least one of the plurality of the price providers for displaying substantially simultaneously the data exchanged with at least two of the electronic portals.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the display comprises a graphical user interface for displaying data from the at least two electronic portals substantially simultaneously in separate windows on the display, at least two of the windows having a substantially identical user interface.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of electronic portals utilizes a respective portal-specific graphical user interface, wherein the system displays the data from the at least two electronic portals substantially simultaneously in separate windows on the display using the respective graphical user portal-specific interfaces, and wherein the system further comprises a set of uniform commands for interacting with the at least two electronic portals despite the different graphical user interfaces.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of application program interfaces present data in the normalized format to the internal computer system of at least one of the plurality of the price providers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the internal computer system comprises an automated pricing engine that automatically generates a price quote in response to a request.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an application program interface for presenting data in the normalized format to an internal computer system of a credit intermediary that extends credit to a customer.

9. A system for electronically exchanging data related to financial transactions, the system comprising:

a plurality of electronic portals, at least two of said plurality of electronic portals using multiple different portal-specific data formats to allow a particular customer to use any of said plurality of electronic portals to which said customer has access to communicate with a first price provider or a second price provider, said first and second price providers providing price quotes for trading financial instruments and executing trades for a plurality of customers of said first and second price providers;

a first internal computer system of said first price provider in communication with a first application program interface;

a first gateway located at said first price provider, the first gateway communicating with each of said plurality of electronic portals using the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal of said plurality of electronic portals and with said first internal computer system of said first price provider using data in a normalized format of said first price provider, wherein said first gateway translates data received in the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to the normalized format of said first price provider and translates data received in the normalized format of said first price provider to the portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to which the data from said first price provider is routed;

a second internal computer system of said second price provider including a second application program interface; and

a second gateway located at said second price provider, the second gateway communicating with each of said plurality of electronic portals using the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal of said plurality of electronic portals and with said second internal computer system of said second price provider using data in a normalized format of said second price provider, wherein the second gateway translates data received in the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to the normalized format of said second price provider and translates data received in the normalized format of said second price provider to the portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to which the data from said second price provider is routed.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a third application program interface in communication with a third internal computer system of a credit intermediary;

a third gateway located at the credit intermediary, the third gateway communicating with each of the plurality of electronic portals using the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal of the plurality of electronic portals, wherein the third gateway translates data received in the respective portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to a normalized format of the credit intermediary and translates data received in the normalized format of the credit intermediary to the portal-specific format of each respective electronic portal to which the data from the credit intermediary is routed.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the third gateway transmits data received from the first price provider, the second price provider, or both to the credit intermediary.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the third gateway translates data received in the normalized format of the first price provider or data received in the normalized format of the second price provider to the normalized format of the credit intermediary.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the third gateway transmits data received from the credit intermediary to the first price provider, the second price provider or both.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the third gateway translates data received in the normalized format of the credit intermediary into the respective normalized format of the price provider to which the data is routed.