System and method for matching customers to financial products, services, and incentives based on bank account transaction activity

• US 7,954,698 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Robert K. Pliha
• Original Assignee: Robert K. Pliha
• Inventors: Pliha, Robert K.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THIEN MINH
• Application Number:
  US11/862,977
• Time in Patent Office: 1,349 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/380, 235/383, 235/385, 235/492, 235/375
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A financial scoring system measures, classifies, rates, and forecasts the deposit and withdrawal patterns processed through a direct deposit account (DDA) residing in a bank'"'"'s central database. The scoring metric generated by the financial scoring system is converted into a monthly mandatory, lifestyle, leisure, and luxury expenditure classifications for each DDA household. These expenditure classifications are converted by the financial scoring system to the rate of expenditure substitution each DDA household will support, the amount of the rate of expenditure substitution that the DDA household is willing to risk, and the rate of expenditure substitution that will require a preference spending decision. The DDA expenditure classifications generated by the financial scoring system are compared to the consumer expenditure survey and consumer price index tables published by U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics to provide a scoring validation benchmark.

Claims

1. A method for matching a customer having at least one financial transaction account at a financial institution to a financial product, the method comprising:

(a) measuring a historical flow of cash transactions in at least one of the financial transaction accounts at the financial institution to generate one or more cash transactions datasets for the customer, the historical flow of cash transactions comprising deposits and withdrawals, wherein the one or more cash transactions datasets for the customer are generated by classifying the deposits and withdrawals into the one or more cash transactions datasets comprising fixed deposits, variable deposits, fixed withdrawals, and variable withdrawals;

(b) using the customer cash transaction datasets to forecast one or more financial substitution factors for the customer; and

(c) using at least one of the forecasted financial substitution factors to match the customer with the financial product or to an incentive linked to the financial product.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of forecasting the financial substitution factors for the customer comprises determining a cash deposit functional derivative rate and a cash withdrawal functional derivative rate from the corresponding cash transaction datasets of deposits and withdrawals using a stochastic process.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of classifying the deposits into cash transaction datasets of fixed deposits and variable deposits comprises:

generating a monthly deposit calendar for the customer;

applying a statistical pattern deposit classification model to the cash deposits, the statistical pattern classification model including a deposit amount range and deposit frequency probability limits associated with fixed deposits;

classifying cash deposits that fall within the deposit amount range and the deposit frequency probability limits as fixed deposits; and

classifying cash deposits that fall outside the deposit amount range and the deposit frequency probability limits as variable deposits.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of classifying the withdrawals into cash transaction datasets of fixed withdrawals and variable withdrawals comprises:

generating a monthly withdrawal calendar for the customer;

applying a statistical pattern withdrawal classification model to the cash withdrawals, the statistical pattern classification model including a withdrawal amount range and withdrawal frequency probability limits associated with fixed withdrawals;

classifying cash withdrawals that fall within the withdrawal amount range and the withdrawal frequency probability limits as fixed withdrawals; and

classifying cash withdrawals that fall outside the withdrawal amount range and the withdrawal frequency probability limits as variable withdrawals.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the forecasted financial substitution factors for the customer include at least one of an inter-temporal rate of substitution, a risk aversion to cash substitution, a preferences to cash substitution, a propensity to consume cash, and a propensity to save cash.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of forecasting the inter-temporal rate of substitution comprises:

determining an inter-temporal cash withdrawal rate for each of the fixed and variable withdrawal datasets; and

classifying the fixed and variable withdrawal rates into low-to-high intertemporal rates of substitution groups to indicate an amount, a rate limit, and

probability that customer cash withdrawals can be substituted during a monthly withdrawal forecast.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of forecasting the risk aversion to cash substitution comprises:

classifying the fixed and variable withdrawal rates into high-to-low risk aversion groups to indicate a risk amount, a rate limit, and probability that a customer is willing to substitute monthly.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of forecasting the preferences to cash substitution comprises:

classifying the fixed and variable withdrawal rates into low-to-high preference groups to indicate a preference amount, a rate limit, and probability that a customer is willing to substitute monthly.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of forecasting the propensity to consume comprises:

determining customer income;

classifying the fixed and variable withdrawal rates into high-to-low propensity to consume groups to indicate a cash amount and a monthly cash consumption rate as a percentage of customer income.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of forecasting the propensity to save comprises:

determining customer income;

classifying the fixed and variable withdrawal rates into low-to-high propensity to save groups to indicate a cash amount and a monthly cash savings rate as a percentage of customer income.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of further comprising:

storing customer profile data, including household income, in a customer information file;

matching the household income to consumer expenditures percentages contained in consumer expenditure survey data;

using the consumer expenditures percentages in the consumer expenditure survey data and the customer'"'"'s household income to forecast future household expenditures by the customer; and

using the forecasted future household expenditures to match the customer with the financial product or to an incentive linked to the financial product.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein customer profile data further comprises age, size of household, occupation, education, housing tenure, and earners in household, and the step of forecasting future household expenditures by the customer further comprises adjusting the consumer expenditures percentages based on the customer profile data.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of forecasting future household expenditures by the customer further comprises applying a back-propagation statistical neural model to forecast a consumer price index and using changes in the forecasted consumer price index to adjust the forecasts of future household consumer expenditure survey data.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of using the cash withdrawal functional derivative rate and statistical pattern classification model to classify each of the cash withdrawal transactions into separate expenditure groups and wherein the forecasts of future household expenditures are applied to each of the expenditure groups.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the expenditure groups comprise mandatory, lifestyle, leisure, and luxury groups.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising grouping the fixed deposits into income categories, the income categories including salary, interest, retirement, social security, and third-party transfers.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

determining an actual or estimated household income for the customer;

comparing the amount of fixed deposits to the customer household income to determine a percentage of the customer household income that is being processed by the financial institution; and

using the actual or estimated household income for each income category to match low income percentage groups to household expenditure profiles with a higher income processing percentage to forecast the household income to expenditure potential.

18. A system for matching a customer of a financial institution with a financial product comprising:

a. a system database, the system database including a customer information file and historical cash deposit and withdrawal transaction information associated with an account owned by the customer;

b. a pre-processing stage, the pre-processing stage including

an account ownership household processor functional to extract account ownership information pertaining to the customer from the database,

a personal information classification processor functional to determine an income range for the customer from database, and

an account transaction calendar database comprising transactions calendars generated from the cash deposit and withdrawal transaction information;

c. a scoring and forecasting stage, the scoring and forecasting stage including

a customer/household account transaction activity statistical processor functional to generate and identify cash transaction patterns from the transaction calendars,

an account transaction scoring and forecasting processor functional to classify the cash transaction patterns into groups of household deposit and withdrawal patterns and to score and forecast monthly income and expenditure patterns for the customer,

a reporting processor functional to classify the deposit and withdrawal datasets into income, expenditure and classification profiles into a report database; and

d. a reporting stage functional to generate matching reports using data in the system database and the report database.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising a database of third-party demographic and consumer price index information and wherein the scoring and forecasting stage further comprises:

a household consumer expenditure survey table processor functionally linked to the consumer information file and to the third-party demographic information to classify consumer expenditures into mandatory, lifestyle, leisure, and luxury expenditure groups; and

a consumer price index table processor functionally linked to the consumer price index information to generate consumer expenditure survey profiles for a customer household.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the scoring and forecasting stage further comprises:

a consumer expenditure statistical processor functionally linked to the household consumer expenditure survey table processor to and to the account transaction activity statistical processor; and

a consumer expenditure forecast processor functionally linked to the consumer expenditure statistical processor and to the reporting stage.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the third-party demographic information database includes consumer confidence data and wherein the scoring and forecasting stage further comprises:

a consumer price index statistical processor functionally linked to the consumer price index table processor, to the consumer confidence data, and to the consumer expenditure statistical processor.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the consumer expenditure forecast processor comprises a back-propagation statistical neural model.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein the account ownership processor, the personal information classification processor, and the customer/household account transaction activity statistical processor are functionally linked to the customer'"'"'s direct deposit accounts, time deposit accounts, and loan accounts.

24. The system of claim 18 wherein the reporting stage is functional to generate summary and detail reports that show the results of processing in the statistical scoring and forecasting stage for each customer household and specialty reports defined by selecting target cash transaction and consumer expenditure survey dataset variables.