Using commercial share of wallet to rate business prospects

• US 8,170,938 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2011
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Haggerty, Kathleen, Lyon, Charles Christopher, Okoh, Benedict O., Phelan, Robert E., Ruterman, Jon Kevin, Turner, Geraldine A., Yuan, Chao M., Biswas, Arnab, Chatterji, Siddhartha
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, III, Thomas M
• Application Number:
  US13/274,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20120046979A1
• Time in Patent Office: 200 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• 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 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company'"'"'s spend capacity. Research analysts can use CSoW/CSoSW to provide a comprehensive and robust indication of the business prospects of a rated company.

Claims

1. A method of rating business prospects, comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system configured to rate the business prospects, non-transitory memory, industry spending patterns, wherein the computer-based system comprises a computer processor and a tangible, and wherein the modeling comprises;

identifying the cost of goods sold and operating expenses;

at least one of identifying the cardable operating expenses from the operating expenses and identifying a cardable operating expenses ratio from aggregate corporate data;

at least one of summing the cardable operating expenses with the cost of goods sold and summing the cost of goods sold with the product of operating expenses and the cardable operating expenses ratio;

estimating, by the computer-based system, a commercial size of spending wallet of a company based on, at least, known financial statement data of the company, total known business spending of the company, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total cardable business spending of the company, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

issuing a corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the corporate rating is issued for the company.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the issuing further comprises issuing a corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company and historical financial information of the company.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the company is a customer of a provider, and the corporate rating is issued for the provider.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the issuing further comprises issuing a corporate rating for the provider based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company and historical financial information of the provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the issuing further comprises updating, by the computer-based system, an existing corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating further comprises outputting, by the computer-based system, the commercial size of spending wallet as a score.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising estimating, by the computer-based system, a share of wallet for the company.

9. A system comprising:

a computer processor configured to rate the business prospects; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform operations comprising;

modeling, by the computer processor, industry spending patterns, wherein the modeling comprises;

identifying the cost of goods sold and operating expenses;

at least one of identifying the cardable operating expenses from the operating expenses and identifying a cardable operating expenses ratio from aggregate corporate data;

at least one of summing the cardable operating expenses with the cost of goods sold and summing the cost of goods sold with the product of operating expenses and the cardable operating expenses ratio;

estimating, by the computer processor, a commercial size of spending wallet of a company based on, at least, known financial statement data of the company, total known business spending of the company, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total cardable business spending of the company, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

issuing a corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the corporate rating is issued for the company.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the issuing a corporate rating is further based upon at least one of the commercial size of spending wallet of the company and historical financial information of the company.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the company is a customer of a provider, and the corporate rating is issued for the provider.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the issuing a corporate rating is further based upon at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company and historical financial information of the provider.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising updating an existing corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company.

15. The system of claim 9, furthering comprising outputting the commercial size of spending wallet as a score.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising estimating a share of wallet for the company.

17. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device configured to rate business prospects, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

modeling, by the computing device, industry spending patterns, wherein the modeling comprises;

identifying the cost of goods sold and operating expenses;

at least one of identifying the cardable operating expenses from the operating expenses and identifying a cardable operating expenses ratio from aggregate corporate data;

at least one of summing the cardable operating expenses with the cost of goods sold and summing the cost of goods sold with the product of operating expenses and the cardable operating expenses ratio;

estimating, by the computing device, a commercial size of spending wallet of a company based on, at least, known financial statement data of the company, total known business spending of the company, and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total cardable business spending of the company, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

issuing a corporate rating based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the company.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the corporate rating is issued for the company.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, wherein the issuing a corporate rating is further based upon at least one of the commercial size of spending wallet of the company and historical financial information of the company.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the company is a customer of a provider, and the corporate rating is issued for the provider.