Systems and methods for providing enhanced account management services for multiple banks

• US 8,290,861 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2009
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Inventors: Bent, Bruce, Bent, Bruce II
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US12/453,389
• Time in Patent Office: 1,257 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A system, method and program product for managing funds, comprising: databases comprising: aggregated transaction account information for plurality of FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts, and client transaction account information; first computation engine for computing respective excess amount by which a balance of funds from that client transaction account exceeds specified amount; first allocation engine allocating respective excess amounts to one or more aggregated deposit accounts in one or more other financial institutions; second computation engine for determining first amount comprising a sum of a plurality excess amounts to one or more aggregated deposit accounts; second allocation engine for allocating to the one financial institution second amount based on a difference between a sum of funds deposited in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts and sum of current balances from the primary client transaction accounts associated with the one financial institution; update engine, and instruction generator.

Claims

1. A system for managing funds, in a plurality of financial institutions participating in a program, for a plurality of primary client transaction accounts of a plurality of primary clients, with each respective primary client having funds that were accepted for deposit in a primary client transaction account held in the name of the primary client at one of the plurality of financial institutions in the program, with that financial institution referred to as a primary financial institution for that primary client, comprising:

one or more electronic databases, stored on one or more computer-readable media, comprising;

(1) aggregated transaction account information for a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts held in a plurality of financial institutions, N, in a program, wherein funds from client transaction accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client transaction accounts in the aggregated deposit accounts held in the financial institutions in the program, comprising for respective of the aggregated deposit accounts a respective balance of funds held in the respective aggregated deposit account; and

(2) client transaction account information for each of the respective client transaction accounts comprising;

(a) respective balance of a respective client'"'"'s funds managed in the program;

(b) transaction data for a plurality of the clients; and

(c) a respective balance of client'"'"'s funds held in each of said plurality of the insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts holding funds of the respective client;

a first computation engine configured on the one or more computers that are operably connected to the one or more databases, for computing, for each of a plurality of respective primary client transaction accounts, a respective excess amount by which a balance of funds from that client transaction account managed in the program exceeds a specified amount;

a first allocation engine configured on the one or more computers, for allocating a plurality of the respective excess amounts associated with one of the financial institution, to one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts in one or more other of the financial institutions, with each respective excess amount allocated associated with a different respective primary client transaction account of the one financial institution;

a second computation engine configured on the one or more computers, for determining a first amount comprising a sum of a plurality of the excess amounts determined for a plurality of primary client transaction accounts in the one financial institution that were or are to be allocated to one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts in the one or more of the other financial institutions;

a second allocation engine configured on the one or more computers, for allocating to the one financial institution a second amount of funds comprising funds associated with more than one primary client transaction account of one or more of the other financial institutions from one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts at one or more of the other financial institutions, with the second amount based at least in part on a difference between a sum of the respective one or more balances of funds held in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts of the one financial institution associated with the program and a sum of current balances managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts of the primary clients in the program associated with the one financial institution;

an update engine configured in the one or more computers, for updating or having updated, in the one or more electronic databases, the balance of funds managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts and an amount or respective amounts of such funds held in one or more of the plurality of aggregated deposit accounts in the plurality of financial institutions based on operations of the first and second allocation engines and the second computation engine; and

an instruction generator configured on the one or more computers, for generating one or more amounts to be transferred between aggregated deposit accounts based at least in part on results of one or more of the operations of the first and second allocation engines.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the second amount allocated is approximately equal to the difference between the sum of current balances managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts associated with the one financial institution and funds deposited in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts of the one financial institution.

3. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the second amount allocated is greater than the difference between the sum of current balances managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts associated with the one financial institution and funds deposited in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts of the one financial institution.

4. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the second amount allocated is less than the difference between the sum of current balances managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts associated with the one financial institution and funds deposited in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts of the one financial institution.

5. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a communication component configured on the one or more computers, for receiving via an electronic communication at least one debit or withdrawal transaction from an external system, wherein the external system is for one or more selected from the group consisting of ACH debit transactions, debit and credit card transactions, sweep transactions from financial institutions, check/draft payments, FED wire transfers, transactions originating over the telephone or the internet, for one of the primary clients of the one financial institution who also has funds in one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts in one or more of the other financial institutions; and

the one or more computers configured for issuing at least one instruction to transfer funds in accordance with the at least one transaction; and

the one or more computers configured for reallocating an amount of funds from one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts at the one or more of the other financial institutions to the at least one aggregated deposit account in the one financial institution to maximize funds of the one primary client held in the one financial institution but with the balance of those funds in the one financial institution remaining equal to or less than the specified amount.

6. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a communication component configured on the one or more computers, for receiving via an electronic communication at least one debit or withdrawal transaction from an external system, wherein the external system is one or more selected from the group consisting of ACH debit transactions, debit and credit card transactions sweep transactions from financial institutions, check/draft payments, FED wire transfers, transactions originating over the telephone or the internet, for one of the primary clients of the one financial institution who also has funds in one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts in one or more of the other financial institutions;

the one for more computers configured for selecting one of the aggregated deposit accounts in one of the other financial institutions holding funds of the one client; and

the one or more computers configured for reallocating an amount of funds from the selected aggregated deposit account at the one other financial institution for the at least one transaction to the at least one aggregated deposit account in the one financial institution.

7. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

the one or more computers configured for transferring or having transferred funds between the financial institutions based at least in part on results of one or more of the allocating steps.

8. The system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the second allocation engine on the one or more computers is configured for performing the allocation of the second amount only after the difference equals or exceeds a threshold amount.

9. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a selection engine configured on the one or more computers, for selecting one of the other financial institutions for allocation by the second allocation engine based at least in part on an amount of the difference between a sum of the funds deposited in the one or more aggregated deposit accounts of the one other financial institution associated with the program and a sum of current balances managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts of the primary clients in the program associated with the one other financial institution.

10. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein said specified amount is more than said maximum FDIC insurance coverage minus a predetermined amount but less than or equal to said maximum FDIC insurance coverage.

11. The system as defined in claim 1,

wherein one or more of the electronic databases includes primary client preference and/or exclusion information comprising a primary client'"'"'s one or more preferences and/or one or more exclusions of one or more financial institutions to hold its funds;

and

the one or more computers configured for allocating funds of the respective primary client to one or more of the plurality of aggregated deposit accounts in the plurality of financial institutions in dependence at least in part on the primary client'"'"'s preferences.

12. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising the one or more computers configured for authorizing or rejecting payments requested from at least one client transaction account based, at least in part, on the balance managed in the program from the respective primary client transaction account.

13. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

the one or more computers configured for receiving electronic client transaction data associated with debit and/or credit transactions made by the primary clients against their respective primary client transaction accounts;

the one or more computers configured for determining or having determined or receiving electronically for each of a plurality of the primary client transaction accounts, an updated balance of funds managed in the program from the primary client transaction accounts; and

the one or more computers configured for performing the allocating operation based on the updated balance of funds for the respective primary clients.

14. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

the one or more computers configured for adding new deposits from one of the respective primary clients of one of the financial institutions to one of more of the aggregated deposit accounts in the one financial institution, unless an amount of funds held by the respective primary client in the program in the one financial institution equals or exceeds a specified amount.

15. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a communication component configured on the one or more computers, for receiving via an electronic communication at least one debit or withdrawal transaction from an external system, wherein the external system is for one or more selected from the group consisting of ACH debit transactions, debit and credit card transactions, sweep transactions from financial institutions, check/draft payments, FED wire transfers, transactions originating over the telephone or the internet, for one of the primary clients of the one financial institution who also has funds in one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts in one or more of the other financial institutions; and

the one or more computers configured for issuing at least one instruction to withdraw and/or transfer funds from one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts held in one or more of the financial institutions in accordance with the at least one transaction, with the instruction to be delivered by the one or more selected from the group of by messenger, by mail, by automated teller machine, and requested by telephone and distributed by mail.