Intelligent identification of on-line bank accounts utilized for business purposes

• US 8,341,081 B1
• Filed: 07/27/2011
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Wang, Gang, Mason, Gary S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US13/192,453
• Time in Patent Office: 517 Days
• Field of Search: 705 10- 44, 704/1, 704/4, 704/9, 704/49, 707 1- 10
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Computer-implemented methods, articles of manufacture and systems for identifying an on-line bank account utilized for business purposes. A computer processor receives or determines a name of on-line bank account entered by an account holder. The account name is tokenized or parsed into name segments, which are analyzed using a first or local set of rules that is applied to each individual segment to tag or assign a score to each individual segment, and a second or global set of rules are applied to multiple name segments or groups of segments. Scores generated by application of the first and second rule sets are used to determine whether the customer uses the account identified by the account name for business purposes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying an on-line bank account utilized for business purposes, the method comprising:

a computer receiving or determining a name of an on-line bank account entered by an account holder;

the computer parsing the name into a plurality of name segments;

the computer applying a first set of rules to each of the plurality of name segments individually, and a second set of rules to groups of multiple name segments; and

the computer determining whether the on-line bank account is utilized for business purposes based at least in part upon respective scores generated by applying the first and second sets of rules.

2. The method of claim 1, the on-line bank account being hosted by a financial institution, the computer being a computer of the financial institution.

3. The method of claim 1, the on-line bank account being hosted by a financial institution, the computer receiving the name of the on-line bank account from a financial institution computer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computer receiving or determining a transaction history of the on-line bank account, the computer

parsing the transaction history into a plurality of transaction segments,

applying the first set of rules to each of the plurality of transaction segments individually, and

applying the second set of rules to groups of transaction segments, and

determining whether the on-line bank account is utilized for business purposes based at least in part upon respective results of applying the first and second sets of rules to the name and transaction history of the on-line bank account.

5. The method of claim 1, before applying the first set of rules and the second set of rules, further comprising transforming the name from the name as entered by the account holder into a standardized format by normalizing the name and deleting punctuation from the name.

6. The method of claim 1, applying the first set of rules resulting in assigning respective scores to respective name segments, the computer determining whether the on-line bank account is utilized for business purposes based at least in part upon the respective scores for respective name segments.

7. The method of claim 6, the first set of rules comprising multiple rules that are applied to at least one name segment such that multiple scores are assigned to the at least one name segment.

8. The method of claim 6, the first set of rules comprising multiple rules that are applied to each name segment such that multiple scores are assigned to each name segment.

9. The method of claim 1, at least one rule of the first set of rules specifying a score assigned to a name segment based on a lexical class of the name segment.

10. The method of claim 9, the lexical class being selected from the group consisting of a noun, a verb, an adjective, and an adverb.

11. The method of claim 1, at least one rule of the first set of rules specifying a score assigned to a name segment based at least in part upon one or more of

a tense of the name segment,

whether the name segment is singular or plural, and

whether the name segment is possessive.

12. The method of claim 1, the first set of rules comprising a rule that assigns a score to a name segment based on whether the name segment appears within a dictionary accessed by the computer.

13. The method of claim 1, the first set of rules comprising rule that assigns a score to a name segment based on whether a name segment is included in a business name database.

14. The method of claim 1, applying the second set of rules resulting in assigning respective scores to respective groups of name segments, the computer determining whether the on-line bank account is utilized for business purposes based at least in part upon the respective scores for respective groups of name segments.

15. The method of claim 14, the second set of rules comprising multiple rules that are applied to at least one group of name segments such that multiple scores are assigned to respective groups of name segments.

16. The method of claim 14, the second set of rules comprising multiple rules that are applied to each group of name segments such that multiple scores are assigned to each group of name segments.

17. The method of claim 14, the second set of rules comprising rule that assigns a score to a group of name segments based on whether the group appears within a database comprising phrases of business names or portions of business names.

18. The method of claim 14, the second set of rules comprising a rule that assigns a score to a group of name segments based on a location of a first name segment relative to at least one other name segment in the group.

19. The method of claim 14, the second set of rules comprising a rule that assigns a score to a group of name segments based at least in part upon an n-gram analysis.

20. The method of claim 1 being performed for a plurality of on-line bank accounts hosted by a financial institution.

21. The method of claim 1 being performed for each account of a first plurality of on-line bank accounts hosted by a first financial institution and for each account of a second plurality of on-line accounts hosted by a second financial institution.

22. A computer-implemented method for identifying a business associated with a web feed and providing additional information about the identified business, the method comprising:

a computer receiving the web feed from an on-line source;

the computer parsing the web feed into a plurality of segments;

the computer applying a first set of rules to each of the plurality of segments individually, and a second set of rules to groups of multiple segments;

the computer determining that the web feed is associated with a business based at least in part upon respective scores generated by applying the first and second sets of rules;

the computer accessing a database to determine contact information of the business; and

the computer displaying data of the web feed together with the determined contact information to enrich content displayed to the user of the computer.

23. The method of claim 22, the web feed comprising data of an on-line source selected from the group consisting of a webpage, a social networking site, and a Really Simple Syndication feed.

24. The method of claim 22, the contact information comprising a hyperlink to a website of the identified business.

25. The method of claim 22, the contact information comprising at least one of an address and a phone number of the identified business.

26. The method of claim 22, the contact information comprising a map showing a location of the identified business.

27. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying one or more instructions executable by a computer to perform a process for identifying an on-line bank account that is utilized for business purposes, the process comprising:

receiving or determining a name of an on-line bank account entered by an account holder, parsing the name into a plurality of name segments, applying a first set of rules to each of the plurality of name segments individually and a second set of rules to groups of multiple name segments, and determining whether the on-line bank account is utilized for business purposes based at least in part upon respective scores generated by applying the first and second sets of rules.

28. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying one or more instructions executable by a computer to perform a process for identifying a business associated with a web feed and providing additional information about the identified business, the process comprising:

receiving the web feed from an on-line source, parsing the web feed into a plurality of segments, applying a first set of rules to each of the plurality of segments individually and a second set of rules to groups of multiple segments, determining that the web feed is associated with a business based at least in part upon respective scores generated by applying the first and second sets of rules, accessing a database to determine contact information of the business, and displaying data of the web feed together with the determined contact information to enrich content displayed to the user of the computer.