Method and system for providing buyer bank payable discounting aggregation services

• US 8,566,231 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reid, William, Swackhammer, Craig, Lynch, Kerry, Lau, Johnson
• Primary Examiner(s): AMELUNXEN, BARBARA J
• Application Number:
  US11/131,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20050283432A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,080 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/35, 705/37, 705/39, 705/40, 705/42, 705/38, 705/44, 235/379
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A system for conducting commercial transactions between buyers and sellers is disclosed. The system includes a transaction processing system for facilitating payment for transactions between buyers and the sellers. In addition to the buyer and the seller, the transaction processing system also interacts with issuers and acquirers. The transaction processing system monitors and manages payment information relating to transactions conducted between buyers and sellers. Using such information, the transaction processing system further offers a number of additional financing services including, for example, buyer payment assurance, buyer bank payment assurance, buyer bank payable discounting, buyer bank payable discount aggregation, seller/receivable financing and seller bank receivable discount aggregation.

Claims

1. A system comprising a server and a computer readable medium stored on the server, wherein the server executes:

control logic on the computer readable medium for monitoring a plurality of transactions between a buyer and a seller, wherein for each transaction in the plurality of transactions, a payment is owed by the buyer to the seller;

control logic on the computer readable medium for allowing a buyer bank to offer buyer bank payable discounting aggregation (BBPDA) to the seller using information collected from monitoring the plurality of transactions;

wherein the buyer bank handles processing of payables for the plurality of transactions on behalf of the buyer;

wherein the control logic configured to allow the buyer bank to offer buyer bank payable discounting aggregation (BBPDA) to the seller further comprises

control logic on the computer readable medium for building a tranche based on a set of criteria specified by the buyer bank, wherein the tranche is associated with one or more payables corresponding to one or more of the plurality of transactions, wherein at least one of the one or more payables is unsecured; and

control logic on the computer readable medium for presenting the tranche as a line of credit to the seller, and wherein the system further comprises

control logic on the computer readable medium for informing the buyer bank once the tranche has been built according to the set of criteria.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more payables is secured, wherein the one or more secured payables are payables that the buyer bank guarantees that the buyer bank will pay.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for maintaining terms and conditions relating to the line of credit, wherein the terms and conditions relating to the line of credit are provided by the buyer bank; and

control logic on the computer readable medium for presenting the terms and conditions relating to the line of credit to the seller.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the terms and conditions relating to the line of credit are modifiable by the buyer bank.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for monitoring activities incurred with respect to the tranche.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for modifying the tranche in response to the monitored activities.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for allowing the seller to issue a BBPDA request; and

control logic on the computer readable medium for forwarding the BBPDA request to the buyer bank;

wherein the set of criteria specified by the buyer bank is based on the BBPDA request.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for monitoring the one or more payables associated with the tranche to ensure that the set of criteria is satisfied.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the control logic for allowing the buyer bank to specify the set of criteria includes a graphical user interface.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an invoice pre-processor configured to receive a plurality of invoices in an electronic format and generate standard invoice files for the plurality of invoices;

a payment manager coupled to the invoice pre-processor and configured to receive the standard invoices files, wherein the payment manager is further configured to generate payment instructions for the standard invoice files;

a pricing engine coupled to the payment manager, wherein the pricing engine is configured to receive the payment instructions and determine transaction fees associated with the payment instructions, wherein the transaction fees are based on terms and conditions stored in a database coupled to the pricing engine; and

an authorization and settlement interface coupled to the pricing engine and configured to communicate with a data transport and processing network.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the buyer and the seller have multiple transaction accounts from which the payment can be debited or credited.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium for sending a payment instruction to the buyer for one or more transactions in the plurality of transactions; and

control logic on the computer readable medium for receiving an approval of the payment instruction and a request from the buyer for buyer assurance from a buyer bank for the one or more transactions in the plurality of transactions.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the approval of the payment instruction can be supplied by a third party system on behalf of the buyer.

14. A system for providing payable discounting aggregation services in connection with a plurality of buyers, a plurality of sellers, a plurality of buyer banks handling payable processing for the plurality of buyers, and a plurality of seller banks handling receivable processing for the plurality of sellers, comprising:

means for monitoring a plurality of transactions conducted between the plurality of buyers and the plurality of sellers;

means for allowing one or more buyer banks to offer buyer bank payable discounting aggregation (BBPDA) to one or more of the plurality of sellers respectively using information collected from monitoring the plurality of transactions;

means for building one or more tranches based respectively on sets of criteria specified by the one or more buyer banks, wherein each tranche is associated with a buyer bank and includes one or more payables corresponding to one or more of the plurality of transactions, the one or more payables being handled by the associated buyer bank, wherein at least one of the one or more payables is unsecured;

means for presenting the one or more tranches respectively to the one or more of the plurality of sellers as lines of credit; and

means for monitoring the payables in the tranche to ensure that a set of criteria associated with that tranche is satisfied and informing the one or more buyer banks when the set of criteria of the tranche is satisfied.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one of the one or more payables is secured, wherein the one or more secured payables are payables that the buyer bank guarantees that the buyer bank will pay.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the system further comprises:

means for maintaining terms and conditions relating to the lines of credit, wherein the terms and conditions relating to the lines of credit are provided respectively by the one or more buyer banks; and

means for presenting the terms and conditions relating to the lines of credit respectively to the one or more of the plurality of sellers.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the terms and conditions relating to the lines of credit are modifiable by the one or more buyer banks.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the system further comprises:

means for monitoring activities incurred with respect to the one or more tranches; and

means for modifying the one or more tranches in response to the monitored activities.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the system further comprises:

means for allowing one or more of the plurality of sellers to issue BBPDA requests; and

means for forwarding the BBPDA requests respectively to one or more buyer banks;

wherein the sets of criteria specified by the one or more buyer banks are based respectively on the BBPDA requests.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the system further comprises:

means for identifying the one or more buyer banks to which the BBPDA requests are to be forwarded.

21. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

an invoice pre-processor configured to receive a plurality of invoices in an electronic format and generate standard invoice files for the plurality of invoices;

a payment manager coupled to the invoice pre-processor and configured to receive the standard invoices files, wherein the payment manager is further configured to generate payment instructions for the standard invoice files;

a pricing engine coupled to the payment manager, wherein the pricing engine is configured to receive the payment instructions and determine transaction fees associated with the payment instructions, wherein the transaction fees are based on terms and conditions stored in a database coupled to the pricing engine; and

an authorization and settlement interface coupled to the pricing engine and configured to communicate with a data transport and processing network.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of buyers and the plurality of sellers have multiple transaction accounts from which a payment can be debited or credited.

23. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for sending a payment instruction to the plurality of buyer for one or more transactions in the plurality of transactions; and

means for receiving an approval of the payment instruction and a request from the plurality of buyers for buyer assurance from a buyer bank for the one or more transactions in the plurality of transactions.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the approval of the payment instruction can be supplied by a third party system on behalf of the plurality of buyers.

25. A transaction processing system comprising:

control logic on a computer readable medium configured to collect payable information relating to a plurality of transactions between a plurality of buyers and a plurality of sellers, wherein the payable information includes information relating to payables due to be paid out by a plurality of buyer banks to the plurality of sellers on behalf of the plurality of buyers;

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to allow the plurality of buyer banks to utilize the collected payable information to offer buyer bank payable discounting aggregation (BBPDA) to the plurality of sellers respectively;

control logic on the computer readable medium configured for receiving a BBPDA request from a seller in the plurality of sellers;

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to identify one or more buyer banks that can potentially fulfill the BBPDA request, wherein the one or more buyer banks are in charge of making payments on one or more transactions respectively on behalf of the corresponding buyers to the seller;

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to build one or more tranches based on respective sets of criteria specified by the one or more buyer banks in response to the BBPDA request;

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to build the one or more tranches using the collected payable information; and

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to allow the one or more buyer banks to respectively present the one or more tranches to the seller as lines of credit.

26. The transaction processing system of claim 25 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to allow the one or more buyer banks to respectively specify terms and conditions associated with the one or more tranches.

27. The transaction processing system of claim 26 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to allow the seller to select one of the one or more tranches for use as a line of credit; and

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to display the terms and conditions associated with the tranche selected by the seller.

28. The transaction processing system of claim 25 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to inform a seller of one or more buyer bank BBPDA offers made respectively by the one or more buyer banks, wherein each buyer bank BBPDA offer includes offering a tranche associated with a corresponding buyer bank as a line of credit; and

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to allow the seller to accept or reject the one or more buyer bank BBPDA offers.

29. The transaction processing system of claim 25 further comprising:

control logic on the computer readable medium configured to monitor activities with respect to a tranche in the one or more tranches to ensure that a set of criteria associated with that tranche is satisfied.

30. The transaction processing system of claim 25 further comprising:

an invoice pre-processor configured to receive a plurality of invoices in an electronic format and generate standard invoice files for the plurality of invoices;

a payment manager coupled to the invoice pre-processor and configured to receive the standard invoices files, wherein the payment manager is further configured to generate payment instructions for the standard invoice files;

a pricing engine coupled to the payment manager, wherein the pricing engine is configured to receive the payment instructions and determine transaction fees associated with the payment instructions, wherein the transaction fees are based on terms and conditions stored in a database coupled to the pricing engine; and

an authorization and settlement interface coupled to the pricing engine and configured to communicate with a data transport and processing network.