Release of funds based on criteria

• US 8,706,618 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Chong, Joseph, Tien, Alan, Yu, Kevin John
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, STEVEN S
• Application Number:
  US11/238,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20070073618A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,127 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/26.35, 705 37- 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 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A method and system to transfer payment to a seller of a network-based commerce transaction are described herein. The method includes generating a risk model based on seller-specific criteria, and releasing funds from a holding account to the seller based on the risk model.

Claims

1. A computer-system to transfer payment to a seller of a commerce transaction, the computer-system comprising:

one or more servers including;

one or more processors;

one or more memory devices storing computer executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

retrieving data specific to the seller;

generating a risk model based on the retrieved seller-specific data;

determining a plurality of stages over a period of time based on the generated risk model;

determining based on the generated risk model variable amounts to be released from a holding account during the determined plurality of stages;

releasing a portion of funds from the holding account to the seller based on determined variable amounts and the plurality of stages over the period of time; and

dynamically updating the variable amounts and releasing remaining funds from the holding account to the seller, the dynamically updating and releasing comprising;

monitoring for further commerce transactions of the seller and determining a velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller;

determining updated variable amounts to be released from the holding account during the plurality of stages based on the generated risk model, the determined velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller, and amount of funds in the holding account; and

releasing the remaining funds from the holding account to the seller based on the updated variable amounts during the plurality of stages.

2. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the releasing of the portion of funds is further based on buyer-specific data and transaction-specific data.

3. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the holding account includes an escrow account.

4. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the releasing of the portion of funds is independent of buyer approval.

5. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the seller-specific data includes a security proxy including one or more of a collateral associated with the holding account from the seller, a social security number of the seller, a financial services provider account number of the seller, and a cash deposit.

6. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the seller-specific data further includes one or more of a feedback number associated with a commerce system, a complaint rate, a seller transaction history, and a tenure time associated with the commerce system.

7. The computer-system of claim 1 wherein the period of time is dynamically changed.

8. A computer-implemented method to transfer payment to a seller of a commerce transaction, the computer-implemented method comprising:

retrieving data specific to the seller;

generating, by one or more processors, a risk model based on the retrieve seller-specific data;

determining, by the one or more processors, a plurality of stages over a period of time based on the generated risk model;

determining, by the one or more processors, based on the generated risk model, variable amounts to be released from a holding account during the determined plurality of stages;

releasing a portion of funds from the holding account to the seller based on the determined variable amounts and the plurality of stages over the period of time; and

dynamically updating, by the one or more processors, the variable amounts and releasing remaining funds from the holding account to the seller, the dynamically updating and releasing comprising;

monitoring for further commerce transactions of the seller and determining a velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller;

determining updated variable amounts to be released from the holding account during the plurality of stages based on the generated risk model, the determined velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller, and amount of funds in the holding account; and

releasing the remaining funds from the holding account to the seller based on the updated variable amounts during the plurality of stages.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the releasing of the portion of funds is further based on buyer-specific data and transaction-specific data.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the holding account comprises an escrow account.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the releasing of the portion of funds is independent of buyer approval.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the seller-specific data includes a security proxy including one or more of a collateral associated with the holding account from the seller, a social security number of the seller, a financial services provider account number of the seller, and a cash deposit.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the seller-specific data further includes one or more of a feedback number associated with a commerce system, a complaint rate, a seller transaction history, and a tenure time associated with the commerce system.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

retrieving data specific to the seller;

generating a risk model based on the retrieve seller-specific data;

determining a plurality of stages over a period of time based on the generated risk model;

determining based on the generated risk model, variable amounts to be released from a holding account during the determined plurality of stages;

releasing a portion of funds from the holding account to the seller based on the determined variable amounts and the plurality of stages over the period of time; and

dynamically updating the variable amounts and releasing remaining funds from the holding account to the seller, the dynamically updating and releasing comprising;

monitoring for further commerce transactions of the seller and determining a velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller;

determining updated variable amounts to be released from the holding account during the plurality of stages based on the generated risk model, the determined velocity of the further commerce transactions of the seller, and amount of funds in the holding account; and

releasing the remaining funds from the holding account to the seller based on the updated variable amounts during the plurality of stages.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the seller-specific data includes a security proxy including one or more of a collateral associated with the holding account from the seller, a social security number of the seller, a financial services provider account number of the seller, and a cash deposit.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the seller-specific data further includes one or more of a feedback number associated with a commerce system, a complaint rate, a seller transaction history, and a tenure time associated with the commerce system.