System and Method of Validating a Relationship Between a User and a User Account at a Financial Institution

• US 20100131408A1
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walsh, Sofia, Storey, Gregory Kenneth, Perlman, Jeffrey William
• Granted Patent: US 7,827,108 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• 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 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A system and method for validating a relationship between a user and a user account at a financial institution includes a data communication device, a memory, a processor coupled to the memory, and an account validation module executable by the processor. The account validation module generates a verification identifier for storage in the memory and is provided to the user, and subsequently receives a user initiated financial transaction involving the user account at the financial institution. The received financial transaction includes a comparison identifier supplied by the user. The account validation module determines whether the comparison identifier corresponds to the verification identifier for purposes of validating the relationship between the user and the user account maintained at the financial institution.

Claims

1. A system for a payment service provider to validate a relationship between a user and a user account maintained at a financial institution comprising:

a communication device;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory and communication device; and

an account validation module executable by the processor and adapted to;

store in the memory user account information received from the user,

provide to the user a verification identifier associated with the user account,

receive a user initiated financial transaction involving the user account at the financial institution through the communication device, the received financial transaction being a completed transaction and including a comparison identifier supplied by the user,

determine whether the comparison identifier contained in the received user initiated financial transaction corresponds to the verification identifier,

validating the relationship between the user and the user account maintained at the financial institution if the comparison identifier id determined to correspond to the verification identifier.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the account validation module:

receives, from the user, user account information including first financial institution information concerning the financial institution maintaining the user account;

receives, from the user initiated financial transaction, second financial institution information concerning the financial institution involved in the financial transaction; and

determines whether the first financial institution information matches the second financial institution information as part of the validation of the relationship between the user and the user account maintained at the financial institution.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein each of the first and second financial institution information includes a routing number and an account number.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein each of the first and second financial institution information further includes a routing number, an account number and a name of a financial institution.

5. The system according to claim 2, wherein the account validation module includes a user registration module adapted to:

receive user profile data from the user which includes the user account information; and

create an internal user account for the user with the received user profile data.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the user registration module is further adapted to generate a secure account identifier associated with the internal user account, the secure account identifier being inaccessible to the user.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the financial transaction includes a deposit and the account validation module is adapted to transfer the deposit to the internal user account.

8. A system for a payment service provider to validate a relationship between a user and a user account maintained at a financial institution comprising:

a communication device;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory and the communication device; and

an account validation module executable by the processor and adapted to store in the memory user profile data received from the user and containing an account identifier of the user account and provide a verification identifier to the user, the account validation module further adapted to receive a user initiated financial transaction involving the user account at the financial institution through the communication device, the received financial transaction being a completed transaction and including a comparison identifier supplied by the user and a source account identifier, and validate the relationship between the user and the user account maintained at the financial institution if the received comparison identifier corresponds to the verification identifier and the received source account identifier corresponds to the account identifier contained in the stored user profile data.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the account validation module requests the user to initiate the financial transaction at the financial institution with the verification identifier.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein after receiving the user initiated financial transaction, the account validation module:

retrieves the account identifier contained in the stored user profile data; and

determines whether the retrieved account identifier matches the source account identifier contained in the user initiated financial transaction.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein each of the account identifier in the stored user profile data and the source account identifier includes a routing number and an account number.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the account identifier in the stored user profile data further includes a name of a financial institution.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the verification identifier includes an alphanumeric string.

14. The system according to claim 8, wherein the account validation module is adapted to create an internal user account associated with the user profile data.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the account validation module is adapted to generate a secure reference identifier associated with the internal user account, the secure reference identifier being inaccessible to the user.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the financial transaction includes a deposit and the account validation module is adapted to transfer the deposit to the internal user account.

17. A method of validating a relationship between a user and a user account maintained at a financial institution comprising:

generating and storing in a memory a verification identifier;

providing the stored verification identifier to a user;

receiving a user initiated financial transaction involving the user account at the financial institution, the received financial transaction being a completed transaction and including a comparison identifier supplied by the user;

retrieving from the memory the stored verification identifier by a processor;

determining by the processor whether the received comparison identifier corresponds to the retrieved verification identifier provided to the user for purposes of validating the relationship between the user and the user account maintained at the financial institution.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein:

before the step of providing the stored verification identifier to a user, the method further comprises receiving, from the user, user account information including first financial institution information concerning the financial institution maintaining the user account;

the received financial transaction includes second financial institution information concerning the financial institution involved in the financial transaction; and

the method further comprises determining by the processor whether the first financial institution information matches the second financial institution information.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein each of the first and second financial institution information includes a routing number and an account number.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein each of the first and second financial institution information further includes a name of a financial institution.

21. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

receiving user profile data from the user, the user profile data including the user account information; and

creating an internal user account for the user associated with the user profile data.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

under the control of the processor, generating a secure account identifier for the internal user account; and

associating the secure account identifier with the user profile data;

wherein the secure account identifier is inaccessible to the user.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein the financial transaction includes a deposit and the method further comprises transferring the deposit to the internal user account.