System and method for facilitating reciprocative small business financial information exchanges

• US 7,536,346 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2001
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Equifax, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Equifax, Inc.
• Inventors: Mir, Nader, Aliffi, Patrick A., Ellison, Barbara Jo, Brewer, Frank D. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fischer; Andrew J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): OBEID, MAMON A
• Application Number:
  US10/021,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20030083893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,759 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38, 705/51
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Systems and methods facilitate information sharing among a plurality of member institutions. Each member is associated with a member number and a corresponding member profile. A member contributes its data relating to small business entities to an exchange repository upon becoming a member, and thereafter on a periodic basis. Each member is eligible to query against the exchange repository. However, a response to a member'"'"'s inquiry is determined by a reciprocity due to the inquiring member. If a member contributes comprehensive information regarding small business entities in its portfolio, then the member receives comprehensive information relating to a small business entity that becomes a subject of its inquiry. If a member contributes minimal information regarding the small business entities in its portfolio, the member receives minimal information relating to a small business entity that becomes a subject of its inquiry, regardless of the amount of information available in the exchange repository. Each business entity regarding which information is stored in the exchange repository is associated with a business entity identifier. A business entity identifier associates a record file for the corresponding small business entity. The record file includes trade data of the small business, data relating to one or more principals of the small business entity, as well as data relating to one or more guarantors of the small business entity, as appropriate.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing information exchanges between at least two members, said at least two members contributing member input information to an exchange repository, comprising:

receiving an input data file from a contributing member, wherein the input data file is received via an electronic communications link, said input data file comprising input content, said input content comprising a plurality of contributed data elements contributed by the contributing member, the plurality of contributed data elements comprising information related to a small business entity and at least one individual associated with the small business entity;

storing the input content in the exchange repository, the exchange repository comprising stored data elements previously received by the exchange repository;

associating the input data file with a business entity identifier, said business entity identifier associating information relating to the small business entity and the at least one individual associated with the small business entity;

creating a member profile for the contributing member, said member profile comprising a statistics file, the statistics file comprising;

statistics based on a content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements; and

statistics based on inquires previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member;

determining a score for the statistics file by comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements and the statistics based on inquiries previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member to a threshold;

determining the contributing member'"'"'s access to the exchange repository to receive a content type and number of the stored data elements in the exchange repository based, at least in part, on the score; and

providing at least one of the stored data elements to the contributing member based on the determined contributing member'"'"'s access.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein associating the input data file with the business entity identifier includes associating information relating to a guarantor of the business entity with the business entity identifier.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising associating the member profile with a member number, said member number identifying information relating to the contributing member.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

generating the statistical file for the contributing member, said statistical file containing statistical data relating to the input content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the statistical file is used to determine data due to the contributing member.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the score for the statistics file by comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements and the statistics based on inquiries previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member to a threshold comprises comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of data elements to the member profile to determine consistency of the type and number of contributed data elements.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

preprocessing the input data file to a standard working input data file; and

editing the standard working input data file.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein creating the member profile for the member contributing the input data file comprises:

an address standardization process; and

a name standardization process.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising an editing process, said editing process checking an area code of a telephone number against a zip code of an address.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising an editing process, said editing process evaluating information contained in a first contributed data element against information contained in another data element.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising a data validating process, said data validating process checking the number of occurrences of an exception condition against a tolerance limit.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the tolerance limit depends on a content provided in a previous input data file of the contributing member.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the tolerance limit depends on the contributing member'"'"'s business rule.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising a data validating process, said data validating process checking information in a contributed data element against a stored data element provided in a previous input file associated with the contributing member.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein a history file stores information relating to the contributing member'"'"'s previous input information.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the input data file from a contributing member comprises receiving the input data file comprising a trailer record to facilitate a verification of an input data contribution process.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

generating a skip and locate report based on the exchange repository content and in response to a trigger.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

producing a trail record file for facilitating a trace of changes to the exchange repository.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

keeping track of changes to the exchange repository.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

keeping track of updates to the information stored in the exchange repository.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

producing a member report keeping track of a count relating to the input content, said count being used to determine data due to the contributing member.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the member profile keeps said score for the contributing member, said score being used to automatically restrict an access to the exchange repository by the contributing member.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

deleting member input trade information contributed by a leaving member, said leaving member being one of the at least two members who decides to end its membership to a small business financial exchange comprising the exchange repository.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

purging periodically a set of information stored in the exchange repository.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

modifying information relating to a business entity in view of a result from a disclosure and dispute procedure.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, comprising:

associating a portion of information stored in the exchange repository with a new member number.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the statistics file on a periodic basis.

34. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information relating to the small business entity and at least one individual associated with the small business entity comprises data on trade accounts.

35. The computer-implemented method of claim 34, wherein the data on trade accounts comprises at least one of:

account type;

dollar amounts;

date of trade account;

Small Business Administration loans;

payment history;

or

prior address.

27. A computer-implemented method for providing information exchanges between at least two members, said at least two members contributing member input information to an exchange repository, comprising:

receiving an input data file from a contributing member, wherein the input data file is received via an electronic communications link, said input data file comprising input content, said input content comprising a plurality of contributed data elements contributed by the contributing member, the plurality of contributed data elements comprising information related to a small business entity and at least one individual associated with the small business entity;

storing the input content in the exchange repository, the exchange repository comprising stored data elements previously received by the exchange repository;

associating the input data file with a business entity identifier, said business entity identifier associating information relating to the small business entity and the at least one individual associated with the business entity;

generating a statistical file based on the input content, said statistical file comprising;

statistics based on a content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements; and

statistics based on inquires previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member;

determining a score for the statistics by comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements and the statistics based on inquiries previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member to a threshold;

determining the contributing member'"'"'s access to the exchange repository to receive a content type and number of the stored data elements in the exchange repository based, at least in part, on the score; and

providing at least one of the stored data elements to the contributing member based on the determined contributing member'"'"'s access.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein associating the input data file with the business entity identifier includes associating information relating to a guarantor of the business entity with the business entity identifier.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein determining the score for the statistics by comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of contributed data elements and the statistics based on inquiries previously received from the contributing member and responses previously provided to the contributing member to the threshold comprises comparing the statistics based on the content type and number of the plurality of data elements to a member profile to determine consistency of the type and number of contributed data elements.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, comprising:

updating a member profile associated with the contributing member in view of the statistical file.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein associating the input data file with the business entity identifier comprises associating information relating to trade data of the business entity and at least one inquiry issued by at least one of the at least two members.

33. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein generating the statistical file based on the input content comprises generating the statistical file on a periodic basis.

36. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the information relating to the small business entity and at least one individual associated with the small business entity comprises a risk assessment.