System and method for investing public deposits

• US 8,359,267 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2011
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Inventors: Bent, Bruce, Bent, Bruce II, Bent, Arthur T. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US13/248,647
• Time in Patent Office: 481 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39, 705/35, 705/37
• 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 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A method, system and program product for operating an exchange method for municipal and/or state funds from banking institutions, comprising: accessing, one or more electronic databases holding data on client transaction accounts and funds in aggregated accounts and banking institutions holding Federal government securities; obtaining transaction data; generating instructions to deposit/transfer funds to or withdraw/transfer funds; receiving data for a first deposit from a first one of the banking institutions, where the first deposit comprises municipal funds and/or state funds; selecting, at least another of the banking institutions holding government securities to receive at least a portion of the first deposit of municipal funds and/or state funds; selecting, a plurality of client transaction accounts from one or more of the other banking institutions for the transfer of funds to the first banking institution; generating instructions to deposit/transfer funds.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

(A) accessing, using one or more computers, one or more electronic databases, stored on one or more computers-readable media, the one or more databases comprising;

(1) aggregated account information for a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts held in a plurality of financial institutions participating in a program, wherein the plurality of financial institutions include one or more money center financial institutions that hold respective inventories of government securities eligible as collateral, wherein funds from client accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client accounts in the aggregated deposit accounts held in the financial institutions, with the aggregated deposit accounts providing non-penalized liquidity for the funds held therein, the aggregated account information for the respective aggregated deposit accounts comprising;

a balance of funds held in the respective aggregated deposit account; and

for each transfer to the program a listing of a source and an amount of the transfer of FDIC-insured funds;

(2) client account information for funds, for each of a plurality of respective client accounts, held in one or more of the plurality of the financial institutions, comprising a respective balance of funds of the respective client account held in each of one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts holding funds of the respective client account;

(B) obtaining into the one or more computers, transfer data comprising an amount of governmental funds of one or more of the client accounts sourced for the program from a first one of the financial institutions;

(C) allocating at least a portion of the amount of governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution, using the one or more computers, to a first set of one or more of the money center financial institutions other than the first financial institution, comprising selecting one or more of the money center financial institutions for the first set based at least in part on receiving accessing the data listing the source and the amount of the transfer of FDIC-insured funds which data is held in the one or more databases for the respective transfers to the program and determining that funds that are FDIC-insured have been received for the program from the respective money center financial institution;

(D) allocating, using the one or more computers, to the first financial institution for the one or more aggregated deposit accounts held therein, an amount of funds that is FDIC-insured from a second set of one or more of the financial institutions other than the first financial institution and which one or more of the financial institutions in the second set may include one or more of the money center financial institutions, so that an amount of funds sourced from the second set of the financial institutions and held in the first financial institution is approximately equal to or greater than the amount of the governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution;

(E) generating and communicating data comprising one or more amounts for one or more instructions, using the one or more computers and a network communication link, to transfer funds between or among two or more of the financial institutions based at least in part on the transfers to and/or from the respective one of more of the financial institutions set forth in the allocating steps; and

(F) using the one or more computers to update the one or more databases, comprising updating for respective of the aggregated deposit accounts a balance of respective funds held in the respective aggregated deposit account, updating the data for each of the transfers, and updating the one or more respective balances of funds for one or more of the respective client accounts held in each of one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts holding funds of the respective client account based on the transfers to and/or from the respective one of more of the financial institutions set forth in the allocating steps and the data generated and communicated to transfer funds between or among two or more of the financial institutions.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a total of the funds allocated to the first financial institution comprises a predetermined percentage of the amount sourced from the first financial institution.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising allocating, using the one or more computers, respective amounts from respective client accounts held in the second set of the financial institutions to the first financial institution to substantially match the amount allocated to the first financial institution in the allocating step (D),

wherein respective amounts from the respective client accounts allocated to the first financial institution are less than or equal to a maximum amount eligible for federal deposit insurance.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising allocating, using the one or more computers, respective amounts from respective client accounts held in the second set of the financial institutions to the first financial institution to substantially match the amount allocated to the first financial institution in the allocating step (D),

wherein only client accounts with respective balances less than or equal to a predefined threshold amount are allocated.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising allocating, using the one or more computers, respective amounts from respective client accounts held in the second set of the financial institutions to the first financial institution to substantially match the amount allocated to the first financial institution in the allocating step (D),

wherein client accounts with respective balances greater than a predefined threshold amount are allocated.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising allocating respective balances of the respective client accounts among the financial institutions to substantially match the amounts allocated in allocating steps (C) and (D).

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the governmental funds are from one or more accounts of one or more public entities.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein one or more of the financial institutions is a credit union.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein one or more of the financial institutions is a bank.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of the claim are performed by an intermediary.

11. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein one or more of the financial institutions in the first set of money center financial institutions are different from one or more of the financial institutions in the second set of the financial institutions.

12. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein one or more of the financial institutions in the first set of money center financial institutions overlap with one or more of the financial institutions in the second set of the financial institutions.

13. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the step (D) of allocating an amount of funds that is FDIC-insured from the second set of one or more financial institutions comprises selecting one or more of the financial institutions for the second set based at least in part on one or more first criteria.

14. The method as defined in claim 13, wherein one of the first criteria for selecting the one or more for the second set of one or more financial institutions is based at least in part on an amount of funds the respective financial institution can transfer without restriction.

15. The method as defined in claim 13, wherein one of the first criteria for selecting one or more for the second set of financial institutions is based at least in part on a maximum level of funds in the program to be held at the respective financial institution.

16. The method as defined in claim 13, wherein one of the first criteria for selecting one or more for the second set of financial institutions is based at least in part on a minimum level of funds in the program to be held at the respective financial institution.

17. The method as defined in claim 13, wherein one of the first criteria for selecting one or more of the second set of financial institutions is to maintain for at least one of the financial institutions a partial or complete reciprocity between sourced funds from the respective one financial institution and funds allocated to the respective one financial institution.

18. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the allocating to the first financial institution step comprises allocating one or more amounts from the second set of financial institutions to the first financial institution so that a total of amounts allocated to the first financial institution from the second set of the financial institutions is greater than the total of amounts of the governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution.

19. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the allocating to the first financial institution step comprises allocating one or more amounts from the second set of financial institutions to the first financial institution so that a total of amounts allocated to the first financial institution from the second set of the financial institutions is substantially equal to the total of amounts of the governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution.

20. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions to transfer funds between or among one or more of the financial institutions in the generating and communicating data step permit an unlimited number of withdrawals in a month from a limited number of the financial institutions.

21. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, from a communication link and the one or more computers, for each of multiple client accounts, data for deposits/transfers to and/or withdrawals/transfers from respective client accounts, said data comprising transaction data for one or more deposits/transfers for the respective client account and/or data for one or more withdrawals/transfers from the respective client account, and/or a net thereof;

allocating, using the one or more computers, the clients'"'"' deposits/transfers and/or withdrawals/transfers and/or nets thereof to one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts;

obtaining a respective net amount, using the one or more computers, for each of multiple of the respective aggregated deposit accounts, the respective net amount comprising the client deposits/transfers to and/or withdrawals/transfers from the client accounts allocated to the respective aggregated deposit account, on a regular basis.

22. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the generating and communicating data for one or more instructions step to transfer funds causes at least one aggregated deposit account to have more than six withdrawals/transfers in a month.

23. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the financial institutions in the first set of one or more money center financial institutions are the same as the financial institutions in the second set of the financial institutions.

24. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein one or more of the financial institutions in the first set of money center financial institutions are different from one or more of the second set of the financial institutions.

25. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein one or more of the financial institutions in the first set of money center financial institutions overlap with one or more of the financial institutions in the second set of the financial institutions.

26. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the allocating step (C) comprises allocating at least a portion of the amount of governmental funds to one or more of the money center financial institutions that hold respective inventories of government securities and using this inventory of government securities to collateralize at least a portion of the governmental funds.

27. A system, comprising:

one or more computers comprising memory wherein the memory stores computer-readable instructions comprising program code that, when executed, cause the one or more computers to perform the steps;

(A) accessing, using the one or more computers, one or more electronic databases, stored on one or more computers-readable media, the one or more databases comprising;

(1) aggregated account information for a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts held in a plurality of financial institutions participating in a program, wherein the plurality of financial institutions include one or more money center financial institutions that hold respective inventories of government securities eligible as collateral, wherein funds from client accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client accounts in the aggregated deposit accounts held in the financial institutions, with the aggregated deposit accounts providing non-penalized liquidity for the funds held therein, the aggregated account information for the respective aggregated deposit accounts comprising;

a balance of funds held in the respective aggregated deposit account; and

for each transfer to the program a listing of a source and an amount of the transfer of FDIC-insured funds;

(2) client account information for funds, for each of a plurality of respective client accounts, held in one or more of the plurality of the financial institutions, comprising a respective balance of funds of the respective client account held in each of one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts holding funds of the respective client account;

(B) obtaining into the one or more computers, transfer data comprising an amount of governmental funds of one or more of the client accounts sourced for the program from a first one of the financial institutions;

(C) allocating, using the one or more computers, at least a portion of the amount of governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution, using the one or more computers, to a first set of one or more of the money center financial institutions other than the first financial institution, comprising selecting one or more of the money center financial institutions for the first set based at least in part on accessing the data listing the source and the amount of the transfer of FDIC-insured funds which data is held in the one or more databases for the respective transfers to the program and determining that funds that are FDIC-insured have been received for the program from the respective money center financial institution

(D) allocating, using the one or more computers, to the first financial institution for the one or more aggregated deposit accounts held therein, an amount of funds that is FDIC-insured from a second set of one or more of the financial institutions other than the first financial institution and which one or more of the financial institutions in the second set may include one or more of the money center financial institutions, so that an amount of funds sourced from the second set of the financial institutions and held in the first financial institution is approximately equal to or greater than the amount of the governmental funds sourced from the first financial institution;

(E) generating and communicating, using the one or more computers, data, comprising one or more amounts for one or more instructions, using the one or more computers and a network communication link, to transfer funds between or among two or more of the financial institutions based at least in part on the transfers to and/or from the respective one of more of the financial institutions set forth in the allocating steps; and

(F) using the one or more computers to update the one or more databases, comprising updating for respective of the aggregated deposit accounts a balance of respective funds held in the respective aggregated deposit account, updating the data for each of the transfers, and updating the one or more respective balances of funds for one or more of the respective client accounts held in each of one or more of the aggregated deposit accounts holding funds of the respective client account based on the transfers to and/or from the respective one of more of the financial institutions set forth in the allocating steps and the data generated and communicated to transfer funds between or among two or more of the financial institutions.

28. The system as defined in claim 27, wherein the allocating step (C) comprises allocating at least a portion of the amount of governmental funds to one or more of the money center financial institutions that hold respective inventories of government securities and using this inventory of government securities to collateralize at least a portion of the governmental funds.