Business to contact linkage system

• US 8,639,616 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 01/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Information Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Experian Information Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Rolenaitis, Joni, Duckworth, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B
• Application Number:
  US13/250,851
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Systems and methods for capturing and maintaining business to contact links, where the links comprise a persistent and enduring association between business entities and individuals.

Claims

1. A method comprising

receiving, from a credit-extending entity, a request for information regarding business associations of an individual;

determining a unique personal identification number of the individual;

providing a data structure having a plurality of personal identification numbers and associations between respective personal identification numbers and businesses,

locating, by a computing system having one or more hardware processors, occurrences of the personal identification number in the data structure;

for each occurrence of the personal identification number, extracting, by the computing system, business information regarding the business associated with the personal identification number;

determining, by the computing system, a confidence score for each business associated with the personal identification number, wherein each confidence score is determined based on identities of one or more sources of the business information, a reliability associated with each of the one or more sources, or a quantity of the one or more sources, the business information including information indicating relationship between the individual and the business, the confidence scores indicating respective levels of confidence that the individual was and/or is a principal of businesses;

determining, by the computing system, one or more of the businesses associated with the personal identification number having confidence scores above a threshold; and

generating a user interface including business information regarding the determined one or more businesses, the user interface including indicators of the confidence scores for respective of the one or more businesses; and

providing the user interface to the credit-extending entity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from a requesting entity for information regarding B2C links and generating a report for the requesting entity related to the B2C links.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the business associations of the individual is relevant to a determination of whether to extend credit to the individual and/or one or more associated businesses.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the business information regarding the determined one or more businesses comprises one or more of a consumer credit report of the individual or one or more business scores associated with respective businesses associated with the individual.

5. A method for linking individuals to business entities having the individual as a common business owner, the method comprising:

gathering records regarding individuals from a variety of consumer information sources, wherein a record associated with an individual is identified by a personal identification number (PIN);

gathering records regarding businesses from a variety of business information sources, wherein a record associated with a business is identified by an owner and a business identification number (BIN);

establishing links between records of the individual identified by the PIN and a record of at least one business associated with a BIN based on data from one or more of a variety of sources;

evaluating, by a computing system having one or more processors, a quality associated with each link, wherein evaluating the quality comprises;

for each of the variety of sources;

determining a partial link score indicating a confidence level that the individual has had a fiduciary duty to the business, wherein the partial link score is determined based on at least one of;

identities of one or more of the variety of sources, a reliability associated with each of the one or more of the variety of sources, or a quantity of the one or more of the variety of sources; and

determining an overall link score based on the partial link scores for the variety of sources, the overall link score indicating an overall confidence level that the individual has had a fiduciary duty to the business.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising reconciling duplicate records associated by a common BIN.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein reconciling duplicate records comprises flagging one or more of the duplicate records.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein establishing possible links comprises matching the PIN with the owner identified in the business record.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein determining a partial link score is based on a type of the link source.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a type of the link source includes at least one of:

corporate record filings data structure, fictitious business name filings data structure, business license filings data structure, UCC filings data structure, judgments data structure, tax liens data structure, bankruptcies data structure, sales tax filings data structure.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein determining a partial link score is based on freshness of information from the link source.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the consumer information sources include at least one of a consumer credit data structure and a consumer marketing data structure.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the business information sources include at least one of:

corporate record filings data structure, fictitious business name filings data structure, business license filings data structure, UCC filings data structure, judgments data structure, tax liens data structure, bankruptcies data structure, sales tax filings data structure.

14. A computing system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

one or more computer storage devices configured to store instructions that are executable by the one or more computer processors, the instructions including at least;

a consumer data structure comprising a plurality of individual records, wherein the individual records comprise a personal identifying field;

a business data structure comprising a plurality of business records, wherein the business records comprise an owner identity, and a business identifying field;

a multiple-business filter configured to access the business data structure and select a subset of the plurality of business records, wherein the subset comprises business records having the owner identity associated with the personal identifying field of an individual record, wherein at least one association between the owner identity and the personal identifying field is a historical association;

a business to individual link module configured to establish a link between the subset of plurality of business records and the individual record;

a link quality module configured to evaluate the quality of the link established by the business to individual link module, wherein the quality of the link is evaluated based on one or more of identities of one or more sources indicating the link, a reliability associated with each of the one or more of sources, or a quantity of the one or more sources.

15. The computing system of claim 14, the instructions further including a multiple-business owner link data structure configured to store the subset identified by the multiple-business filter.

16. The computing system of claim 14, the instructions further including a false-positive filter configured to access the subset and identify multiple-business owner records, wherein the multiple-business owner records are identified based at least in part on the business identifying field.

17. The computing system of claim 14, the instructions further including a link quality module configured to evaluate the quality of the link established by the business to individual link module.

18. The computing system of claim 17, the instructions further including a client interfacing module configured to receive a request from a requesting entity for information regarding business to individual links and generating a report for the requesting entity related to the business to individual links.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the report comprises an indication of the quality of each link.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium which stores executable instructions configured for execution by a computing system having one or more computer processors in order to:

access records regarding individuals from a variety of consumer information sources, wherein a record associated with an individual is identified by a personal identification number (PIN);

access records regarding businesses from a variety of business information sources, wherein a record associated with a business is identified by an owner and a business identification number (BIN);

establish links between a record of an individual identified by a PIN and a record of at least one business associated with a BIN based on a determination that an owner associated with the at least one business is the same as the individual identified;

evaluate a quality associated with each link by, for each link;

determining a source for the link;

determining a partial link score indicating a confidence level that the individual has had a fiduciary duty to the business, wherein the partial link score is determined based on at least identities of one or more of the variety of sources, a reliability associated with each of the one or more of the variety of sources, or a quantity of the one or more of the variety of sources; and

determining an overall link score based on the partial link scores for the established links, the overall link score indicating an overall confidence level that the individual has had a fiduciary duty to the business.