# US 10,373,134 B1 · Scrub and match and payee account match > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,373,134 B1 - Document ID: US10373134B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 14/570,427 - Filed: 2014-12-15 - Granted: 2019-08-06 - Earliest claimed: 2014-12-15 - Assignees: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. - Applicants: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. - Inventors: Sabitha Dachepalli; Remo DeLeon; Peter Rozovski - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10373134B1 ## CPC - G06Q 20/108: {Remote banking, e.g. home banking} - G06Q 20/3821: {Electronic credentials} - G06F 16/245: Query processing - G06Q 20/042: {characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque} - G06Q 20/405: {Establishing or using transaction specific rules} - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Systems and methods for processing payment requests via a series of matching operations are described. Rules that compensate for incomplete or inaccurate information are applied to customer requests and stored merchant information to create identifiers, or “tokens.” Tokens can be searched for, compared, and matched with confirmed merchant information, allowing for the identification of merchants known to financial institutions despite erroneous or missing information in the customer request. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A financial institution computing system for processing customer requests, the system comprising: a first processor; a second processor; a database comprising: a plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with a plurality of merchants, including merchant names and remittance addresses, and a plurality of merchant tokens corresponding to the plurality of merchants in the database, the plurality of merchant tokens managed by one of a plurality of database entities comprising a first database entity configured to store merchant data and associated with the first processor and a second database entity configured to store merchant format mask rules and associated with the second processor; a user interface logic comprising machine-executable instructions stored in non-volatile memory, the instructions, when executed by at least one of the first processor and the second processor, directing the computing system to access and exchange, via a remote computing device, data over a network; a merchant matching logic comprising machine-executable instructions stored in non-volatile memory, the instructions, when executed by at least one of the first processor and the second processor, directing the computing system to: receive from a remote computing device a plurality of customer requests through the user interface logic, create a plurality of customer tokens from at least one of the plurality of customer requests by applying one or more rules to the plurality of customer requests based on sets of rules, wherein the at least one of the plurality of customer requests is split into the plurality of customer tokens, and generate a match set N by, for each of the plurality of customer tokens, performing the following operations: for each of the plurality of customer tokens, searching the first database entity, by executing a first set of instructions by the first processor, and the second database entity, by executing a second set of instructions by the second processor, wherein the first database entity is searched for merchant tokens that match at least one of the plurality of customer tokens based on at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the at least one of the plurality of customer requests, and wherein the second database entity is searched for merchant format mask rules matching a format of the one of the plurality of customer tokens; for each of the plurality of customer tokens, collecting corresponding merchant tokens in the database that match the customer tokens; transmitting at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the at least one of the plurality of customer requests to the remote computing device based on the match set N; and a payment processing logic comprising machine-executable instructions stored in non-volatile memory, the instructions, when executed by at least one of the first processor and the second processor, directing the computing system to prepare and cause a paper check or an electronic payment to be issued. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant matching logic is configured to create customer tokens based on the merchant name entered in a customer request from the plurality of customer requests. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant matching logic is configured to create customer tokens based on a merchant address entered in a customer request from the plurality of customer requests. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant matching logic is configured to create customer tokens based on numbers within the merchant information in a customer request from the plurality of customer requests. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant matching logic is configured to create customer tokens based on letters within the merchant information in a customer request from the plurality of customer requests. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant matching logic is further configured to apply the sets of rules to create the customer and merchant tokens until a number of matching merchant tokens is reduced to some maximum number of tokens. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1: wherein the first database entity further includes payees, each payee comprising merchant information for one merchant and a customer's account number with that merchant; the system comprising an account matching logic, the account matching logic comprising machine-executable instructions stored in non-volatile memory, the instructions, when executed by at least one of the first processor and the second processor, directing the computer system to store new payees in the first database entity. ### Claim 8 A computer implemented method of processing customer requests, the method comprising: maintaining, by a merchant matching logic communicatively coupled to a processing system comprising a first processor and a second processor, a database comprising: a plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with a plurality of merchants, including merchant names and remittance addresses, and a plurality of merchant tokens corresponding to the plurality of merchants in the database, the plurality of merchant tokens managed by one of a plurality of database entities comprising a first database entity configured to store merchant data and associated with the first processor and a second database entity configured to store merchant format mask rules and associated with the second processor; receiving, by a remote computing device comprising a user interface logic, a customer request; creating, by the merchant matching logic, a plurality of customer tokens based on the merchant information in the customer request by applying one or more rules to the customer request according to sets of rules wherein the customer request is split into the plurality of customer tokens; generating, by the merchant matching logic, a match set N comprising merchant tokens that match the customer tokens by: for each of the plurality of customer tokens, searching the first database entity, by executing a first set of instructions by the first processor, and the second database entity, by executing a second set of instructions by the second processor, wherein the first database entity is searched for merchant tokens that match at least one of the plurality of customer tokens based on at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the customer request, and wherein the second database entity is searched for merchant format mask rules matching a format of the one of the plurality of customer tokens; for each of the plurality of customer tokens, collecting merchant tokens in the database that match the customer tokens; and transmitting at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the customer request to the remote computing device based on the merchant tokens collected; instructing, by the merchant matching logic, a payment processing logic to issue a paper check or an electronic payment; and preparing and causing, by the payment processing logic, the paper check or the electronic payment to be issued. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the merchant matching logic creates customer tokens based on the merchant name entered in the customer request. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the merchant matching logic creates customer tokens based on a merchant address entered in the customer request. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the merchant matching logic creates customer tokens based on numbers within the merchant information in the customer request. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the merchant matching logic creates customer tokens based on letters within the merchant information in the customer request. ### Claim 13 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising applying, by the merchant matching logic, the sets of rules in creating the customer and merchant tokens until a number of matching merchant tokens is reduced to some maximum number of tokens. ### Claim 14 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising: maintaining, by an account matching logic, the database to include payees, each payee comprising merchant information for one merchant, and a customer's account number with that merchant; and adding, by the account matching logic, a new payee to the database using information in the customer request. ### Claim 15 A non-transitory computer readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied therein that, when executed by at least one processor of a financial institution computing system, cause the financial institution computing system to perform operations to issue payments from customer accounts to identified merchants, the operations comprising: maintain a database comprising: a plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with a plurality of merchants, including merchant names and remittance addresses, and a plurality of merchant tokens corresponding to the plurality of merchants in the database, the plurality of merchant tokens managed by one of a plurality of database entities comprising a first database entity configured to store merchant data and associated with a first processor and a second database entity configured to store merchant format mask rules and associated with a second processor; receive, via a remote computing device, a customer requests through a user interface logic; create customer tokens based on the merchant information in the customer request for each of a plurality of customer tokens, comprising searching the first database entity, by executing a first set of instructions by the first processor, and the second database entity, by executing a second set of instructions by the second processor, wherein the first database entity is searched for merchant tokens that match at least one of the plurality of customer tokens based on at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the customer request, and wherein the second database entity is searched for merchant format mask rules matching a format of the one of the plurality of customer tokens, thereby reducing a match set by eliminating non-matching merchants; for each of the plurality of customer tokens, collect merchant tokens in the database that match the customer tokens; transmit at least one of the plurality of profiles of merchant information associated with the customer request to the remote computing device based on the merchant tokens; and prepare and cause a paper or electronic payment to be issued. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein customer tokens are created based on the merchant name entered in the customer request. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein customer tokens are created based on the merchant address entered in the customer request. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein customer tokens are created based on numbers within the merchant information in the customer request. ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein customer tokens are created based on letters within the merchant information in the customer request. ### Claim 20 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein sets of rules are used to create the customer and merchant tokens until a number of matching merchant tokens is reduced to some maximum number of tokens. ### Claim 21 (depends on 15) The media of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise: maintain the database further including payees, each payee comprising merchant information for one merchant and a customer's account number with that merchant; and add a new payee to the database using information in the customer request. ### Claim 22 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of merchant tokens corresponds to a merchant name. ### Claim 23 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of merchant tokens corresponds to a street address. ### Claim 24 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein, for each of the plurality of customer tokens, the first database entity and the second database entity are searched concurrently.