Method and Apparatus for Collaborative Filtering of Card Member Transactions

An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based ranking system, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

• determining, by the computer-based system, a first value for each pair of,
• (a) a first merchant of a plurality of merchants, and
• (b) each remaining merchant,
• wherein the first value corresponds to a number of account holders having at least one financial transaction with the first merchant and the remaining merchants during a period of time;
• determining, by the computer-based system, a second value for each of the remaining merchants of the plurality of merchants other than the first merchant, the second value corresponding to the number of account holders having at least one financial transaction with each of the remaining merchants during the period of time;
• determining, by the computer-based system, a third value corresponding to a ratio of the first value to the second value;
• determining, by the computer-based system, a fourth value based on the first value, the third value and a weighting factor;
• and
• ranking, by the computer-based system, each remaining merchant based on the fourth value.

A system comprising:

• a tangible, non-transitory memory communicating with a processor for ranking,
• the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• determining, by the processor, a first value for each pair of,
• (a) a first merchant of a plurality of merchants, and
• (b) each remaining merchant,
• wherein the first value corresponds to a number of account holders having at least one financial transaction with the first merchant and the remaining merchants during a period of time;
• determining, by the processor, a second value for each of the remaining merchants of the plurality of merchants other than the first merchant, the second value corresponding to the number of account holders having at least one financial transaction with each of the remaining merchants during the period of time;
• determining, by the processor, a third value corresponding to a ratio of the first value to the second value;
• determining, by the processor, a fourth value based on the first value, the third value and a weighting factor;
• and
• ranking, by the processor, each remaining merchant based on the fourth value.