Integrated Electronic Disbursement and Cash Flow Management System and Method

A system for managing electronic disbursements transferred from a business client of a financial institution to customers of the business client, the system comprising:

• a disbursement instruction processor receiving a disbursement instruction over a network from a business client system, the disbursement instruction processor processing the instruction to perform steps including;
• analyzing the instruction to extract customer identification information;
• using the customer identification information to determine available payment channels for the customer;
• and
• selecting an electronic payment channel when the available payment channels include an electronic payment channel;
• and
• a client payment manager for disbursing the payment in accordance with the disbursement instruction using the selected payment channel and sending an electronic notification to the customer of the disbursement;
• and
• a disbursement status monitor for monitoring acceptance of the disbursement and for notifying the business client when the disbursement expires without acceptance.

A method for managing electronic disbursements transferred from a business client of a financial institution to customers of the business client, the method comprising:

• receiving a disbursement instruction from a business client system over a network, the disbursement instruction processor processing the instruction to perform steps including;
• analyzing the instruction to extract customer identification information;
• using the customer identification information to determine available payment channels for the customer;
• and
• selecting an electronic channel when the available payment channels include an electronic payment channel;
• and
• disbursing the payment in accordance with the disbursement instruction using the selected channel and sending an electronic notification to the customer of the disbursement;
• and
• monitoring acceptance of the disbursement by the customer and notifying the business client when the disbursement expires without acceptance by the customer.