US 8,527,381 B2Granted

System and method for authorizing third-party transactions for an account at a financial institution on behalf of the account holder

AssigneeBank of America Corporation

InventorsPenny L. Gerstner, Carrie L. Heise, Marilyn C. Kane, Stephen M. Kaufmann, Christopher G. Keller, Kelly Kruse, Gerard H. Poll, Catherine S. Pullen, Faith A. Tucker, Richard G. Tucker, Jr., Vickie M. Van Meir, Deborah M. Winick

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Abstract

System and method for authorizing third-party transactions for an account at a financial institution on behalf of the account holder. A financial institution can collect process, transmit and confirm authorizations to third parties for electronic payments and direct deposits on behalf of its account-holder customer. In at least some embodiments, a method of processing account-holder requests to authorize third-party transactions for an account includes the establishment of a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants such as employers and billers. The financial institution receives account-holder requests to authorize third-party transactions. Specific requests from among the account-holder requests are matched to third-party participants and forwarded and can be confirmed. The system of the invention can include various engines and data repositories that work together to provide the means for implementing embodiments of the invention.

Claims33

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method of processing account-holder requests to authorize a plurality of recurring third-party transactions for an account at a financial institution on behalf of an account holder, the method comprising:

providing, at the financial institution, a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to participate in a commercial service offering authorization for recurring third-party transactions with the account holder, wherein the prospective third-party participants include solicited businesses and employers, the solicited businesses and employers not currently enrolled in direct debits or automatic drafts for the account holder;
presenting the pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to the account holder so that the account holder can select which third-party participants that will participate in the third-party transactions;
receiving, by a computer, a selection of third-party participants in the form of account-holder requests at the financial institution, to authorize the plurality of recurring third-party transactions, wherein at least one of the selected third-party participants is selected from the pre-existing list;
matching, using a computer, at least one specific account-holder request from among the account-holder requests to at least one specific third-party participant from among the list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request;
forwarding the at least one specific account-holder request to the at least one specific third-party participant on behalf of the account holder;
and
receiving, at the financial institution, at least one participant confirmation from the at least one specific third-party participant, wherein the at least one participant confirmation comprises a confirmation that the at least one specific third-party participant's accounting system has been updated based on the at least one specific account-holder request;
forwarding, from the financial institution, the at least one participant confirmation of the at least one specific request to the account holder, wherein the forwarding is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile, wherein the account-holder profile consists of a company identifier for the third party participants, a company address for third-party participants, contact information for third-party participants, and formatting information for third-party participant transaction requests or returned responses;
and
adding to the account-holder profile the at least one third-party participant associated with the at least one participant confirmation and thereby authorizing third-party recurring transactions involving the at least one third-party participant and the account-holder.

7 more elements

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program embodied therein for enabling a financial institution to authorize recurring third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the computer program further comprising:

instructions for providing, at the financial institution, a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to participate in a commercial service offering authorization for recurring third-party transactions with the account holder, wherein the prospective third-party participants include solicited businesses and employers, the solicited businesses and employers not currently enrolled in direct debits or automatic drafts for the account holder;
instructions for presenting the pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to the account holder to so that the account holder can select which third-party participants that will participate in the third-party transactions;
instructions for receiving a selection of third-party participants in the form of account-holder requests at the financial institution, wherein specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests authorizes specific third-party participants to perform a plurality of the recurring third-party transactions on behalf of the account holder, wherein at least one of the selected third-party participants is selected from the pre-existing list;
instructions for matching the specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants from among the list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request;
instructions for forwarding the specific account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants on behalf of the account holder;
and
instructions for receiving participant confirmations from the specific third-party participants;
instructions for forwarding, from the financial institution, the third-party participant confirmations of the specific request to the account holder, wherein the forwarding is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile, wherein the account-holder profile consists of a company identifier for the third party participants, a company address for third-party participants, contact information for third-party participants, and formatting information for third-party participant transaction requests or returned responses;
and
adding to the account-holder profile the at least one third-party participant associated with the at least one participant confirmation and thereby authorizing third-party recurring transactions involving the at least one third-party participant and the account-holder.

7 more elements

Apparatus to enable a financial institution to authorize recurring third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the apparatus comprising:

a computer processing device executing computer-readable instruction code structured to cause the computer processing device configured to:
provide, at the financial institution, a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to participate in a commercial service offering authorization for recurring third-party transactions with the account holder, wherein the prospective third-party participants include solicited businesses and employers, the solicited businesses and employers not currently enrolled in direct debits or automatic drafts for the account holder;
present the pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to the account holder so that the account holder can select which third-party participants that will participate in the third-party transactions;
receive a selection of third-party participants in the form of account-holder requests at the financial institution, wherein specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests authorizes specific third-party participants to perform a plurality of the recurring third-party transactions on behalf of the account holder, wherein at least one of the selected third-party participants is selected from the pre-existing list;
match the specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants from among the list of prospective third-party participants, wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request;
forward the specific account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants on behalf of the account holder;
and receive third-party participant confirmations from the specific third-party participants;
forward, from the financial institution, the third-party participant confirmations of the specific request to the account holder, wherein the forwarding is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile, wherein the account-holder profile consists of a company identifier for the third party participants, a company address for third-party participants, contact information for third-party participants, and formatting information for third-party participant transaction requests or returned responses;
and
add to the account-holder profile the at least one third-party participant associated with the at least one participant confirmation and thereby authorizing third-party recurring transactions involving the at least one third-party participant and the account-holder.

7 more elements

A system to enable a financial institution to authorize recurring third-party transactions for an account on behalf of an account holder, the system comprising:

a device for providing, at the financial institution, a pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to participate in a commercial service offering authorization for recurring third-party transactions with the account holder, wherein the prospective third-party participants include solicited businesses and employers, the businesses and employers not currently enrolled in direct debits or automatic drafts for the account holder;
a processor configured for presenting the pre-existing list of prospective third-party participants to the account holder so that the account holder can select which third-party participants that will participate in the third-party transactions;
a user interface to receive a selection of third-party participants in the form of account-holder requests, wherein specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests authorizes specific third-party participants to perform a plurality of the recurring third-party transactions on behalf of the account holder, wherein at least one of the selected third-party participants is selected from the pre-existing list;
at least one computer operatively connected to the user interface, the at least one computer to match the specific account-holder requests from among the account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants from among the third-party participants, wherein the account-holder requests comprise at least one direct-deposit request;
a third-party participant interface to forward the specific account-holder requests to the specific third-party participants, the third-party participant interface operatively connected to the at least one computer;
at least one data repository operatively connected to the at least one computer, the at least one date repository further comprising third-party participant profiles;
and
a fulfillment system to:
provide account-holder confirmation of the specific account-holder requests, by forwarding, from the financial institution, the specific third-party participant confirmation of the specific request to the account holder, wherein the forwarding is accomplished in accordance with account-holder communication preferences stored in an account-holder profile, wherein the account-holder profile consists of a company identifier for the third party participants, a company address for third-party participants, contact information for third-party participants, and formatting information for third-party participant transaction requests or returned responses, the fulfillment system operatively connected to the at least one computer;
and
add to the account-holder profile the at least one third-party participant associated with the at least one participant confirmation and thereby authorizing third-party recurring transactions involving the at least one third-party participant and the account-holder.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.