Abstract:
A process for automatically creating a geographic region-specific financial document pertaining to a financial product in real time such that all clauses present therein are effective. The process includes the steps of providing a computer database including at least one master financial document pertaining to a specific financial product, the master financial document having a plurality of document clauses, each of the clauses containing information associated with a different one of a plurality of geographic regions, selecting the master financial document associated with the specific financial product from the database including the master financial document, providing information regarding a desired one of the plurality of regions and selecting all document clauses pertaining to the specific financial product and to the desired region to be used in the selected master financial document and assembling the clauses into the document to make a completed financial document. The process is performed by software residing on a server that can be accessed over a network, including the Internet. An advantage of the invention is that it creates financial documents, such as financial disclosure documents for financial products, that contain only the clauses needed for the specific document requested; there is no need for attaching alternate clauses to a document or for maintaining an inventory of printed documents pertaining to specific geographic regions.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to document processing systems and, more particularly, to document processing systems for creating and delivering documents pertaining to financial and investment products automatically and in real time.  
           [0002]    The banking industry has undergone a rapid expansion with respect to the kinds of financial products that may be offered by a bank. For example, banks today offer a wide variety of deposit products such as interest bearing checking accounts, checking accounts with automatic overdraft protection, savings accounts and certificates of deposit with varying deposit amounts, interest rates, and maturity terms. Banks also offer a variety of lending products such as signature loans, mortgages, and home equity lines of credit. In addition, Banks offer a wide variety of retirement products such as individual retirement account (“IRA”) programs and other retirement vehicles.  
           [0003]    In addition, regulatory changes have allowed banks to expand their markets to a national scale, so that a bank located in one state or banking district may offer its financial products to customers anywhere else in the country. Such nationwide banking is accomplished both by providing branch banks throughout a wide geographic area and by providing customer access to bank products by means of information networks such as the Internet.  
           [0004]    State and federal banking laws impose requirements on each type of banking product. These requirements necessitate the bank providing a prospective customer with disclosure documents that pertain specifically to the particular financial product the customer wishes to obtain. Moreover, the requirements for a particular disclosure document may vary from product to product as well as from state to state, and in some instances, the disclosure document requirements vary within a state. In some instances, the differences pertain to specific values, such as fees assessed by the bank for a particular product, interest rates, minimum balances that must be maintained and the minimum amount that must be deposited in order to qualify for a product. Furthermore, the required content for documents that are collateral to the providing of banking services, such as privacy policy statements, also varies from one region to another.  
           [0005]    Most banks have dealt with this situation by printing disclosure documents (including privacy policy statements) appropriate for each financial product offered and including the requirements of each governmental district within which such products are offered. Accordingly, the permutation of products and regions has necessitated the creation and maintenance of extensive inventories of disclosure documents by banks in order to provide customers with the appropriate disclosure documentation for a particular product within a particular region. Another solution employed by banks is to provide a printed disclosure document in which certain clauses are marked as being effective only in certain geographic regions, or to provide added clauses that indicate that they supercede and replace clauses appearing earlier in the document.  
           [0006]    In addition to governmental requirements, certain values associated with financial products, such as an assessed (in the case of a lending product) or paid out (in the case of a deposit product or retirement product) interest rate change frequently. Such changes require either that the entire inventory of disclosure documents that pertain to that particular interest rate become obsolete and are disposed of, or the disclosure documents contain blank spaces that are filled in manually by a bank representative at the time of application for the financial product.  
           [0007]    Accordingly, there is a need for a system for creating and maintaining disclosure documents for a variety of financial products that are applicable to a wide variety of geographic regions that does not require the creation and maintenance of a large inventory of printed documents, or the disposal or modification of stored physical documents in response to changes in fees assessed, interest rates, minimum balance requirements or privacy policy statements. There is also a need for a system for creating and maintaining disclosure documents for financial products that allows changes to be made quickly and permanently and that allows such changes to apply to a selected number of disclosure documents.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0008]    The present invention is a system and process for creating financial documents, such as disclosure documents, that are tailored to a specific financial product desired by a customer and to the specific geographic region where the customer is located. The invention creates the financial documents automatically in response to a request and in real time, thereby eliminating the need for maintaining an extensive inventory of printed financial documents. Since the financial documents of the present invention are created electronically, such documents can be transmitted instantaneously to any location, whether it be a bank branch, bank back office operation or a personal computer of a customer.  
           [0009]    In one embodiment of the invention, a process for automatically creating a financial document pertaining to a financial product includes the steps of providing a computer database including at least one master financial document pertaining to a specific financial product, the master financial document having a plurality of components having text clauses therein pertaining to financial information specific to a particular region or regions (i.e., a particular pricing district or districts), each of the clauses may contain tag place holders pertaining to specific financial values, selecting the master financial document associated with a specific financial product from the database including the master financial document, providing information regarding a desired region, and selecting all components pertaining to the specific financial product and to the desired region to be used in the selected master financial document and inserting selected financial values into the clauses at the tag place holders to make a completed financial document. The benefit of the process of this embodiment is that the resultant disclosure document pertains exclusively to a specific financial product provided at a specific region and contains current financial values, such as fees, rates and minimums. Therefore, all of the clauses present in the assembled document are effective and pertain to the product and to that specific region.  
           [0010]    The system of the present invention preferably includes a web server that interfaces with either an intranet client (e.g., bank employee at a bank branch) or an Internet customer by way of a web server and an application server for hosting, for example, a general application web site for the bank. The application server for the general application web site communicates with a second web server that communicates with an application server that houses software for receiving a financial disclosure request and generating a command for a specific master document. A library server communicates with the application server and includes software for receiving a request from the application server software for the specific master document stored in a database. The library server software also communicates with bank legacy system data bases to obtain such specific financial values such as fees, rates and minimum balances.  
           [0011]    Software located at the web server and application server for the general purpose web site, in response to a customer request for a specific product, sends an appropriate command to the second web server. This command includes information pertaining to the specific financial product as well as the region in which the customer resides. This command is received by the second web server, which identifies it as a request for a financial product document, such as a disclosure document, and forwards the command to the application server. The application server software receives the request for the specific financial product and forwards that request to the library server. The library server then returns the master disclosure document, which includes all components pertinent to the requested disclosure document. In addition, the library server retrieves appropriate pricing information for that product.  
           [0012]    The application server software examines each component to determine whether that component is appropriate for insertion in the final version of the financial document. Each component includes a text clause as well as tags identifying such attributes as effective date of that clause, the specific financial product or products to which that clause pertains and the region in which that clause is effective. Accordingly, the application server selects from among all of the components provided to it by the library server as part of the master document only those components that have an effective date range that includes the date specified in the request and only those components that pertain to the specific region where the customer resides. Those components are then assembled into the final financial document and the document is transmitted to the web server for the general purpose web site. In turn, the web server transmits the completed document to the bank customer where the completed document is displayed and printed, if desired. The process for a bank employee is similar to the foregoing, except that the computer used by the bank employee is part of an intranet that communicates directly with the second web server.  
           [0013]    Another advantage of the system of the present invention is that the creation and editing of documents and document clauses can be done electronically. The editing software resides on the authoring workstation and enables an editor to change a component, including the body text of a component, easily using conventional word processing techniques. The system and method of the present invention also enables an editor to create an amendment to a document component that notifies customers of upcoming changes in, for example, rates and fees. Such person logs into the system and his or her name is checked against the approved list of authors. If that individual is on the list, he or she is permitted to retrieve and document components and create amendments. Editing and assembling the edited components is done on the application server.  
           [0014]    In the amendment process, an approved editor first retrieves a working master document that contains a component to be edited, and opens that working master document, which displays all components of that working master document in a window on a computer screen. A working master document is not available for intranet or Internet access. The editor then provides, in a body text field between body tags, the text of the amended clause of the component. Tag placeholders are inserted in the text to indicate placement of financial values such as fees, rates and minimums. The editor then inserts between the effective date tags an effective date by which that text automatically will be included in the relevant document. Additional information, called locators, which includes information such as the type of financial product and pricing or geographic region to which the component pertains, may be added or amended by way of a locators dialog box. The amended component is then forwarded as part of a published draft master document simultaneously to a list of reviewers selected by the author. Each of the reviewers is required to review the edited component and indicate approval. It is only when all of the reviewers have approved of the edited component that that component is stored as a “published approved component” by the editor and thereafter is included in the published approved master document for the financial disclosure document to which it pertains as of its indicated effective date.  
           [0015]    On the other hand, if a reviewer disapproves of the component, that component is returned to the editor with the disapproving reviewer&#39;s comments. The component may be edited in response to the comments and again is forwarded to a selected list of reviewers for approval. This iteration continues until all reviewers approve of the component. Typically, the reviewers may represent various entities in the bank such as product managers, legal, regulatory and marketing.  
           [0016]    Preferably, the master document and components thereof are transmitted and stored in extensible mark up language (“XML”), which can be handled by a wide variety of software. Furthermore, the requests from the client or bank branch are received by the web server in hypertext transfer protocol (“HTTP”) format, which is compatible with XML.  
           [0017]    The benefit of the editing process is that editing a particular component that is used in a number of disclosure documents need only be performed once. Thereafter, all financial disclosure documents that require that particular edited component will be constructed automatically with that edited component upon the effective date of that component. Another advantage of the invention is that, if it is necessary to reconstruct a particular disclosure document that was used on a particular date, the command is given for that particular document on that desired date. The system will than retrieve the master document and all components, then selectively include the text clauses of those components having the desired effective date.  
           [0018]    The master documents for a product grouping consist of those components for a particular financial product that contain text clauses that are the same for every geographic or pricing region, as well as all components that contain text clauses that apply to specific geographic and pricing regions. Components are tagged with locators that indicate the specific geographic or pricing region to which they apply. Certain of the text clauses contain tag place holders for fee, rate or balance values.  
           [0019]    It should be noted that, while the present invention is described with respect to disclosure documents that are required to be transmitted to a customer of a bank who applies for a financial product from that bank, the invention may be employed with other types of documents, such as privacy policy statements, as well as documents that pertain to investment products, such as securities trading and opening investment accounts. Consequently, the term “financial document” as used herein applies to any such documents that may be employed by a financial institution in the course of providing financial, investment and insurance services.  
           [0020]    Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automated system for the creation and editing of disclosure documents and disclosure document clauses. It is also an object of the invention to provide a system that is accessible over networks such as the intranet of a particular financial institution and an external network such as the Internet.  
           [0021]    Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0022]    [0022]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system that incorporates an embodiment of the automated disclosure system of the present invention;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the creation of a disclosure document by the system and process of the present invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting the process for creating and editing a document component of the present invention;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of XML components stored in the XML content database shown in FIG. 1;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of a component having a text clause with associated tags;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 6 is a window showing the structure of an XML document of the present invention;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 7 shows an editing window of an XML master document of the present invention;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 8 shows a locators dialog box pertaining to a component of the master document of FIG. 7;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 9 shows the editing window of FIG. 7 in which locators tags appear in the component and tag place holders appear in the text clause;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 10 shows the editing window of FIG. 7 in which an amendment to a component is being made;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 11 shows the amendment section within the component of the master document of FIG. 7;  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 12 shows a window of the present invention that displays the details of the state of a document;  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 13 shows a window of the present invention that displays a sample electronic request form that sets forth locator and text information; and  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 14 shows a window of the present invention that displays a form setting forth statement text and locator information for a document. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
     System Overview  
       [0036]    The system of the present invention is shown schematically in FIG. 1. In order to provide an available, reliable, scalable and secure document management system, the present invention utilizes a distributed architecture consisting of several tiers. The presentation tier  10  consists of a personal computer  12  that may be located at the home of a bank customer and a terminal  14  that may be located at a bank branch or a back office department. In addition, although not shown in FIG. 1, the presentation tier may include a kiosk with a touch screen, automatic teller machine (“ATM”), personal digital assistant (“PDA”) or other graphical user interface devices that are commonly known.  
         [0037]    The middle or business tier  16  consists of a web server  18  and an application server  20 . A web server  21  receives document requests from the personal computer  12  over the Internet  22  and through the standard firewall  24  of the bank. Web server  21  passes the document request to application server  21 A, which passes the document request to web server  18 . Alternately, the web server  18  receives document requests over an intranet  26  from the terminal  14  at a bank branch.  
         [0038]    The application server  20  contains the software that is adapted to receive a document request from the presentation tier  10  and retrieve specific documents and document clauses from the data tier  28 . The data tier  28  includes a library server  30  and a database server  32 . The library server  30  includes a database  34  that includes the master documents for all of the financial products to be offered by the bank and includes all clauses to be used in all regions. The database server  32  includes a database  36  that contains pricing information regarding all of the products to be offered and a database  38  containing meta data that, as will be explained below, pertains to the attributes of the various clauses stored in the database  34 .  
         [0039]    Communication between the computers  12 ,  14  of the presentation tier  10  and the web server  18  of the business tier  16  is by means of hypertext transmission protocol (“HTTP”). The web server  18  serves out the static hypertext mark up language (“HTML”), cascading style sheet (“CSS”), dynamic HTML (“DHTML”) and extensible style sheet language (“XSL”) files when requested by a customer or bank employee to do so. The web server  18  also invokes Java servlets on the application server  20  to provide DHTML page generation. The Java servlets on the application server  20  implement and encapsulate the creation of financial documents.  
         [0040]    The library server  30  of the data tier  28  includes document management software such as Documentum enterprise document management software (available from Documentum, Inc., Pleasanton, Calif.). The document management software  40  controls access to the database  34 . Database  34  includes XML documents representing master documents for each financial product offered by the relevant financial institution. In the shown embodiment, the documents are categorized into three broad types: deposit products, lending products and retirement products. A deposit product may be a disclosure document for a demand deposit account, passbook savings account, checking account or interest-bearing checking account. A lending product may be a disclosure document pertaining to a home equity line of credit, mortgage or signature loan. A retirement product may be a disclosure document for an individual retirement account (“IRA”). As shown in FIG. 4, these documents are stored within document root elements  42  (deposit product),  44  (lending product) and  46  (retirement product) in database  34  in XML format. Each of the root elements  42 ,  44 ,  46  includes attributes that name the component, set forth the type of component (the specific financial product) and the effective date of the component. Such master documents  42 - 46  consist of those components that contain text clauses that are the same for all products in all regions of the bank&#39;s market, as well as those clauses that apply to specific geographic or pricing regions.  
         [0041]    Database  34  also includes components  48 ,  49 ,  50 ,  51 ,  52 ,  53  that contain language specific to a particular product or region. Each of the components  48 - 53  includes tags (see also FIG. 5) that indicate the product area (pa)  56 , indicating whether the component pertains to a deposit, lending or retirement product; product group (pg)  58 , indicating whether the product group is, for example, a checking product, certificate of deposit or retirement account (e.g., IRA account); sub-product (sp)  60 , indicating a product identifier, which may be a number code, letter code or alphanumeric code, for a unique product offering within a product group; bank number (bn)  62 , indicating a number for a specific bank; and pricing district (pd)  64 , indicating a number for a specific geographic market segment that is near the customer in question. In addition, for CDA (certificates of deposit) and REA (retirement account) product groups, additional tags are added for the term of the product (term)  66 , indicating for example, the term of the certificate of deposit requested. Additional examples of tags include an initial deposit amount (init_dep)  68  that indicates a specific initial deposit for such products and a balance midpoint  69 . Tags  66 ,  68  and  69  are tag place holders that indicate the location of a specific value (e.g., initial deposit amount) that is inserted into a text clause from database  36  (FIG. 1).  
         [0042]    The document handling software  40  (see FIG. 1) includes a single document type definition (“DTD”) file to control the XML structure for all disclosure documents. The DTD definitions for the various disclosure documents are stored in this file, shown as file  70  in database  34  (see FIG. 4). Consequently, all disclosure documents generated by the system of the present invention will share the same basic XML structure. The only significant difference in structure for the disclosures generated by the system will be the root XML element that will be unique to describe the specific type of disclosure (i.e., deposit, lending or retirement); that is, documents  42 - 46  in database  34 .  
         [0043]    As shown in FIG. 6, a DTD  72  for a disclosure document of the present invention that pertains to a deposit product is shown. Line  74  contains an XML instruction to locate the DTD  72 . The root element is displayed on line  76  and indicates that a deposit document is requested. Line  78  indicates that a disclosure shall have the format listed in the DTD  72 . Line  80  lists the name of the disclosure, line  82  the effective date, line  84  the disclosure type (e.g., electronic funds transfer disclosure), line  86  the specific geographic regions and product identifiers to which the disclosure pertains, and line  88  sets forth a header for the particular disclosure document. The component in line  90  is a header that may be made up of one or more shared or nonshared components, or a combination of shared and nonshared components.  
         [0044]    The details component is shown in box  92  and includes a shared component  94 . A shared component  94  is a component of a document that has application in a wide variety of documents. The shared component also includes a name on line  96 , and component data such as the effective date in line  98  geographic locators in line  100  and a text body in line  102 . Line  104  indicates a non-shared component, which is a component whose use is limited to the master document in which it resides. The non-shared component also has a name in line  106 , and component data such as its effective date in line  108 , geographic locators in  110  and a text body in line  112 . All components are subject to the editing procedures of the present invention that will be discussed in detail below. Line  114  indicates the existence of an “other” component, shown on line  116 , that has a similar structure as components in lines  94  and  104 . Line  118  indicates a footer component that may comprise a statement placed at the bottom of a page of the disclosure document to be constructed, a bank logo, or other object. The footer component also includes component identifying information shown compressed in line  120 .  
         [0045]    The arrangement of text clauses pertaining to components  90 ,  94 ,  104 ,  116 ,  120  of the DTD  72  are displayed in the order that they will appear in the disclosure document. Of these components, components  90 ,  94 ,  104  may be rearranged by the editor as desired, as is discussed below.  
         [0046]    The operation of the system of the present invention in creating a financial disclosure document will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. When a bank employee at a bank branch computer  14 , or in the alternative, a bank customer at that customer&#39;s personal computer  12  wishes to obtain a financial disclosure document pertaining to a specific bank product, the software resident in computers  12 ,  14  generates a request in HTTP format. This request contains locator information of the type described above and shown schematically in FIG. 5 with respect to tags  56 - 68 . As shown in FIG. 1, the request is transmitted by means of an intranet  26  or application server  21 A to the bank web server  18 . The Web server  18  receives the request from the client or customer, as indicated in box  122  in FIG. 2. The web server  18  receives the request and, as shown in box  124 , forwards the request to the document assembling software resident in the application server  20 , as indicated in box  126 . The application processing software in the application server  20  generates a query or request that is transmitted to the document handling software  40  in library server  30 . As indicated in box  128 , the library server  30  receives the request from the application server and retrieves the master document  42  (for example) all components pertaining to that particular product and pricing information from the database  36 .  
         [0047]    The library server  30  receives the pricing information from database  36  through database server  32  and the necessary meta data from database  38  to enable the document handling software  40  to locate the appropriate XML content in database  34 . The library server  30  sends the master document information and pricing information to the application server  20 , as indicated in box  130 . The application server receives this information as a data stream. A SAX (“Simple Application processing interface for XML”) parser is created to process the XML content returned by the query from the library server  30 . The SAX parser examines the stream of XML content in real time and signals the beginning and end of each XML element, the attributes that each element contains and the content within each element.  
         [0048]    As the information is processed by the SAX parser, the locator elements  86 ,  100 ,  110  for each of the components  90 ,  94 ,  104 , respectively (see FIG. 6) are evaluated to determine whether they match the information provided in the HTTP request. If the match fails, the content for that component is not included in the output stream. This step is indicated in box  132  in FIG. 2. In the event that a pricing data element (tag pd  64  in FIG. 5) is encountered, a real time look up occurs to the pricing information database  36 . The pricing information database  36  contains such information as current rate, fee and APY (“annual percentage yield”) data for the requested product set. As a result, the present invention allows current pricing data to be inserted dynamically in the disclosure content stream, thereby enabling pricing information to be updated and changed instantaneously.  
         [0049]    Once the selection process of box  132  has been completed, the application server  20  (see FIG. 1) sends the assembled document to the web server, as indicated in box  134 . The application server  20  will generate either a complete web page or an HTML (“hypertext mark up language”) segment, as indicated in box  134 , and is transmitted to the customer at personal computer  12  or bank branch  14  by web server  18 , as indicated in box  136 . As indicated in box  138 , the recipient of the web page or HTML segment may then print the completed document.  
         [0050]    The advantage of the system and process of the present invention is that documents are created dynamically and in real time in response to requests for specific disclosure documentation. The documents created are tailored for a specific product for use in a specific geographic location. Consequently, the disclosure documents created do not require or include unnecessary clauses that, for example, may be applicable in other geographic locations or applicable to other banking products.  
       Document Creation, Editing and Publishing  
       [0051]    The following discussion describes the aspect of the present invention related to the process for creating or editing a component of a disclosure document such as a master document  42 - 46  or a component  48 - 52  thereof depicted schematically in FIG. 4, and publishing that document for use in a disclosure document. Since the document components are stored in XML format, the process incorporates a commercially available XML editor such as XMetaL, provided by Corel Corp. of Ottawa, Ontario Canada.  
         [0052]    As shown in FIG. 7, the editing software displays the components of a master document as a configurable entity. Consequently, the components appear in a window  140  that displays the document product group name at tag  142 , master document name (e.g., “personal checking”) at tags  144 , effective date of the master document at tags  146 , disclosure type at tags  148  and locators at tags  150 . The locators tags  150  indicate a dialog box shown in FIG. 8. The header component  152  of the disclosure document is shown at tags  154 . The header component  152  is a sharable component, as indicated at tags  156 . As stated previously, this means that component  152  may be used by referencing into more than one master document. The name of the component  152  is indicated at tags  158 , effective date at tags  160  and locators at tag  162 . The text clause or body text of component  152  is located between tags  164 , indicating the content of the component. The same structure applies for component  166 , which may pertain to another text clause of the master document, or for example, to a footer. An editor can change the content of a component by placing a cursor at the desired location and making the appropriate insertion or deletion. The order of components within the master document is determined by the editor, who simply clicks and drags a component to the desired location.  
         [0053]    As shown in FIG. 8, when a “click to view/edit” button, such as between tags  150  (FIG. 7) is activated, dialog box  168  is launched. Box  168  includes a button  170  that opens up a window  172  that enables product areas, product groups and subproduct codes to be added by means of buttons  174  from a menu in window  176 . Similarly, button  178  opens up window  180  that enables bank numbers and pricing districts to be added from a menu in window  182  or deleted, by actuating buttons  184 .  
         [0054]    As shown in FIG. 9, once the locators values have been selected in box  168  for component  152 , the locator values appear within locators tags  162 . In this instance, tags  184  indicate product area, tags  186  product group, tags  188  subproduct code, tags  190  bank number and tags  192  pricing districts. The body text appearing within tags  164  includes tag place holders  194  that are filled with appropriate financial values for rates, minimum balance requirements, fees and the like.  
         [0055]    An editor can change the content of a component as described above, or the editor can create an amendment within a component. An amendment is used to create a text clause that will be used to notify recipients of upcoming changes in such items as fees, rates and the like. FIG. 10 shows the procedure for creating an amendment within a component  152 . The editor right clicks on the desired component in order to display a menu  196 . The command “add amendment” is selected from menu  196 . As shown in FIG. 11, in response to selection of “add amendment,” amendment section  198  appears. Section  198  includes the same tags as in component  152  above it. Consequently, locators and text may be applied within section  198  in the same fashion as the are in component  152 . In this way once created, a component (such as component  152 ) is not itself changed. In order to change the text clause of the completed disclosure document to which a component relates, it is necessary to create an amendment (shown within tags  200  in section  198 ) having amended text (within tags  202 ) that will temporarily appear with component  152  upon the “in use date” shown within tags  204 . Section  198  is used to notify the recipients of the disclosure document of upcoming changes. It should be noted that the amendment of section  198  will thus become used and shown on the in use date for any disclosure documents to be used in the product areas, product groups, subproduct codes, and pricing districts indicated in the section  198  along with component  152 . Component  206  contains the new body text appearing within tags  208  that will replace the text from clauses  152 ,  198  on the “effective date” within tags  210 .  
         [0056]    The process for approving and publishing a changed component is shown schematically in FIG. 3. This process utilizes Java servlets located on application server  20  (see FIG. 1) to perform the action required by the user through the web browser interface  18 . As shown in box  212 , using the editing software, an editor requests permission to edit a particular component. An editor may interface with the editing software, which is resident on library server  30 , by means of computer  214  (see FIG. 1). The request is then processed, as shown in box  216 , during which the editor (or author of a newly created document) is compared to the list of permissible editors for that particular clause in an access control list (“ACL”). If the editor is on the permitted ACL, as shown in box  218  the editor or author creates a new or amended component and specifies the effective date, pricing districts, pricing data tags, component name and the like, through the process described in FIGS.  7 - 11  and accompanying text. At this time, the component is within a “working master document” and thus is unavailable for intranet or Internet access. As indicated in box  220 , the author then submits the published draft master document to reviewers. As shown in box  222 , the author selects from a list of reviewers a subset of reviewers for the new or amended component. The system is programmed to require that a published draft master document be sent to at least one reviewer. Reviewers may include representatives from the legal department, product managers, systems personnel and marketing personnel. The new or amended master document is sent to the reviewers, as indicated in box  224 . The reviewers are shown schematically in boxes  226 ,  228  and  230 . The reviewers may interface with the system by means of networked computers  232  that communicate with library server  30 .  
         [0057]    It is important to note that the edited component is sent to reviewers  226 - 230  simultaneously so that all reviewers have an opportunity to begin the review process at the same time. In the event that all reviewers  226 - 230  approve of the amended text, as shown in box  234 , the author receives comments and, as shown in box  236 , promotes the published draft master document to a “published approved document” and it is stored as an intranet and Internet accessible document in XML content in database  34  (see FIG. 1), as shown in box  238 . However, if one or more reviewers disapprove of an amended component and have comments, then, as shown in box  234 , the author then incorporates the comments into a revised working master document, shown in box  218 . The revised, amended component is then re-sent to reviewers  226 - 230  for review and approval. This process is iterative in nature and, at such time as all reviewers  226 - 230  approve, the component is then stored as a published approved document as indicated box  238 . The system has the added flexibility to enable an author to stop the work flow if a response is not received in a timely manner from a reviewer and to vary the subgroup of reviewers with each iteration.  
         [0058]    An additional capability of the present invention is that an editor can request an electronic form that contains locator and body text information of the amendments of a disclosure document, such as the text within tags  202  of section  198  (see FIG. 11). An editor can cut and paste information from the request form to a word (e.g., Microsoft Word) document and transmit that document to the statement preparation group, where that body text would be sent to current customers of that particular product to advise them of an upcoming change.  
         [0059]    As shown in FIG. 12, an editor of a master document may inform the statement preparation group of an upcoming change to a disclosure document so that the statement preparation group can communicate the change to current users of the bank product to which the changed disclosure pertains. Editor terminal  214  (FIG. 1) communicates with application server  20  through web server  18 . The editor first selects the master document from a published document list, generated by activating the “Published” link  239 , and views screen  240 . Screen  240  includes information concerning the state of the particular document at  242 , the editors and authors of the document at  244  and the workflow details of the document at  246 . The editor actuates the “Mail Systems Request” button  248  and views the screen shown in FIG. 13. The windows in screen  250  of FIG. 13 initially are empty and the editor fills them in as shown in the figure. There is a window  252  for the name of the requestor, as well as windows  254 ,  256 ,  258 ,  260  and  262  that pertain to information relating to the requestor and the document. There is also a window  264  that allows the editor to provide a brief description of the amendment and a window  266  that allows the editor to add instructions to the recipient of the amended document at the document preparation group.  
         [0060]    Once the windows  252 - 266  are filled in, the editor actuates the “View/Build Request Form” button  268  and, as shown in FIG. 14, window  270  is launched automatically. Window  270  comprises a form  271  that includes the amended text  272  and a table  274  that sets forth the product areas  276 , product groups  278 , PIR (pricing information repository, a database of pricing information located in database  36  (see FIG. 1)) sub-product  280 , sub-products  282 , bank numbers  284 , and pricing districts  286 . Form  271  is transmitted to and is displayed at terminal  288  at the statement preparation group. This enables the statement preparation group to send the statement text  272  to all current bank customers who use the products and reside in the regions specified in table  274 . The amended text  272  may be sent as part of a bank customer&#39;s account statement either electronically, such as by electronic mail over a network such as the Internet, to computers of customers or by mail or other document delivery service to customers. This added capability allows a bank to reuse the amendment created for new customers as notification of upcoming changes to current customers.  
         [0061]    Consequently, the editing process enables changes to be made to specific components, but only by pre-approved individuals who qualify as editors. Once such a component is amended, upon the effective date of that amendment, that component is automatically selected and incorporated into disclosure documents to which that amended component pertains. The amendment process includes the flexibility to amend not only the specific text of a clause, but also the pricing districts or geographic districts to which it pertains.  
         [0062]    While the system and methods herein described constitute preferred embodiments of this invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these precise systems and processes, and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention.