Abstract:
A method and system for processing financial instruments to detect the presence of duplicate instruments. The method may include the steps of receiving items of information for a plurality of financial instruments, grouping the items into cycles and appending cycle and time dependent information to the items to form coded items, storing the coded items in a database, comparing the items to find items having duplicate identifying information, marking duplicate items for subsequent deletion and printing a report listing the duplicate items. The system may include a mainframe, data repository, item processing applications, and a module that filters items from incoming strings to remove false positives. The remaining duplicate items may be viewed on a graphical user interface that allows a user to review attributes of each item and manually mark duplicates for subsequent deletion.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for processing electronic documents and, more particularly, to methods and systems for processing financial instruments. 
     Legislation such as the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (also known as Check 21) has made it possible for banks and other financial institutions to process financial instruments, such as checks, by transmitting images of the checks, along with pertinent information read from the checks, electronically over networks such as the Internet. This electronic processing of digitized check images and information scanned from checks has greatly reduced check clearing process time and eliminated the need to store paper checks for extended periods or to transmit the paper checks to the drawer. 
     Typically, a check is received at a payee bank or other institution and is scanned to create a digital image of the check and to collect information such as the payee, amount and MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) data on the check. Such MICR data may include the bank routing number, checking account number, check number and, in some cases, the amount of the check. This electronic information is transmitted from the payee bank (the bank that receives the check and makes payment on it) or other source to the drawee bank (the bank upon which the check is drawn). The transmitted check images may be stored temporarily, transmitted to the drawer of the check in a statement or upon request, or made available to the drawer online. The information accompanying the image is used to process or clear the check and debit the drawer&#39;s checking account. In other arrangements, the check information may be transmitted to an intermediary bank or other processing center, where it is forwarded to the payee bank for posting. 
     In addition to conventional checks, other financial instruments may be processed in this manner. For example, instruments such as rebate checks, traveler&#39;s checks, bonds and lottery prize payment checks may be processed electronically as well. 
     SUMMARY 
     The disclosed method and system preferably may be used for processing data scanned or other otherwise obtained from financial instruments. In particular, the method and system disclosed may be used to detect and eliminate data representing duplicate items from the data streams incoming to a financial institution. The disclosed method may include a step of filtering the incoming data pertaining to financial instruments to remove from evaluation data pertaining to certain types of financial instruments that otherwise would generate false positives. The remaining information may be stored, then viewed and evaluated. A printout or display of identified potential duplicate items may be generated. A further review of the items may be conducted if items have not been worked in the initial work cycle, or as a secondary check for accuracy. The final string of data representing the incoming financial instruments, with duplicates removed, is forwarded to the proper financial institution for posting to depositor accounts. 
     In one aspect of the disclosed method, discrete items of identifying information, each for a plurality of financial instruments, may be received, the items may be grouped into cycles and discrete cycle and time-dependent information may be appended to each grouping to form coded items. The coded items may be stored in a database, and the stored, coded items compared to each other to find items having duplicate identifying information. A report listing the items having duplicate identifying information may be displayed and printed. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the disclosed method may include a step of filtering the discrete items of identifying information to eliminate false positives. Also with a preferred embodiment, the filtering may include such items as lottery prize payment accounts, bank control documents, over counter checks, rebate checks, traveler checks, bonds, checks having either no serial number or a serial number comprised entirely of zeros, or checks having blanks in certain informational fields. By eliminating all of such documents from consideration, the review of the remaining identified duplicates may be greatly simplified and the time required to work through a given batch greatly reduced. Also in the preferred embodiment, the remaining duplicate items may be displayed on a graphical user interface for review and marked by a user for subsequent deletion. Further, a printed report may be generated. 
     The system for conducting the method may include a graphical user interface for displaying duplicate item information, a set of processes controlling the display and updating of the duplicate item information in the data repository, and a data storage for receiving financial instrument information and storing information on potential duplicates. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of the disclosed system for processing financial instruments with duplicate item detection; 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart of the method for processing financial instruments with duplicate item detection; 
         FIG. 3  is a graphical user interface screen displaying detected duplicate items as grouped into entries for further processing by a user; 
         FIG. 4  is a graphical user interface screen showing duplicates that have been identified together with the current item; and 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic showing the payment capture system for the disclosed system and method for processing financial instruments with duplicate item detection. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a system for processing financial instruments with duplicate item detection, generally designated  10 , may be incorporated into a payment capture system, generally designated  12 , of a financial institution, such as a bank. The system  10  may reside on a mainframe  14  housing the payment capture system  12 , which may include balancing system  16  and data repository  18 . The data repository  18  may be controlled by a relational database management program such as DB2 (a product of International Business Machines, Armonk, N.Y.). A control center  22  may reflect the activity in some of the aforementioned components, which may be interconnected by a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), generally designated  24 . 
     The system  10  may sit behind a firewall  26  and may be connected to a private network, such as SVPCO (provided by Clearinghouse Payments Company, LLC, New York, N.Y.)  20 , to a private landing zone  28  or a public network such as the Internet  30 . The system  10  thus may receive digital information pertaining to financial instruments, such as checks, from other banks (not shown), exchange banks  32 , correspondent banks  34 , corporate clients  36 , automatic teller machines (“ATM&#39;s”)  38  or image capture devices  40  at branches of the bank. 
     In addition, as part of the check processing system the bank may operate one or more sorters  42 , which may be located at regional check processing centers, for scanning paper checks with sorting machines to generate digitized check images and to read and transmit digital check information, primarily from MICR lines. Such sorters  42  make the digitized check information available to be processed by the system  10 . Digitized check information may be transmitted from the sorter  42  over the network  24  or to payment capture system  12  of the mainframe  14 . 
     The process is shown in  FIG. 2 . As shown in block  46 , data may be received in the system  10  ( FIG. 1 ) from the sorters  42 . This data may be scanned from checks and other financial instruments, primarily from the MICR line of the check or instrument. In addition, as shown in block  48 , MICR line data may be received from other banks, such as exchange banks  32  and correspondent banks  34 , as well as from corporate clients  36 , ATM capture  38  and branch image capture  40 . Such information may pass through the firewall  26  and may be transmitted over network  24  to the payment capture system  12 . 
     The data may be received in input strings (a string of data captured from multiple items or records coming from a single source). The string may include data from every document (which may contain many items) read by the document processor (e.g., sorter  42 ), including control documents. Each record or item may contain related information such as the pocket (the groupings of the sorted documents), the sort pattern (the numerical name of the employed sort), user field information (codes that assist in identifying the type of record or item (e.g., a deposit or debit) and also may include internally generated control records. 
     Cycle information may be added to each of those records or items. Cycle information may include the date, entry and ISN (item sequence number, a number that defines the incoming sequence of a record or item within the input stream, and is associated with the record or item throughout the entire cycle of computer processing), as shown in block  50 . Thus, all the records or items coming in from sorters  42 , exchange banks  32 , correspondent banks  34 , corporate clients  36 , ATM capture  38  and branch image capture  40  during a business day may be grouped into a cycle to which the time and date are appended. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the incoming input strings may be filtered by a rules engine, as shown in block  50 , to exclude certain documents or items from further consideration as duplicates. This filtering may take place at various points in the process including: before items are placed in the data repository, block  60 ; before items are reported or displayed to operators, blocks  64  and  104 ; and as part of the end-of-day process, shown in block  104 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 5 , the payment capture system  12  may include a set of processes  54  that control a graphical user interface  56  and a report writer  58 . These processes  54  may control events that occur within the capture system (the display of duplicates to the operator on a screen) and events that occur outside of capture system (report writing and updating of the data repository). These processes  54  may include a rules engine that applies the following rules, shown by way of example in Table I, to incoming input strings, displayed data and reported data. 
     
       
         
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE I 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 Account 
                 1. All 14 blanks. All bank items require account numbers, 
               
               
                 number 
                 transit rejects with the strips do not have account number 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
                 encoded on them. 
               
               
                   
                 2. 775970059 lottery prize payment account. 
               
               
                   
                 3. 55555555 bank control document. 
               
               
                   
                 4. 00000055555555 bank control document. 
               
               
                   
                 5. 00000775970059 lottery prize payment account. 
               
               
                   
                 6. 00000000000000 all 14 zeroes. All bank items require 
               
               
                   
                 account numbers. 
               
               
                 PC field 
                 1. 0000000000 - Serial and 000000 - PC (need a valid PC 
               
               
                 and Serial 
                 or Serial) 90% of Bank Checks have serial numbers. 
               
               
                 field 
                 2. 009999 - PC Over counter checks (usually written for 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
                 cash/even amounts). 
               
               
                   
                 3. 7777777777 - Serial together with 777777 - PC field 
               
               
                   
                 capture with no serial numbers are defaulting to this. 
               
               
                   
                 4. Blanks in all 3 Account, Serial and PC fields. Usually a 
               
               
                   
                 transit reject that has been stripped. 
               
               
                   
                 5. Blanks in both Serial and PC fields. 90% of Bank 
               
               
                   
                 checks have serial numbers in either field. 
               
               
                   
                 6. Zeroes in both Serial and PC fields. 90% of Bank 
               
               
                   
                 checks have serial numbers in either field. 
               
               
                 Amount 
                 1. Under $5.00 (rebate checks). A lot of rebate checks do 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
                 not have serial numbers causing these to be reported as a 
               
               
                   
                 false positive. 
               
               
                 Return 
                 1. Any item with a redeposit flag. Checks that did not 
               
               
                 item flag 
                 post to account but were sent to be re-deposited to see if 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
                 the funds are available now. 
               
               
                 Sort pattern 
                 1. 59 sort pattern. Used for returned items - all stripped 
               
               
                 and User 
                 items. 
               
               
                 Field 
                 2. 58 sort pattern with user field 99. Transit adjustment on 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
                 Inclearing work. 
               
               
                   
                 3. 19 sort pattern with user field greater that 90 Transit. 
               
               
                   
                 ATMs from Albany. 
               
               
                   
                 4. 159 sort pattern with user field greater than 90 Transit. 
               
               
                   
                 ATMs from Ohio. 
               
               
                   
                 5. 179 sort pattern with user field greater than 90 Transit. 
               
               
                   
                 ATMs from Utah. 
               
               
                   
                 6. 223 sort pattern with user field greater than 90 Transit. 
               
               
                   
                 ATMs from Tacoma. 
               
               
                   
                 7. 151 sort pattern with user field 90 Transit rejects. 
               
               
                 Excluded 
                 1. 91 user field with 64 user field. Rejects for WICs/NY 
               
               
                 user field 
                 State. 
               
               
                 combos: 
                 2. 92 user field with 54 user field. Transit disbursements 
               
               
                   
                 and CDA. 
               
               
                   
                 3. 90 user field with 50 user field. Transit debit. 
               
               
                   
                 4. 90 user field with 54 user field. Transit CDA. 
               
               
                   
                 5. 90 user field with 56 user field. Transit and ECP not 
               
               
                   
                 posted. 
               
               
                 Excluded 
                 All credits are excluded. Items that do not have serial 
               
               
                 user fields: 
                 numbers and some accounts that use same serial number 
               
               
                   
                 twice. 
               
               
                   
                 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0B, 0D, 0E, 0F, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 1A, 
               
               
                   
                 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 2F, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 39, 3A, 
               
               
                   
                 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E, 3F, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 
               
               
                   
                 4A, 4B, 4E, 4F, 51, 52, 59, 5E, 60, 62, 66, 67, 69, 6B, 
               
               
                   
                 78, 7C, 7D, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 89, 8A, 8B, 8D, 4C, 4D, 
               
               
                   
                 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D. 
               
               
                 Return Item 
                 1. 2 
               
               
                 field 
                 2. 5 
               
               
                 exclusions: 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The rules engine may remove from operator review “false positives”—those items that may appear to be duplicates but are legitimate and items that have insufficient information to make a determination of their duplicate status. For example, items that either do not have a MICR line or identifying account/serial number, such as a transit reject item that has been stripped (i.e., the MICR line has been covered over), do not have sufficient information to be presented for review. Other items that have the same account number on multiple items, such as lottery prize payments, are legitimate items but cannot be distinguished from each other. 
     In addition, certain combinations of numbers appearing in the process control (PC) field, such as the check number together with the Serial field, are also excluded. The rules engine also excludes any item under $5.00, such as rebate checks, since such items do not have a serial number and the absence of a serial number would cause such items to be reported as a false positive (i.e., a duplicate). 
     The next item on the rules engine exclusion may be the returned item flag exclusion, which pertains to returned items such as resubmitted checks. The rules also may pertain to certain types of routing transit numbers (R/T), such as bank cash tickets, traveler checks, bonds, Canadian rebate checks and lottery prize payment accounts. 
     The rules engine also may pertain to sort patterns and user field exclusions, such as items coming from ATMs from certain locations, all stripped items, and transit rejects. A particular bank may want to add additional excluded user fields, as indicated in the lower portion of Table I above. As a result, all such items are removed from review by the operator, thereby minimizing the required effort to review possible duplicates. 
     As shown in block  64  (see  FIG. 2 ), the duplicate items in the data repository  18  (see  FIG. 1 ) may be displayed to an operator at the graphical user interface  56  ( FIG. 5 ) as well as reported via a printed report. The processing of the displayed items may be accomplished with two screens. First, as shown in  FIG. 3 , a screen  66  of the graphical user interface  56  ( FIG. 5 ) may display the cycle  68 , cycle date  70 , selection  72 , entry  74 , number of duplicate items  76  and whether such items have been processed, shown in column  78 . The select (“SEL”) column  72  may allow an operator to work a group of items (known as an entry) using selected (“S”) or marked (“M”) to indicate that such items are being or have been reviewed. Entering an “S” in column  72  may indicate that particular group of items will be displayed in the next screen ( FIG. 4 ). Entering an “M” in column  72  may indicate that the review of that group of items is complete. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , screen  80  may show all of the items that have been identified, at least preliminarily, as duplicates, selected for a particular cycle  68 , entry  82  and cycle date  70 . The screen  80  may display the identifying information pertaining to the potentially duplicate items. This information may be displayed in pairs such that the information identifying the current item is displayed on one row and immediately beneath that row, a second row adds information about the potential duplicate. Thus, the sequence number  84 , serial number  86 , routing transit number  88 , account number  90 , process control field  92  and amount  94  may identify the current item while a unique sequence number  85 , cycle date  87 , cycle number  89 , entry number  91 , On-Us field  93  identify the potential duplicate. 
     With each selection  98 , an operator may mark the item as having been worked on. This is referred to in  FIG. 2 , block  102 . The adjustment of accounts, deletion of duplicate items and disposition of items identified as duplicates may be independent of this system ( FIG. 2 , block  100 ). The balancing system  16  ( FIG. 1 ) is where items may be deleted or adjusted. As shown in  FIG. 2 , in block  104  an end of day (EOD) duplicate item report may be printed, showing all of the duplicate items detected for that day&#39;s work. This may be accomplished by report writer  58  ( FIG. 5 ). As shown in block  106 , any remaining potential duplicates may be reviewed and dispositioned at a later date using the EOD report. 
     After reviewing the listed duplicates ( FIG. 4 ), an operator may minimize the window and access a different system to verify that the item in question already has been paid, or the item returned. If necessary, corrections may be made to the suspected duplicate, such as adding or changing information in the record. The operator may use the balancing system  16  ( FIG. 1 ) to delete a suspected duplicate that proves not to be a duplicate. An end-of-day update may be made to delete suspected duplicates, and the updated information is stored in the data repository  18 . Each week, the oldest week&#39;s volume of reviewed items in data repository  18  may be purged. 
     As can be seen from the foregoing description, the disclosed method and system provides efficient means for reviewing input strings of financial instruments to eliminate potential duplicate entries. The system may include a rules engine that excludes items that might otherwise generate false positives and therefore greatly reduces the number of items that might otherwise need review by a human operator.