Abstract:
A method for pre-funding is disclosed. The method includes sending a plurality of pre-fund authorization requests to a buyer financial institution, and then receiving a plurality of responses to the pre-fund authorization requests from the buyer financial institution, where each response either accepts or declines a pre-fund authorization request. A funds transfer request is sent to the buyer financial institution, where the funds transfer request corresponds to a total value of the accepted pre-fund authorization requests. Notification that funds have transferred from the buyer financial institution in response to the funds transfer request is received. Then, the sending of the funds to a supplier financial institution is authorized.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    None. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    In many business-to-business transactions, checks, ACH/EFT (automated clearing house/electronic funds transfer) and wires are used for payment. Commerce systems strive to improve processing efficiencies and improve integration with existing business operations. 
         [0003]    Commerce systems seek to minimize the risk associated with defaulting members. To effectively manage risk, commerce system participation can be limited to members meeting pre-determined standards. In addition, more conservative daily aggregate debit limits and single transaction limits can be established at either a regional or bank level to manage risk. 
         [0004]    In a typical commerce system, if a Buyer Bank (Issuer) fails to settle a payment, a payment processing organization can be allowed to reclaim funds from a Supplier Bank (Acquirer). If funds reclamation is unsuccessful, the payment processing organization may rely on the liability allocation in the rules and the loss-sharing provisions stated in the appropriate by-laws governing the relationship between the Buyer Bank, the Supplier Bank, and the payment processing organization. 
         [0005]    While a funds reclamation provision may be used to reclaim funds, a funds reclamation provision creates uncertainty regarding the finality of funds for the Supplier Banks. This uncertainty has already been identified as a concern and a potential barrier to widespread market adoption of any payment processing system. It also ultimately impedes the ability to provide ubiquity in the marketplace. 
         [0006]    Additionally, a funds reclamation process has many operational challenges. Because of multilateral netting, potentially all participants in the commerce system could be impacted from a recast with those participants that may have received funds via a credit position subject to funds reclamation. “Multilateral netting” can be defined as the offsetting of receivables and payables among three or more parties to a transaction, with each making payments to an agent or clearing house for net obligations due to others or receiving net payments due from others. In a multilateral netting scheme, any participant that misses funding a debit position by any amount of time (e.g, 1 second) or short-pays by any amount (e.g., 1 cent) could trigger a recast. All transactions may have to be re-evaluated to determine which participant and/or which transaction caused the recast. This is undesirable. 
         [0007]    The payment processing organization could provide limited funding to prevent such a recast scenario. However this results in the payment processing organization accepting settlement risk, which conceptually defeats the goal of eliminating settlement risk through recasting. 
         [0008]    Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    Embodiments of the invention are directed to pre-funding methods and systems. 
         [0010]    One embodiment of the invention is directed to a method for pre-funding, the method comprising: sending a plurality of pre-fund authorization requests to a buyer financial institution; receiving a plurality of responses to the pre-fund authorization requests from the buyer financial institution, wherein each response either accepts or declines a pre-fund authorization request; sending a funds transfer request to the buyer financial institution, wherein the funds transfer request corresponds to a total value of the accepted pre-fund authorization requests; and authorizing the sending of funds to a supplier financial institution after the funds have transferred from the buyer financial institution to an account in response to the funds transfer request. 
         [0011]    Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer readable medium comprising: code for sending a plurality of pre-fund authorization requests to a buyer financial institution; code for receiving a plurality of responses to the pre-fund authorization requests from the buyer financial institution, wherein each response either accepts or declines a pre-fund authorization request; code for sending a funds transfer request to the buyer financial institution, wherein the funds transfer request corresponds to a total value of the accepted pre-fund authorization requests; code for authorizing the sending of funds to a supplier financial institution after the funds have transferred from the buyer financial institution to an account in response to the funds transfer request. 
         [0012]    Other embodiments are directed to computer systems and servers incorporating the computer readable medium according to embodiments of the invention. 
         [0013]    These and other embodiments will be described in more detail below. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]      FIG. 1  shows a flowchart illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0015]      FIGS. 2(   a ) and  2 ( b ) show a system according to an embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    Embodiments of the invention are directed to pre-funding methods and systems. In embodiments of the invention, Buyer Banks (or other buyer financial institutions) that do not meet predetermined standards, may be required to pre-fund their daily aggregate debit totals to participate in the commerce system. Additionally, Buyer Banks that do meet predetermined standards and do not wish to be constrained by daily aggregate debit total limits, may participate in the pre-funding system on an ongoing basis. 
         [0017]    One aspect of embodiments of the invention is that the Buyer Bank will be required to submit payment into an account run by a payment processing organization, for the amount of daily aggregate debits, prior to the payment-processing organization&#39;s settlement to a Supplier Bank. The Buyer Bank receives advance notice of the daily aggregate debit totals with enough lead-time to fund the account. 
         [0018]    In embodiments of the invention, existing or newly created payment processing systems can be used. As will be described in detail below, the payment processing system may include a subsystem to efficiently implement the pre-funding objective. This subsystem need not be constrained by a 24-hour cycle. The subsystem can also have pre-determined cutoff times to aggregate authorizations for an FTS (funds transfer system) which will release a true financial request for funds to the Buyer Bank. 
         [0019]    Embodiments of the invention are described with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2(   a )- 2 ( b ). These Figures show a single Buyer Bank and a single Supplier Bank for ease of illustration. However, in embodiments of the invention, tens or even hundreds of buyer financial institutions may participate in embodiments of the invention. It is also understood that in other embodiments of the invention, the Buyer Bank could alternatively be any other financial institution (e.g., a financial institution associated with the buyer&#39;s workplace such as a credit union, a brokerage, the buyer&#39;s workplace, etc.) representing a buyer. The Supplier Bank could be any other financial institution representing the supplier (e.g., a credit union, brokerage firm, etc.). Also, the buyer and the supplier may be individuals, corporations, etc. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a flowchart illustrating the general process flow for a method according to an embodiment of the invention. The method includes receiving one or more post-dated payments from a buyer (step  202 ). The payments may be post-dated any suitable number of days in advance. 
         [0021]    After receiving the post-dated payments, a network or even a single computational apparatus sends one or more pre-fund authorization requests to a buyer financial institution (e.g., a Buyer Bank) associated with the buyer (step  204 ). This is preferably done from 12-72 hours before the payment dates for the post-dated payments. Sending the pre-authorization requests far in advance (e.g, 90 days) would make the funds less liquid, while sending the pre-authorization requests very shortly before the payment due dates may not provide the system with enough time to process the information needed for the pre-funding process described herein. 
         [0022]    Once the buyer financial institution receives the pre-authorization requests, the buyer financial institution then sends messages back to the network indicating that the pre-fund authorization requests are either accepted or rejected (step  206 ). The above-noted subsystem then sends accumulated pre-fund authorizations to an FTS (funds transfer system). A funds transfer request is then sent by the FTS to the buyer financial institution to transfer actual funds (step  208 ). The funds are then transferred from the buyer financial institution to a settlement financial institution (step  210 ). The settlement financial institution may temporarily hold the received funds until settlement. After the funds are received by the settlement financial institution, the subsystem will authorize or decline the accumulated payments based on an “allowable authorized amount” available in the subsystem (steps  212  and  214 ). The FTS (funds transfer system) then sends a request to a settlement financial institution to send the funds to the supplier financial institution such as a supplier bank (step  216 ). The supplier financial institution then sends the funds to the supplier. 
         [0023]    The steps shown in  FIG. 1  may be performed by one or more computational apparatuses such as one or more server computers working with one or more client computers. The server computers may operate using any suitable operating system including commercially available operating system such as a Windows, Unix, or Linux based operating system. A server computer may be a powerful computer or cluster of computers that behaves as a single computer, which services the requests of one or more client computers. The server computer can be a mainframe computer, a minicomputer, or a minicomputer cluster. For example, the server computer may include one or more database servers and one or more Web servers. 
         [0024]    Code for performing any of the functions shown in  FIG. 1 , or any of the functions described in this application, may be present on a computer readable medium in a single computational apparatus, or many computational apparatuses operationally coupled together. For example, a computer readable medium may include two or more data storage media located on separated, but operationally coupled servers. The computer readable medium may comprise any suitable optical, electrical, or electrical data storage medium, and code for performing the functions mentioned in  FIG. 1  and in this application may be created using any suitable programming language including C, C++, etc. 
         [0025]    More detailed descriptions of embodiments of the invention can be described with reference to  FIGS. 2(   a )- 2 ( b ). 
         [0026]    Referring to  FIG. 2(   a ), and as shown by arrow  1 , a buyer  102  will send one or more post-dated payments to a gateway  106 . The gateway  106  may be a physical or electronic access point for the buyer  102  to make one or more post-dated payments. A commerce processor (CP)  108  in the gateway  106  receives the post-dated payments from the buyer  102 . The commerce processor  108  may be a standalone server computer that exists outside of a network  110 , or it may be part of a network  110 . 
         [0027]    The buyer  102  may be previously designated a “pre-fund” buyer, because the buyer  102  may have a relationship with a “pre-fund” participant financial institution. The one or more post-dated payments can be for goods or services provided to the buyer  102  from a supplier  140  (see  FIG. 2(   b )). The buyer  102  and the supplier  140  may deal with goods and services of any suitable nature. 
         [0028]    As shown by the arrow  2 ( a ), at a predetermined time before the payment date, the commerce processor  18  creates “pre-fund authorization” requests for each payment. Each pre-fund authorization request is then sent to the network  110 . The network  110  may include a collection of computational apparatuses, and may incorporate wired or wireless links. In some embodiments, the predetermined time may be from about 12 to about 72 hours. In other embodiments, longer or shorter times may be used. The network  110  may also include a subsystem  114  in some embodiments of the invention. The subsystem  114  may be embodied by one or more computational apparatuses, or software residing on one or more computational apparatuses. 
         [0029]    As shown by arrow  2 ( b ), the network  110  sends (e.g., transmits), either directly or through an intermediary, a number of pre-fund authorization requests to the Buyer Bank  130 . The pre-fund authorizations may be in any suitable form. For example, they may be in the form of non-financial authorization messages. An SMS message is a type of text message. Other message protocols may be used in other embodiments of the invention. The sending of the requests may occur electronically over a communication medium that uses wired or wireless links. The communication medium may include portions of the Internet or direct communication links. 
         [0030]    A Buyer Bank “pre-fund” participation flag may be provided in some embodiments of the invention. The commerce processor  108  can add a new attribute to the Buyer Bank setup that defines the settlement process for the Buyer Bank and its respective customers. All settlement schemes, with the exception of the pre-fund solution, can be transparent to the system, or the flag could just indicate, “pre-funded” or “not pre-funded”. 
         [0031]    The commerce processor  108  can also add a new attribute to the Buyer Bank setup to define the cutoff time for processing. The system would use this parameter to calculate the minimum payment date for all buyers&#39; payments doing business through the pre-funding Buyer Bank. As noted above, it is preferable that the parameter is less than 72 hours and greater than 12 hours. 
         [0032]    In a bank-timed payment processing scheme, the commerce processor  108  can process post-dated payments sometime after midnight according to the time zone defined for the buyer  102  creating the payment. For this process to function, payments (for these pre-funded banks) can be processed after midnight according to the time zone of the Buyer Bank  130 . This exception can be managed according to the participation flag on the Buyer Bank  130 . 
         [0033]    As shown by arrow  2 ( c ), the Buyer Bank  130  responds by accepting or declining the received pre-fund authorization requests. Once authorized, the network  110  will route the accepted pre-fund authorization back to the commerce processor  108  and to the subsystem  114 . At this point, the Buyer Bank  130  might choose to place a hold on the buyer&#39;s bank account or do whatever is necessary to ensure that it has the funds to transfer according to the accepted pre-authorization requests. Once the Buyer Bank  130  authorizes the pre-fund authorization request, the payment can be “locked down” and barred from further modification. The subsystem  114  accumulates the accepted pre-fund authorizations by the Buyer Bank. If declined, the network  110  will route the rejected pre-fund authorizations back to the commerce processor  108  (the originator). The commerce processor  108  will update the state of the transaction to “pre-authorized” or “declined”. The subsystem  114  is optionally not informed of any declined pre-authorization requests. 
         [0034]    As shown by arrow  4 , the subsystem  114  sends the accumulated, accepted pre-fund authorizations to a funds transfer system (FTS)  118 . At various predetermined points, the subsystem  114  (arrow  3 ) creates aggregate debit totals for the funds transfer system (FTS)  118 . Before or after this, the network  100  reports the aggregate debt totals to the Buyer Bank  130  (see arrow  5 ). The Buyer Bank  130  is notified via standard reporting in advance of the pre-fund funds transfer request (it contains the aggregate debit totals). 
         [0035]    As shown by arrow  6 ( a ), the funds transfer system  118  then sends an “expected” file for a treasury reconciliation system (TRS)  122 . At a predetermined cutoff time, the funds transfer system  118  creates a funds transfer request (and allows for optional approve/release functionality) and sends it to a Settlement Bank  126  (as shown by reference numeral  6 ( b )). The Settlement Bank  126  then requests funds (aggregate debit total) from the Buyer Bank  130 . The network  110  may be notified of this request. 
         [0036]    After a predetermined amount of time, the Buyer Bank  130  sends (e.g., wires) the funds to a settlement account in the Settlement Bank  126  (as shown by arrow  7 ). The sending of funds to the Settlement Bank  126  may occur electronically. 
         [0037]    Actual funds are then transferred to the treasury reconciliation system  122  and it will utilize conventional settlement account reconciliation processes (as shown by arrow  8 ). Based on the pre-fund amount received and reconciled by the treasury reconciliation system  122 , the “allowable authorized amount” is determined and then populated in the subsystem  114  (as shown by arrow  9 ). 
         [0038]    Referring now to  FIG. 2(   b ) and reference numbers  10 ,  11 ( a ), and  11 ( b ), upon the payment due date, the commerce processor  108  submits SMS full financial messages (or other types of messages) for accept or decline to the network  110 . This message is then sent to the subsystem  114  (not to the Buyer Bank  130 ) for authorization (based on the Buyer Bank “pre-fund” participation flag). The commerce processor  108 , upon receiving the authorization response from the network  110 , will update the state of the transaction to “authorized” or “declined”. If declined, the commerce processor  108  can supply the reason code obtained from the network  110 . 
         [0039]    As shown by reference number  12 ( a ), the subsystem  114  will authorize or decline the payment based on the “allowable authorized amount” available in the subsystem  114 . This allowable authorized amount will diminish as full financial messages are submitted. Typically, the allowable authorized amount will diminish or decrement according to a first-in-first out process. For example, funds for a first payment and funds for a second payment may be populated in the subsystem  114 . When it is time to settle the payments, funds for the first payment are paid out and then funds for the second payment are paid out. If a transaction is declined by the subsystem  114 , because the transaction amount exceeds the “allowable authorized amount”, then the Buyer Bank  130  will be notified and the credit destined for the Supplier Bank  134  will not occur. Notification of decline to the Buyer Bank  130  can utilize existing communication networks. The Buyer Bank  130  may be notified and the commerce processor  108  may receive a decline message with a proper reason code such as “insufficient pre-funding”. 
         [0040]    Illustratively, there may be 10 payments due on a particular post date such as Jun. 1, 2004. The total of those payments that are due on that post date may be $1000 and there may be 10 payments of $100 each. Instructions are sent to the Buyer Bank to fund the account so that the payment due date can be met. Once the funds are received by the subsystem, real transactions then take place. For example, for the first $100 payment, the allowable authorized amount is decremented by $100 so the remaining amount is $900. This continues until the funds in the account are depleted. If, for example, the last payment is $100, and there is only $99 left in the account, that transaction will be rejected, and a message such as “insufficient pre-funding” will be sent to the Buyer Bank  130 . Although one $100 payment was rejected due to insufficient pre-funding, the nine other $100 payments were accepted and processed. However, another request for $99 or less could be accepted. The system may only reject amounts greater than the total remaining in the account, but would continue to allow amounts less than the total remaining in the account. Preferably, the system rejects as few transactions as possible. 
         [0041]    As shown by arrow  12 ( b ), a message including the authorization date and the payment due date may be sent to the network  110 . As shown by arrow  13 , clearing records and settlement service reports may be sent to the Buyer Bank  130 . 
         [0042]    As shown by arrow  14 , raw data, settlement service reports, and pre-authorization information may be sent to the Supplier Bank  134 . The Supplier Bank  134  may receive a summary of the settlement totals and a detailed report of the day&#39;s “pre-fund authorizations”. 
         [0043]    As shown by arrow  15 , the network  110  then sends the normal daily settlement data and reporting to a settlement service (SS)  126 , which sends this information to the funds transfer system (FTS)  118  (reference number  25 ). Information regarding an “expected” amount of funds is transferred to the treasury reconciliation system (TRS)  122  (reference number  26 ) and information regarding an actual amount of funds is also transferred to the treasury reconciliation system (TRS)  122  (reference number  23 ). 
         [0044]    As shown by arrow  16 , a gross wire is then sent from the Settlement Bank  126  to the Supplier Bank  134 . For pre-funding, the FTS  118  can create funds transfers (reference  22 ) based on the gross credit position rather than the “net position”. The debit positions will be treated as a memo post for balancing since the true request for funds was released the prior day. 
         [0045]    As shown by arrow  17 , the supplier bank  134  then sends the funds to the Supplier&#39;s  140  demand deposit account (DDA) to settle the transaction(s) between the buyer  102  and the supplier  140 . 
         [0046]    Embodiments of the invention provide for a number of advantages. As explained above, because buyer payments are “pre-funded”, a payment processing organization that settles a transaction between a buyer and a supplier is not exposed to significant settlement risk. In addition, recasts due to missed funding of debit positions are not a problem in embodiments of the invention. Unlike a multilateral netting scheme, in embodiments of the invention, payments are made with available funds. If there are insufficient funds for a small number of payments, other payments still take place without the need to go through the recasting process. 
         [0047]    The terms and expressions which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described, or portions thereof, it being recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Moreover, any one or more features of any embodiment of the invention may be combined with any one or more other features of any other embodiment of the invention, without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0048]    Also, it should be understood that the present invention as described above can be implemented in the form of control logic using computer software in a modular or integrated manner. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will know and appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the present invention using hardware and a combination of hardware and software. 
         [0049]    All references, patent applications, and patents mentioned above are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes. None of them are admitted to be prior art to the presently claimed inventions.