Patent ID: 8255324

Claim:
A system for facilitating financial transactions over a network, the system comprising: a first transaction service provider adapted to interface with the network to facilitate financial transactions with respective financial institutions of a merchant and a customer of the merchant; and, a merchant device adapted to directly communicate with the first transaction service provider over the network; wherein the first transaction service provider comprises: a communication component adapted to communicate with the merchant via the merchant device over the network; and, a processing component configured to receive a merchant transaction processing request from the merchant via the merchant device over the network, the merchant transaction processing request including information related to a financial transaction between the merchant and the customer and being formatted for processing by one of a plurality of transaction service providers, each having a transaction processing request format that is different from those of respective ones of the other transaction service providers; determine whether the received merchant transaction request is formatted for processing by the first transaction service provider or for processing by one of the plurality of transaction service providers other than the first; translate all merchant transaction processing requests formatted for processing by one of the plurality of other transaction service providers into merchant transaction processing requests formatted for processing by the first transaction service provider; and, process all merchant transaction processing requests formatted for processing by the first transaction service provider and all translated merchant transaction processing requests directly with the respective financial institutions of the merchant and the customer and independently of any of the other transaction service providers.