Patent ID: 8407141

Claim:
A system for processing financial transaction data, the system comprising: an adapter layer that receives an incoming data message having a message format of a transaction system that is external to a payment processing network that processes transactions relating to an account managed by an issuer who utilizes the payment processing network, the incoming data message relating to any one of a financial transaction initiated by a payer, an authorization request, and a payee query request, and such that the adapter layer operates on the incoming data message to change the format of the incoming data message and produce adapted data relating to the financial transaction in a message format suitable for processing by the payment processing network; a processor hub that receives the adapted data and determines transaction routing to direct the adapted data to the payment processing network, wherein the payment processing network generates intra-network communications comprising requests for authorization by the issuer, requests for settlement and payment on the financial transaction to a transaction payee in response to authorizations, and responses to payee query requests from payees external to the payment processing network for non-payment data, and wherein the payment processing network generates extra-network communications to entities external to the payment processing network for making a payment to the payee on the financial transaction, wherein the processor hub performs rules-based workflow management processing on the adapted data for the financial transaction, wherein the rules-based workflow management processing comprises extracting and reformatting the adapted data into one or more formats defined by the external entities prior to directing the adapted data to the payment processing network, and wherein the processor hub receives responses to the requests for authorization from the issuer via the payment processing network and forwards the responses to the adapter layer for transmission to the payer; wherein the adapter layer is configured to receive the incoming data message from a graphical user interface browser application communicating over a public network and wherein the payer is associated with the account managed by the issuer; and wherein the processor hub is configured to provide an administrative interface through the graphical user interface browser application for setup and control and to provide access to the processor hub by participants of the financial transaction.