Patent ID: 7711690

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: transmitting, by a source system to a remittance processing system, a payment request on behalf of a payor; responsive to the transmission of the payment request, receiving, by the source system from the remittance processing system, at least one payment instruction generated by the remittance processing system, wherein the generation of the at least one payment instruction includes the remittance processing system (i) identifying a payee in a merchant database based, at least in part, on information in the payment request, (ii) retrieving information associated with the payee from the merchant database, and (iii) altering an account number associated with the payment request according to at least one alteration rule associated with the payee, and wherein the at least one payment instruction includes the retrieved information or the altered account number; and issuing, by the source system, a payment associated with the payment request in accordance with the at least one payment instruction received from the remittance processing system, wherein the payment is made to the identified payee and includes the altered account number, wherein the above steps are performed by one or more computers associated with the source system.