Patent ID: 8271380

Claim:
A method for settling financial accounts, the method comprising: receiving at a host computer system financial transaction data resulting from a plurality of financial transactions originating from a plurality of stores, wherein the stores are grouped into separate entities with separate accounting systems, wherein the financial transactions are associated with customer accounts, wherein at least some of the financial transactions are activation transactions where customer accounts are activated with an activation amount, and wherein at least some of the financial transactions are redemption transactions for redemption amounts; analyzing, with the host computer system, each financial transaction to determine the entity from which the financial transaction originated; maintaining, at the host computer system, a record of the financial transactions, including from which entity the financial transaction originated; and for redemption transactions that occurred within one of the entities other than where the associated account was activated, preparing, with the host computer system, a request to transfer a redemption amount to a central account from an entity account associated with where the account was activated, and preparing, with the host computer system, a request to transfer less than the redemption amount from the central account to an entity account associated with where the redemption transaction occurred.