Patent ID: 7783555

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to set an interest rate for a transacted financial instrument, the method including: publishing, via a computer network, information regarding the financial instrument and an interest rate at which the financial instrument is offered, the information including a price of the financial instrument; receiving, via the computer network, offers from respective bidders to transact the financial instrument, the offers being expressed as offered interest rates at which the bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument; on the termination of a bid receiving process, determining, by using at least one processor, whether at least one of the offers satisfies transaction criteria, defined by a seller of the financial instrument, the bid receiving process being a declining auction and being characterized by reducing the published interest rate at which the financial instrument is offered for sale during the bid receiving process, the reducing of the published interest rate is performed automatically and responsive to a lack of bidding activity and if it is determined that at least one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria, identifying, by using the at least one processor, the at least one of the offers as an accepted offer.