Patent ID: 7546275

Claim:
A method for deposit of an electronic payment order drawn on a deposit target processor, comprising: receiving the electronic payment order at a first intermediary processor over a network from a depositing processor; signing the payment order with an electronic signature of the first intermediary processor; conveying the signed payment order over the network from the first intermediary processor to at least a second intermediary processor; adding to the signed payment order an electronic signature of at least the second intermediary processor so as to generate a signed deposit trail; conveying the payment order with the signed deposit trail from the second intermediary processor over the network to the deposit target processor; transferring payment from the first intermediary processor to the depositing processor responsive to the payment order; and verifying validity of the payment order responsive to the signed deposit trail, wherein verifying the validity of the payment order comprises, when two or more duplicates of the payment order are received at one of the processors, determining which of the copies is valid responsive to the signed deposit trail, and wherein determining which of the duplicates is valid comprises determining whether the duplicates were generated accidentally due to a communication failure.