Patent ID: 7428507

Claim:
A payment processing system comprising: a plurality of data communications devices transmitting a plurality of payment requests in connection with purchases, each data communications device transmitting the payment requests via a communication channel of one of a plurality of protocol types, wherein each protocol type is different from others of the plurality of protocol types and each payment request includes a merchant identification code and a set of customer financial account data; and a payment server including a database with a plurality of merchant identification codes, each merchant identification code associated with a financial institution identification code in the database, the payment server further including a plurality of adapter modules coupled to the database, each adapter module executable on the server, compatible with one of the plurality of protocol types, and coupled to a respective one of the communications channels, each adapter module adapted to receiving the payment requests from the data communications devices at the respective channel, each of the adapter modules having a payment processing application identifying from the database a financial institution identification code associated with the merchant identification code from a payment request and interfacing with a data processing system of a financial institution identified by the financial institution identification code consistent with a communications protocol associated with the identified financial account data to the identified financial institution for payment to a merchant identified by the merchant identification code.