Patent ID: 8245939

Claim:
At a payment system including one or more processors and system memory, the payment system connected to one or more other computer systems, including a computer system at an external financial institution, via network communication, the payment system including an internal financial module and having a payment system account at the external financial institution, the payment system account being linked to the payment system, the payment system account providing an interface between internal accounts internal to the payment system and external accounts external to the payment system, the payment system managing internal accounts for a plurality of users of the payment management system, each internal account being partitioned into a plurality of different parts including at least a receiving sub-account and a sending sub-account, the financial module controlling the funds in the partitioned accounts, a method for providing an investment benefit to users that are members of the business association, the method comprising: an act of identifying any sub-accounts having funds that are available for investment; for the identified sub-accounts, an act of determining the balance of each sub-account; an act of calculating an amount of funds available for investment based on the balances in each sub-account and in accordance with a risk strategy defined in investment rules that govern investing for the business association; an act of the financial module and the payment system account interoperating to invest the calculated amount of funds on behalf of the business association in accordance with the risk strategy; and an act of the financial module and the payment system account interoperating to disburse any investment gains, resulting from investing the calculated amount of funds, to the sub-accounts of members of the business association, the investment gains disbursed to the sub-accounts of the members of the business association in accordance with disbursement rules defined in the investment rules.