Patent ID: 8862507

Claim:
An online system for facilitating financial transactions involving the exchange of financial instruments, the online system comprising: a connect processor to facilitate the exchange of messages between a member and a provider, including trans action messages that contain information and data regarding transactions between the member and the provider, wherein the connect processor is configured to convert XML documents to/from Java objects; and a web server in communication with the connect processor and operable to enable the member to engage in a trans action with one or more providers, the web server operable to generate: an interactive interface that enables the member to generate the details of a request for price quote and communicate such request for price quote to the one or more providers; an interactive interface that enables the provider to generate and modify the details of price quotes and communicate such price quotes to the one or more members, and wherein the request for price quote generated by the member includes a request for both purchase and sale price quote; an interactive interface that enables the member to view price quotes received from the one or more providers; and an interactive interface that enables the member to accept price quotes received from the one or more providers, generate transaction terms related to each price quote, and communicate the transaction terms and acceptances to the one or more providers, wherein the transaction terms are generated as Java objects and communicated as XML documents.