Patent ID: 8571979

Claim:
For use with a banking institution and another corporate entity that is operated independently of the banking institution, a computer-facilitated method for rendering funds associated with a master account holding funds of the other corporate entity and having a plurality of sub-accounts and according to account management terms between the banking institution and the other corporate entity, the computer-facilitated method comprising: providing a plurality of banking-sponsored-corporate-activatable articles including physical cards; communicating, via a computer, an association command from the other corporate entity, the association command associating activated ones of the articles with respective ones of the sub-accounts according to the validation procedure that defines account management terms between the banking institution and the other corporate entity, enabling, via a computer, redemption of pre-paid corporate funds from respective sub-accounts that are associated with the activated articles, designating, via a computer, articles recipients and issuing the activated ones of the articles to the designated articles recipients for respective ones of the sub-accounts and in response to the communicating of the association command; and tracking, via a computer, redemption of pre-paid corporate funds from the sub-accounts resulting from uses of the activated ones of the articles by tracking the respective ones of the sub-accounts by the banking institution in response to the communicating of the association command.