Patent ID: 8688574

Claim:
A method of processing payment authorization requests for payment transactions to be conducted via a data communications network, the payment authorization requests being conducted as a result of orders by financial account holders via a plurality of different online merchant systems, wherein the financial account holders hold accounts with a plurality of different issuing banks, the method comprising conducting an account identification procedure comprising: identifying, from the plurality of different issuing banks, an issuing bank associated with a financial account holder; on the basis of the identification of the issuing bank, retrieving issuing bank transmission data over a data communication network to enable the transmission of account identification request data, the issuing bank transmission data being dependent upon the identified issuing bank and identifying a selected account identification system associated with the identified issuing bank; on the basis of the retrieved issuing bank transmission data, transmitting an account identification request over the data communication network to the selected account identification system associated with the identified issuing bank; receiving over the data communication network from the account identification system associated with the identified issuing bank an account identification response in response to the account identification request, the account identification response identifying a financial account identity, the financial account identity including a Primary Account Number (â€œPANâ€) capable of being used in the authorization of at least one payment transactions, the at least one payment transaction being initiated as a result of a financial account holder conducting at least one order via at least one online merchant system; and responsive to receiving the account identification response: a) generating a payment authorization request comprising transaction data including: i) said PAN to be used in a payment transaction by the financial account holder; ii) a merchant identity, associated with a first online merchant, as the payment transaction beneficiary; and iii) transaction detail including a payment amount; and b) transmitting the generated payment authorization request for subsequent processing by an acquiring bank payment processor system responsible for processing payment authorizations for an acquiring bank with which the first online merchant is associated.