Patent ID: 8560447

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for selecting an account to be utilized for an electronic bill payment to a payee, the method comprising: a cashflow engine of a computer of a first financial institution receiving data of a first account of a payor hosted by the first financial institution and data of a second account of the payor hosted by a different, second financial institution, the first and second account data comprising respective current balance and transaction history data, receiving electronic bill payment data comprising a payment date, the payor logging into a website of the first financial institution computer and entering or selecting the payment date, and determining respective estimated balances of the first and second accounts on respective pre-determined dates based at least in part upon respective current balances and transaction histories of respective first and second accounts; and a ranking engine of the first financial institution computer receiving the respective estimated balances on the pre-determined dates generated by the cashflow engine, generating respective scores for the first and second accounts based at least in part upon the respective estimated balances on the pre-determined dates and respective attributes of the first and second accounts, performing a comparison of the generated scores; and selecting at least one of the first and second accounts as a source of funds for the electronic bill payment to the payee based at least in part upon the comparison.