Patent ID: 7100820

Claim:
A process for selecting at least one source of positive pay information to query in association with a proposed check-cashing transaction, the process comprising: receiving a request from a check-cashing entity for positive pay authentication for a check presented to the check-cashing entity in association with a proposed check-cashing transaction; identifying two or more available positive pay information sources; accessing information about at least one of the set consisting of: characteristics of the available positive pay information sources, characteristics of the proposed check-cashing transaction, and preferences of the check-cashing entity; selecting at least two available positive pay information sources and compiling an ordered list of the selected positive pay information sources wherein compiling the ordered list comprises ordering the positive pay information sources in the list such that positive pay information sources determined to be more likely to store positive pay information about the check, based at least in part on the accessed information, are queried earlier than postitive pay information sources determined to be less likely to store positive pay information about the check; and selecting, based at least in part on the request received from the check-cashing entity and on the accessed information, at least one of the available positive pay information sources to query.