Patent Application
20130018787
This Non-provisional Patent Application claims priority to Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/507,951 titled “ATM Payment System and Method” filed Jul. 14, 2011, assigned to the assignee hereof and herby expressly incorporated by reference herein.
With the wide adoption of credits cards, debit cards, electronic payment devices, online shopping systems, and online banking systems, very few people today carry cash or write many checks. However, people still need to transfer money to each other for all sorts of reasons. For example, a person may want to pay a friend back for money recently borrowed from the friend, or a person may want to send money to a relative as a gift. Giving or lending money to another person, however, can be difficult when you don't have cash on hand and/or if the person is not physically present. The process may need to involve mailing the person a check, which can be time consuming and inconvenient depending on the situation.
Money can be transferred from one person to another using electronic banking systems, but these systems traditionally require both Internet access and that the sender know account information for the receiver in order to instruct the bank to transfer money to the proper account. Most people do not know the account numbers of their friends or business entities with whom they transact, nor do most people want to widely publicize their account numbers for security reasons. Furthermore, some people do not have regular access to the Internet.
There thus is a need for improved user-friendly systems and methods for transferring money between two people and/or other entities, especially if such systems can transfer money directly to and/or from financial institution accounts, such as demand deposit accounts (e.g., checking accounts), savings accounts, and/or credit accounts.
Embodiments of the present invention address these and/or other needs by providing an innovative person-to-person (P2P) payment system utilizing established Automated Teller Machine (ATM) functionality for sending and receiving P2P payments. Advantageously, embodiments of the invention do not necessarily require users to share confidential account information with others in order to send and receive payments. In fact, embodiments of the invention do not require that the payment sender know any information about the financial accounts of the intended payment receiver. In this way, embodiments of the invention enable users to make payments to persons that are not customers of the same financial institution and to persons that are not customers of any financial institution.
Furthermore, embodiments of the invention do not necessarily require users to have access to the Internet, for online banking. The P2P payment system utilizes the network and functionality of ATM systems to process, send, and receive P2P payments. Embodiments of the invention also create a “viral” account opening and payment system registration process whereby one person's use of the system encourages others to use the system.
More specifically, embodiments of the invention allow an entity to transfer funds to another entity using an ATM. The entity may provide a mobile telephone number, electronic mail (email) address, a selection of known receivers, and/or other alias of the transfer receiver to determine the entity to direct the payment. The assignee of the present application describes some embodiments of such an invention in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/991,172, filed on Nov. 29, 2007, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/038,177, filed on Feb. 27, 2008, as well as in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/881,071, 12/881,073, 12/881,074, and 12/881,080 continuing therefrom. Embodiments of the present invention include and build off of those earlier embodiments to provide an improved P2P payment system and a more user-friendly, secure, and convenient user interface and method.
Furthermore, embodiments of the invention include and build off of the following applications sharing a common assignee with the present application: U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/410,085, filed on Nov. 4, 2010; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/410,087, filed on Nov. 4, 2010; U.S. Design patent application No. 29/378,420, filed on Nov. 4, 2010; and U.S. Design patent application No. 29/378,418, filed on Nov. 4, 2010, and as such, herein incorporate these applications by reference.
As described in greater detail below, an interface can be incorporated into the ATM display of a financial institution. A user can authenticate his/her identity using the ATM authentication system and the user's authentication information and procedures known to the user for interacting with the ATM, such as the user's ATM card and PIN number. The user can then use the ATM interface to select the user's financial institution accounts that he/she wishes to use for the P2P payment.
The ATM interface can also be used to initiate transfers to third parties. In some embodiments the transfer may occur to others that are already within the system. In this way, the system may recognize and pre-establish entities that P2P payments may be sent to and received from. For example, a local cable company may establish themselves on the system, such that users may select the cable company from the ATM interface and make a P2P payment to the cable company. In this way, the user may not need to know any information about the entity at all other than a name or other alias used by the cable company for receiving P2P payments. The user may simply select the entity from the ATM interface and send a payment to that entity. In other embodiments, transfers may be made to other entities, not associated with the system. In this way, a user can create a transfer receiver by entering the receiver's name, alias, phone number, email address, a descriptive name, picture, logo, graphical artwork, etc. commonly referred to as a nickname, for the entity the user wishes to transfer to using the P2P payment system. The user can then create a transfer request by using the ATM interface to select an account associated with the user; the account may be through the financial institution providing the ATM service or through another financial institution. In this way, the user may not be a customer of the financial institution, but still be able to access his/her accounts and the P2P system associated with the ATM. The user may then select a pre-selected entity or create an entity by providing alias information of a receiver, and enter a monetary amount. The financial institution ATM system then accesses the data repository to retrieve account information for the selected entity.
The selected entity may, again, be pre-established entity, such that the account information for the selected entity may be known. Thus, the entity may have registered for the P2P payment program and thereby provide the financial institution an account associated with the entity. If the entity is registered, the banking system sends a transfer notification to the receiver using the alias and/or initiates the funds transfer. If the entity is not registered, then the banking system uses the alias to send the transfer receiver a notification (e.g., a text message, email or the like), the notification telling the person (or entity) that there is a pending transfer that will be processed if the person registers his/her alias with an existing financial institution account and/or opens a new financial institution account. The notification then provides a link to the online banking website, a mobile banking website, or a mobile banking application that allows the person to easily register an existing account or open a new account.
Embodiments of the invention also provide an ATM interface that makes it easy for users to monitor their current, future, pending, and past P2P and/or person-to-merchant (P2M) funds transfers as well as their saved transfer receiver list, alias registrations, incoming transfers, and/or other related information.
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for receiving payment instructions from a user via the ATM, wherein the payment instructions include information identifying the user, a payment amount, and a payment receiver; determining that the payment receiver is a registered payment receiver, such that account information of the payment receiver is known to a financial institution; communicating a payment notification to the payment receiver based on the payment receiver being the registered payment receiver; and transferring a payment from an account associated with the user to an account associated with the payment receiver.
In some embodiments, the payment receiver may be determined to be an entity associated with the financial institution. In some embodiments, determining the account information of the payment receiver based at least in part on alias information the user provides regarding the payment receiver. The alias information comprises personal identification information about the payment receiver, such that the alias is unique to the payment receiver.
In some embodiments, determining an association between the user and the payment receiver based at least in part on alias information provided by the user. The ATM is provided by a financial institution associated with at least one of the user or payment receiver or both the user and payment receiver.
In some embodiments, the transferring of a payment from an account associated with the user to an account associated with the payment receiver is based at least in part on the payment receiver responding to the payment notification indicating authorization to receive payment. The transferring of a payment from an account associated with the user to an account associated with the payment receiver is provided though an ATM system.
The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed may be achieved independently in various embodiments of the present invention or may be combined with yet other embodiments, further details of which can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.
Having thus described embodiments of the invention in general terms, reference will now be made the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Where possible, any terms expressed in the singular form herein are meant to also include the plural form and vice versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Also, as used herein, the term “a” and/or “an” shall mean “one or more,” even though the phrase “one or more” is also used herein. Furthermore, when it is said herein that something is “based on” something else, it may be based on one or more other things as well. In other words, unless expressly indicated otherwise, as used herein “based on” means “based at least in part on” or “based at least partially on.” Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the terms “financial institution” or “financial entity” include any organization that processes financial transactions including, but not limited to, banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, investment companies, stock brokerages, asset management firms, insurance companies and the like. Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention use the term “user” or “customer.” It will be appreciated by someone with ordinary skill in the art that the user or customer may be a customer of the financial institution providing the ATM, a customer of the financial institution providing the P2P system, not a customer of the financial institution providing the ATM, not a customer of the financial institution providing the P2P system, or any combination thereof.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for utilizing an ATM to provide integrated P2P payments. Embodiments of the invention allow users to make payments directly from their accounts, whether their accounts be checking, savings, line of credit, credit card, stock, and/or other accounts, to a payment receiver. In some embodiments, the user and/or payment receiver may be customers of the financial institution providing the ATM or the P2P system. In some embodiments, the user and/or receiver may not be customers of the financial institution providing the ATM or the P2P system. The P2P system further allows transfer of funds from a user to a receiver without sharing any confidential account information and without knowing account information for the intended payment receiver. In some embodiments, the customers may not currently be customers of the financial institution providing the ATM, but may wish to use the P2P system to make payments to other entities. These customers may access their accounts from other financial institutions through the use of the financial institution's ATM. In this way, the customer may access accounts from other financial institutions to make payments through the P2P system. Embodiments of the invention, also allow customers and non-customers to receive payments from others directly into their financial institution accounts without requiring the customer to share account information with the payment sender.
It should be noted that some embodiments of the invention allow a customer to make payments to and/or receive payments from a merchant in the same way that a customer can make payments to and/or receive payments from another person. As such, as used herein, the phrase person-to-person (P2P) is intended to include person-to-merchant (P2M), merchant-to-merchant (M2M), and merchant-to-person (M2P) unless specifically stated otherwise. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention permit a sender to send money from the sender's financial institution account directly to the receiver's financial institution account either by selecting a pre-established receiver from a data repository or providing an alias receiver such that the receiver account information may be determined by the data repository from information inputted by the user. This allows for greater security as no party apart from the sender, the receiver, and the bank is ever a part of the transfer.
It should be appreciated that at least some embodiments of the invention provide a more convenient, user friendly, and secure P2P payment system because it is provided by the user's financial institution, through the financial institution ATM system with which the user is already familiar. In at least some embodiments, the user may not need to share personal or confidential information, such as account information, with people or businesses outside of the user's bank. The user can feel more secure having P2P payment services handled by their financial institution and having the convenience of being able to directly send money from and/or receive money into the user's one or more financial institution accounts via an ATM.
The information provided by the customer 101 during registration of an alias may be verified to confirm that the customer 101 does have access to the alias. For example verification of an ATM PIN number or the like. In yet another example, the financial institution (or other entity that maintains a database of aliases and associates them with financial institution accounts) may send a communication to the customer 101 using the alias and require the customer 101 confirm access to the alias by responding to the notice in some way. For example, if the alias registered by the customer 101 is a telephone number 119, the financial institution may send a message to the telephone number 119 with a code and then require that the customer 101 enter the code into an ATM interface to confirm that the telephone number is associated with the customer 101. Once the alias information is verified, then the alias is linked to one or more of the customer's financial institution accounts in a data repository maintained by the financial institution or some other entity that provides an alias registry service to the financial institution.
The customer 101 can also use embodiments of the invention to make payments to other entities. Payments to other entities may occur by using an alias of the receiver 125 or the name of the receiver 125 entity, if the receiver 125 has pre-established an account with the P2P payment system. In some embodiments of the invention, the customer 101 is able to set preferences for accounts to be used for outgoing payments, and default account(s) for incoming payments. In some embodiments of the invention, the financial institution places limits (e.g., maximums and/or minimums) on how much money can be sent or received over a specified period of time using P2P payment aliases, and such limits may be based on the sender, the receiver, whether the receiver is a customer of the financial institution or a partner financial institution, account history, credit ratings, customer status, whether the customer has registered the alias, and/or any other relevant information. In some embodiments, the customer 101 can also establish limits on P2P payments. For example, a customer 101 may want to set a maximum of $1000 for P2P payments where an alias is used for the receiver as opposed to an account number.
In some embodiments of the invention, the customer 101 may also have an option of opening a new P2P account 109 with the financial institution that the customer may use exclusively for making and/or receiving P2P payments. This financial entity P2P account 109 may be like any other account hosted at the financial entity and so money may be moved instantly into this account 109 through the regular ATM process for moving money between a customer's accounts. This account 109 may be a type of checking account except that it may come with certain limitations, e.g., no checks, maximum balance limits, number of daily transactions or the like, and may be opened by customers by providing much less information as compared to a regular checking account. The financial entity may, at a minimum, require customers to provide certain information, such as name, address, date of birth, and social security number, in order to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. Customers 101 of the financial entity may also have an option to set up P2P accounts 109 (i.e., sub-accounts) for minors 111, other dependents, or related entities. Customers 101 are able to access these accounts just like any of their other accounts. In addition, customers 101 are able to set up an ATM access ID for the minor 111 that the minor 111 may use ATM machines but have access only to the specific minor P2P account 109 set up for them. These P2P-specific accounts and sub-accounts are described in more detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/038,177 filed on Feb. 27, 2008 and entitled “Sub-Account Mechanism,” which application was assigned to, or subject to an obligation to assign to, the same assignee of the present application at the time of filing of the present application and at the time of conception of the inventions described herein.
Referring again to
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, payments may be made by providing an alias 117. In general, as described in greater detail below, the customer 101 initiates a P2P payment using an alias by communicating an alias for the receiver 125 and an associated payment amount to the financial institution. The financial institution then accesses an alias database, or other type of data repository, to determine if the entered alias 117 has been registered by the alias holder and is, thereby, associated with a particular financial institution account. If the alias 117 does have a match to another customer in 131 or financial institution account of another customer 131, then the payment may be initiated to that person through ATM functionality, as described in greater detail below. If there is no match, then either an error message 129 is generated or, if possible, the alias 117 may be used to contact the intended receiver 125 and allow this person to register the alias 117 and thereby associate the alias with a financial institution account, at block 150. At any time, if outgoing payments or payment notifications are not received by a receiver (as represented by block 103), the payment may be canceled (as represented by block 105).
In some embodiments of the invention, an alias 117 may be associated with multiple financial institution accounts of the alias holder. In some such embodiments, the alias holder may be able to establish a default account when registering the alias 117 or afterwards. Consequently, if a receiver 125 does have a default account for incoming payments in 137, then the funds may be transferred instantly to that account(s). If the receiver 125 has not set up a default account in 137 but the receiver 125 does have multiple accounts associated with the alias 117, then the funds may be moved to a master settlement account 135 and the receiver 125 may see the payment as an incoming payment within online banking 133. The receiver 125 may then be able to use the online banking application to move the funds instantly to any of the receiver's others accounts. In other embodiments, however, each alias 117 is associated only with one financial institution account and, therefore, steps 137 and 135 are not needed and the payment is deposited directly into the one financial institution account associated with the alias 117.
As further illustrated in
As further illustrated in
In some embodiments of the invention, payment may be made by providing a social networking ID 123, such as a unique ID associated with the receiver 125 on a particular social networking Internet site. In such a situation, the process operates in the same way as described above for mobile phone number 119 and email address 121 except the social networking platform may be used to notify the receiver based on the social networking ID 123 provided.
In some embodiments, payments may be made by an ATM alias. As such, the receiver 125 may not have access to a mobile device, email address, or social networking ID. In this way, the receiver may set up an alias via an ATM. In this way the receiver may receive payment to an account associated with the ATM alias so that the customer may provide the receiver 125 ATM alias for P2P payment.
In all cases described above, if the receiver 125 is already a customer of the financial institution or a partner financial institution and has already registered the alias 117 provided by the customer 101, a text message, email, online banking notice, mobile banking notice, ATM notification, or other type of message may be sent to receiver 125 based on the alias 117 entered by the customer 101 or irrespective of information entered by sender if there is other contact information found in the receiver's profile, the notification notifying the receiver 125 of the payment. In some embodiments, the receiver 125 may be allowed to reject or re-route the payment. In some embodiments of the invention, the customer 101 is permitted to include a note to the receiver 125 along with the payment, such as a note explaining to the receiver what the purpose of payment. In some embodiments, the receiver 125 is not a customer of the financial institution.
It should be appreciated that embodiments of the invention described above permit an entity to send money to another entity even if the sending entity does not know any account information for the receiver entity and only knows an ATM alias, mobile telephone number, email address of the receiver entity or the receiver entity is pre-established to receive payments via the P2P payment system. This can also result in better protection of personal account information. It should also be appreciated that some embodiments of the invention create a viral registration and/or account opening system that allows for customers of a financial institution to send payments to anyone outside the financial entity using an alias. In such embodiments, the non-customers are contacted using the alias and they are allowed to quickly open and/or register an account with the financial institution in order to receive the funds from the sender.
The environment 300 also includes one or more ATM machines 400. Each ATM 400 may be a device that employs a processor and memory and can perform computing functions, such as accessing, retrieving, and sending funds via an ATM system.
The ATM 400 is configured to communicate over a network 350 with a financial institution's ATM system 600 and, in some cases, one or more other financial institution banking systems 370. The ATM 400, the financial institution's ATM system 600, an alias data repository 700, and any other participating financial institution's banking systems 370 are each described in greater detail below with reference to
The network 350 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and/or a global area network (GAN). The network 350 may provide for wireline, wireless, or a combination of wireline and wireless communication between devices in the network. In one embodiment, the network 350 includes the Internet.
In general, an ATM 400 is configured to connect with the network 350 to log the user 310 into a financial institution system 600. The financial institution system 600 involves authentication of the user 310 in order to access the user's account on the financial institution system 600. For example, the financial institution system 600 is a system where a user 310 logs into his/her account, using either an ATM card at an ATM 400 along with a PIN number, such that the user 310 or other entity can access data that is associated with the user 310. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, the financial institution system 600 provides an ATM 400 maintained by a financial institution. In such an embodiment, the user 310 can use the ATM 400 to log into the financial institution system 600 to access the user's accounts. Logging into the financial institution system 600 generally requires that the user 310 authenticate his/her identity using an ATM card, debit card, a PIN number, user name, a passcode, a cookie, a biometric identifier, a private key, a token, and/or another authentication mechanism that is provided by the user 310 to the financial institution system 600 via the ATM 400. The ATM may provide the user 310 with access to the P2P system via an interface, such as that described below with respect to
The financial institution's ATM system 600 is in network communication with other devices, such as other financial institution banking systems 370, an alias data repository 700, and an ATM 600.
In some embodiments of the invention, the alias data repository 700 is configured to be controlled and managed by one or more third-party data providers (not shown in
Referring now to
As used herein, an “ATM interface” 430 generally includes a plurality of interface devices that allow a customer to input commands and data to direct the processing device to execute instructions. As such, the ATM interface 430 employs certain input and output devices to input data received from the user 310 or output data to the user 310. These input and output devices may include a display, mouse, keyboard, button, touchpad, touch screen, microphone, speaker, LED, light, joystick, switch, buzzer, bell, and/or other customer input/output device for communicating with one or more customers using an ATM machine.
The ATM 400 provides means for the user 310 to authenticate himself/herself by logging into the ATM P2P system. Furthermore, the ATM 400 provides the user 310 access to the financial institution system 600, such that the user 310 may send funds to a receiver through the financial institution system 600. The ATM 400 provides the user 310 all ATM functionality, including allowing the user 310 to deposit, withdrawal, and receive funds. The ATM 400 further provides the ATM application 455 that allows a user to send funds to a receiver directly, using the ATM functionality. In this way, the user 310 may select a pre-established receiver or provide alias information for a receiver and send funds to the receiver from an account associated with the financial institution system 600. In this way, the funds may be sent securely from an ATM 400 to the financial institution system 600, wherein the financial institution system 600 sends the funds to the receiver's financial institution. Thus, the sending and receiving of funds never exits the financial institution's networks to an outside network.
As used herein, a “processing device,” such as the processing device 420 or the processing device 620, generally refers to a device or combination of devices having circuitry used for implementing the communication and/or logic functions of a particular system. For example, a processing device may include a digital signal processor device, a microprocessor device, and various analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, and other support circuits and/or combinations of the foregoing. Control and signal processing functions of the system are allocated between these processing devices according to their respective capabilities. The processing device 420 or 620 may further include functionality to operate one or more software programs based on computer-executable program code thereof, which may be stored in a memory. As the phrase is used herein, a processing device 420 or 620 may be “configured to” perform a certain function in a variety of ways, including, for example, by having one or more general-purpose circuits perform the function by executing particular computer-executable program code embodied in computer-readable medium, and/or by having one or more application-specific circuits perform the function.
As used herein, a “memory device” 450 or 550 generally refers to a device or combination of devices that store one or more forms of computer-readable media and/or computer-executable program code/instructions. Computer-readable media is defined in greater detail below. For example, in one embodiment, the memory device 450 or 550 includes any computer memory that provides an actual or virtual space to temporarily or permanently store data and/or commands provided to the processing device 420 or 520 when it carries out its functions described herein.
It should be understood that the memory device 650 may include one or more databases or other data structures/repositories. The memory device 650 also includes computer-executable program code that instructs the processing device 620 to operate the network communication interface 610 to perform certain communication functions of the financial institution system 600 described herein. For example, in one embodiment of the financial institution system 600, the memory device 650 includes, but is not limited to, a network server application 670, an authentication application 660, a customer account data repository 680, which includes customer authentication data 680 and customer account information 684, and an financial institution application 690, which includes an alias data repository interface 692 and other computer-executable instructions or other data. The computer-executable program code of the network server application 670, the authentication application 660, or the financial institution application 690 may instruct the processing device 620 to perform certain logic, data-processing, and data-storing functions of the online system 600 described herein, as well as communication functions of the online banking system 600.
In one embodiment, the customer account data repository 680 includes customer authentication data 682 and customer account information 684. The network server application 670, the authentication application 660, and the financial institution application 690 are configured to implement customer account information 684, the customer authentication data 682, and the alias data repository interface 692 when authenticating the customer 101 to the financial institution system 600.
As used herein, a “communication interface” generally includes a modem, server, transceiver, and/or other device for communicating with other devices on a network, and/or a ATM interface for communicating with one or more customers. Referring again to
The memory device 750 also provides an alias data store 770 which stores data including, but not limited to, an alias for the customer or a receiver, such that the system may recognize the account associated with the alias and direct payment thereto. The alias may be any number of unique identifiers including a telephone number, PIN number, debit card, ATM card, other ATM alias, or email address. In one embodiment of the invention, the pre-established entities 760 and the alias data store 770 may associate with applications having computer-executable program code that instructs the processing device 720 to operate the network communication interface 710 to perform certain communication functions involving the alias data store 770 described herein. In one embodiment, the computer-executable program code of an application associated with the alias data store 770 may also instruct the processing device 720 to perform certain logic, data processing, and data storing functions of the application associated with the alias data store 770 described herein. An alias, as defined in this invention, is not limited to just a debit card or ATM card (magnetic strip recognition), a PIN number, telephone number, or an email address.
The network communication interface 710 is a communication interface having one or more communication devices configured to communicate with one or more other devices on the network 350. The processing device 720 is configured to use the network communication interface 710 to receive information from and/or provide information and commands to an ATM 400, other financial institution banking systems 370, the alias data repository 700, the financial institution system 600 and/or other devices via the network 350. In some embodiments, the processing device 720 also uses the network communication interface 710 to access other devices on the network 350, such as one or more web servers of one or more third-party data providers. In some embodiments, one or more of the devices described herein may be operated by a second entity so that the third-party controls the various functions involving the alias data repository 700. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, although the financial institution system 600 is operated by a first entity (e.g., a financial institution), a second entity operates the alias data repository 700 that stores the alias details for the customer's financial institution accounts and other information about customers.
As described above, the processing device 720 is configured to use the network communication interface 710 to gather data from the various data sources. The processing device 720 stores the data that it receives in the memory device 750. In this regard, in one embodiment of the invention, the memory device 750 includes datastores that include, for example: (1) aliases for customer financial institution account numbers and routing information, (2) information regarding pre-established receiver entities; (3) information about sending and receiving users' numbers, email addresses, or other contact information, which may have been received from the financial institution system 600; and/or (4) customer credentials (e.g., a customer ID) received from the customer when the customer enrolled in the account or from the ATM 400.
Referring next to
If the user selects the P2P payment option, he/she is directed to the P2P payment start-up section 1106. At the P2P payment start-up section 1106 the user may join the program if he/she hasn't done so already, by selecting the “yes, I want to join” button 1126. If the user has already joined then he/she may select the “I′m already enrolled” button 1128. The user may then accept the terms of the P2P payment by checking the accept box in section 1130.
The user may then proceed to making a P2P payment in section 1108. In the making a P2P payment section 1108 the user is prompted to select a receiver of the payment in section 1132. The receiver may be from a pre-established group 1136 or the user may have to provide alias information regarding the receiver 1138. The pre-established group 1136 may be companies, merchants, retailers, manufactures, service providers, and the like that have previously enrolled in the P2P program. In some embodiments, the pre-established group 1136 may be commercial partners with the financial institution providing the P2P payment system. In this way, the financial institution system 600 or the alias data repository 700 may already have account information for these pre-established entities. Therefore, the user may select the name or the nickname associated with the pre-established entity and direct a P2P payment to that entity. The user may also provide an alias for an individual or entity that the user may wish to make a payment to if the individual is not pre-established in section 1138. The alias may be any number of identifiers of the receiver, such as, but not limited to telephone numbers, email addresses, addresses, unique identifiers, etc. that the alias data repository 700 may recognize such that the alias may be matched to a receiver account. The system then confirms the payment with the receiver and the account associated with the receiver's alias. In this way, the user does not have to provide any account, routing, or financial data of the receiver to provide a payment to the receiver. Once the user has determined the receiver of the payment, the user may provide the amount of the payment to send in section 1134.
If the user has completed the payment or wishes to monitor payments (sent or received) via the P2P program, the user may select the monitor P2P payments section 1110. In this section, the user may monitor payments received 1140 and payments sent 1142 to ensure that the payments have occurred and directed to the appropriate accounts.
The process begins at block 802 of
The process then moves to block 804 where the user 310 using the ATM 400 accepts the invitation from the ATM interface by activating the button that reads “Yes, I Want to Join.”
The process then moves to block 806 of
The financial institution system 600 also informs the user that there may be dollar amounts and other limits that apply for these P2P transfers. The financial institution system 600 may informs the user that the user may find in the P2P payment terms an applicable daily cut off times and delivery times for making these P2P transfers.
The process then moves to block 810 of
The process then moves to block 820 where the user is prompted to enter new receiver information including, but not necessarily limited to, the name of the receiver, the nickname of the receiver and the alias or account number for the new receiver.
The process then moves to block 822 at which point the user enters the new receiver's information in the appropriate fields of an interface. The user may enter the nickname of the new receiver in the designated field. This nickname can be any name that the first user chooses to associate with the intended receiver for the purpose of subsequently identifying the receiver based on alias information such as telephone numbers, email addresses, ATM PIN numbers, or other unique numbers that may identify the user.
The process then moves to block 824 in which additional authentication may be required prior to adding the new receiver to the database. The additional authentication is a safety measure to ensure the payment of funds is being directed correctly. The additional authentication may require contacting the receiver and having the receiver verify information such as a password, etc. The process then proceeds to block 826, in which the additional authentication step is completed. Once the receiver inputs the received code to confirm that the code is correct, the new receiver is activatable so that the user can now provide P2P payments to that receiver. The financial institution system 600 can then store the intended receiver's information or direct it to the alias data repository 700 for storage. The process then moves to block 828 and the new intended receiver's information is stored in a list of P2P payment receivers.
Turning the reader's attention to
At block 834 of
The process then moves to block 836 of
The process then moves to block 838 of
In block 842, the financial institution system 600 determines whether the total transfer amount exceeds the maximum permitted in the transaction. In one embodiment, the maximum amount that can be transferred using the P2P service is dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, the user's identity, the receiver's identity, the length and nature of the user's relationship with the financial institution, the length and nature of the receiver's relationship with the financial institution, the amount of funds that the user has deposited at the financial institution, the user's financial institution status, etc. In one embodiment, the maximum amount that can be transferred using the P2P transfer method is dynamically determined at the time the transfer is set-up by a supporting application that works in conjunction with or is embedded within the financial institution system 600.
If the transfer amount is above the maximum permitted in this particular transaction, the process moves to block 844 of
If the transfer amount is below or equal to the maximum permitted in this particular transaction, the process moves to block 846 of
The process then moves to block 848 where the user can confirm the user's intention to make a transfer. Alternatively, the user can cancel the transaction. Once the user confirms the transfer, the financial institution system 600 may displays a message, via the ATM interface 1100 to the user that the transfer request has been received by the financial institution system 600 and that the receiver has been notified. The ATM interface 1100 may further provide confirmation as to the account from which money will be transferred along with the new account balance after the deducting the total amount for the transfer. Further, the ATM interface 1100 may also displays the nickname of the receiver to whom the money will be transferred and/or the associated alias type. The ATM interface 1100 may also displays the amount transferred, the fee associated with the transaction, the transfer date, and a unique confirmation number.
Referring to
If the receiver is associated with an alias, then, the process moves to block 854 where the financial institution system 600 sends the alias and the receiver's name to an alias data repository 700. The process then moves to block 856 where the alias data repository 700 looks up the alias in an alias datastore. Then the process moves to block 858, where the alias data repository 700 determines whether the alias is associated with a financial institution account. If the alias is associated with a financial institution account, then the process moves to block 860 where, if the alias data repository 700 determines that the provided name matches the name in the datastore, then the process moves to block 852 of
If in block 858 of
The process then moves on from block 845 to block 874 of
If in block 874 of
As shown in
As shown in
If the receiver has an eligible financial institution account as determined by the financial institution system 600 in block 870, then the process moves to block 872 in
As shown in
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method (including, for example, a computer-implemented process, a business process, and/or any other process), apparatus (including, for example, a system, machine, device, computer program product, and/or the like), or a combination of the foregoing. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may generally be referred to herein as a “system.” Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-readable medium having computer-executable program code embodied in the medium.
Any suitable transitory or non-transitory computer readable medium may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples of the computer readable medium include, but are not limited to, the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires; a tangible storage medium such as a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), or other optical or magnetic storage device.
In the context of this document, a computer readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to the Internet, wireline, optical fiber cable, radio frequency (RF) signals, or other mediums.
Computer-executable program code for carrying out operations of embodiments of the present invention may be written in an object oriented, scripted or unscripted programming language such as Java, Perl, Smalltalk, C++, or the like. However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of embodiments of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages.
Embodiments of the present invention are described above with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and/or combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer-executable program code portions. These computer-executable program code portions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the code portions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create mechanisms for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer-executable program code portions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the code portions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction mechanisms which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block(s).
The computer-executable program code may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the code portions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block(s). Alternatively, computer program implemented steps or acts may be combined with operator or human implemented steps or acts in order to carry out an embodiment of the invention.
As the phrase is used herein, a processor may be “configured to” perform a certain function in a variety of ways, including, for example, by having one or more general-purpose circuits perform the function by executing particular computer-executable program code embodied in computer-readable medium, and/or by having one or more application-specific circuits perform the function.
Embodiments of the present invention are described above with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams. It will be understood that steps of the processes described herein may be performed in orders different than those illustrated in the flowcharts. In other words, the processes represented by the blocks of a flowchart may, in some embodiments, be in performed in an order other that the order illustrated, may be combined or divided, or may be performed simultaneously. It will also be understood that the blocks of the block diagrams illustrated, in some embodiments, merely conceptual delineations between systems and one or more of the systems illustrated by a block in the block diagrams may be combined or share hardware and/or software with another one or more of the systems illustrated by a block in the block diagrams. Likewise, a device, system, apparatus, and/or the like may be made up of one or more devices, systems, apparatuses, and/or the like. For example, where a processor is illustrated or described herein, the processor may be made up of a plurality of microprocessors or other processing devices which may or may not be coupled to one another. Likewise, where a memory is illustrated or described herein, the memory may be made up of a plurality of memory devices which may or may not be coupled to one another.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of, and not restrictive on, the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other changes, combinations, omissions, modifications and substitutions, in addition to those set forth in the above paragraphs, are possible. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of the just described embodiments can be configured without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61507951 | Jul 2011 | US |
