Financial email

Abstract

A user interface hosted by a financial institution. The user interface is accessible via a communication network by a first user using a client device and includes at least one first screen for managing financial transactions of the first user. The user interface further includes a second screen for conducting email communication between the first user and at least one party other than the financial institution.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application is directed generally and in various embodiments to a system for providing a network-based banking user interface having an integrated email service.

BACKGROUND

Banks and other financial institutions (hereinafter “institutions”) frequently offer network-based product and service features to their customers as an alternative to those provided via traditional “brick and mortar” banking channels. These features are usually provided by way of a user interface (UI) of a secure Web site hosted by the institution and remotely accessible to its customers using client devices, such as, for example, personal computers (PCs) or other network-enabled devices. Examples of such features include account balance inquiries, electronic funds transfers, transaction information downloads, bill presentment and payment, loan applications, and investment services. Because the UI is typically available to client devices over the Internet, the terms “Internet banking” or “online banking” are commonly used to refer to the availability and use of such features. From a customer standpoint, advantages of Internet banking include the ability to interact with their banking institution any time from virtually any location, the convenience of managing their finances from a single source, and increased transactional speed. Internet banking additionally provides significant economic benefits to banking institutions in terms of reduced paper handling and reduced teller interactions.

Internet banking customers invariably need to communicate with other parties regarding aspects of their finances. Such parties may include, for example, the host institution or other institution(s), billing parties (e.g., utility companies, credit card companies, etc.), and other parties having a financial relationship with the customer (e.g., a roommate, a business partner, a financial advisor, etc.). Such communication is often conducted by email contemporaneously with the customer's Internet banking session using the same client device. Although currently available Internet banking UIs sometimes offer secure messaging services, communication is typically limited to exchanges between the customer and employees of the host institution. In order to exchange email communications with parties other than the financial institution, the customer is thus required to use an email service separate from the Internet banking UI. The use of a separate email service for exchanging financial communications poses certain disadvantages, however. In particular, the need to invoke an additional application may be inconvenient and generally lessens the efficiency afforded by an otherwise self-contained UI. Additionally, because email relating to the customer's finances is interspersed with other unrelated and potentially distracting communications, the customer's ability to focus on Internet banking tasks at hand is diminished, and the risk of overlooking or inadvertently deleting a financial communications is increased.

SUMMARY

In one general respect, the present application is directed to a user interface hosted by a financial institution. The user interface is accessible via a communication network by a first user using a client device and includes at least one first screen for managing financial transactions of the first user. The user interface further includes a second screen for conducting email communication between the first user and at least one party other than the financial institution.

In another general respect, the present application is directed to a system including a network-enabled client device associated with a first user of a financial institution and including a display, and a user interface hosted by the financial institution. The user interface is accessible via a communication network using the client device and includes at least one first screen for managing financial transactions of the first user and a second screen for conducting email communication between the first user and at least one party other than the financial institution.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a system according to various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a user interface according to various embodiments; and

FIG. 3 illustrates an email displayable via a screen of the user interface according to various embodiments.

DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 5 according to various embodiments for providing a network-based banking UI having an integrated email service. As will be appreciated from the description that follows, the ability to access email service from within a network-based banking UI provides a significant advantage over current banking UIs that typically limit users to communications exchanges with the host institution. One undesirable consequence of this limitation, as explained above, is the need for a separate email application. The UI provided by the system 5, by contrast, enables users to communicate with not only the host institution, but also other parties regarding aspects of their finances, thereby eliminating inconveniences that would otherwise arise from the use of a separate email application. Moreover, because the UI provided by the system 5 enables management of financial communications separately from nonfinancial communications, the user is better able to focus on banking tasks at hand, and the risk of overlooking or deleting financial communications that would otherwise be interspersed with nonfinancial email is reduced.

As shown, the system 5 may include a host system 10 in communication with one or more client devices C₁, C₂, . . . C_i 15 (hereinafter “clients 15”) via a communication network 20. The host system 10 may be implemented by a bank or other financial institution (hereinafter “host institution”) and configured to provide network-based product and service features to users (e.g., customers of the host institution) associated with the clients 15. In certain embodiments, the communication network 20 may be implemented using the Internet, although it will be understood that any public or private communication network suitable for enabling the electronic exchange of information between the host system 10 and the clients 15 using wireline and/or wireless communication channels may generally be used.

In certain embodiments, the host system 10 is based on a tiered network architecture and includes a Web server 25, an application server 30, and a database server 35. The Web server 25 corresponds to a first tier of the host system 10 and communicates with the communication network 20 and the application server 30 via a border firewall 35 and an application firewall 40, respectively. The Web server 25 may be configured to accept information requests (e.g., HTTP requests) from one or more of the clients 15 (e.g., PCs and/or other network-enabled devices associated with the users) via the communication network 20 and provide suitable responses thereto. The responses may include, for example, HTTP responses including static and/or dynamic HTML documents for providing an Internet banking user interface (UI) 45 to users via the clients 15. The Web server 25 may further be configured to authenticate each user's credentials before allowing access to the UI 45 and other resources associated with the host system 10. Authentication may be performed, for example, using a user name and a password.

The application server 30 corresponds to a second tier of the host system 10 and communicates with the Web server 25 and the data base server 35 via the application firewall 40 and an internal firewall 50, respectively. The application server 30 may host one or more applications executing logic to provide banking product and service features to each user via a corresponding UI 45. The application server 30 may receive user-entered information from the UI 45 of each client 15 via the Web server 25. Such information may include, for example, a user name and password associated with the user and a request to access particular banking features. Based on this and other information received from the clients 15, applications hosted by the application server 30 may perform financial transactions (e.g., transfer funds between accounts, retrieve account balances, etc.) and generate corresponding informational content (e.g., transfer confirmations, account balance information, etc.). Information regarding such transactions may be communicated to the Web server 25 and subsequently presented to the users using, for example, a dynamic Web page of the UI 45. As discussed in further detail below, the application server 30 may also host an application for enabling users to conduct email communication with the host institution and other parties.

The database server 53 corresponds to a third tier of the host system 10 and communicates with the application server 30 via the internal firewall 50. The database server 53 may manage one or more databases DB₁, DB₂, . . . DB_j 55 (hereinafter “databases 55”) storing data to support one or more applications hosted by the application server 30 or elsewhere. Such databases may include, for example, account information databases, user information databases, user preferences/settings databases, as well as databases for storing other settings and/or configuration data. Database information requested by a particular application may be retrieved from the databases 55 by the database server 53, communicated to the requesting application, and updated by the database server 53 as needed.

The clients 15, as discussed above, may be PCs and/or other network-enabled devices (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, etc.) configured to transmit and receive information via the communication network 20 using a wired or wireless connection. The clients 15 may include a suitable browser software application (e.g., Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer Mobile, Firefox, Blazer, etc.) for enabling the user to display and interact with information exchanged via the communication network 20. The clients 15 may thus access and navigate static and/or dynamic HTML documents of the UI 45.

The host system 10 may further include an email server 60 in communication with the application server 30. The email server 60 may include an email client application for enabling the exchange of electronic communications between clients 15 and one or more parties P₁, P₂, . . . P_k 65 (hereinafter “parties 65”) external to the host system 10. Generally, each party 65 may be any person or entity with whom a user desires to communicate regarding particular aspects of his finances, or financial matters generally. As discussed above, such parties may include, for example, billing parties (e.g., utility companies, credit card companies, etc.), and other parties having an existing financial relationship with the user (e.g., a roommate, a business partner, a financial advisor, etc.). The parties 65 may further include parties with whom the user 15 does not have, but desires to establish, a financial relationship. Electronic communications may be exchanged between the email server 60 and the parties 65 via a communication network 70. Although the communication network 70 is depicted separately from the communication network 20 in FIG. 1, it will be appreciated that the communication networks 20, 70 may be a common communication network (e.g., the Internet). The host name of the email server 60 may be determined by a registered domain name of the host institution (e.g., abcbank.com).

In certain embodiments and as shown, the host system 10 may include an email firewall 75 disposed between the email server 60 and the communication network 70. To supplement network traffic protection provided by the email firewall 75, the email server 60 may implement one or more policies for intercepting email (e.g., “spam” email) unrelated to financial matters. In certain embodiments, the email server 60 may support customization of spam policies by, for example, allowing a user to view intercepted email and authorize trusted senders. Additionally, the email server 60 may implement virus-scanning software for preventing attacks on servers of the host system 10 by identifying and stripping malicious email content.

FIG. 2 illustrates a UI 45 provided by the host system 10 via a client 15 according to various embodiments. The UI 45 may be implemented, for example, as dynamic and/or static HTML Web pages hosted by the Web server 25 and accessible to the client 15 subsequent to user authentication. The UI 45 may include a screen 80 for providing email services in conjunction with an email address issued to the user by the host institution (e.g., johnsmith@abcbank.com) and subsequently communicated by the user to the parties 65 or others with whom communication regarding financial matters is desired. Other UI 45 screens accessible from screen 80 may include, for example, financial calendar screens, account detail screens, bill scheduling and payments screens, and alert screens.

According to various embodiments, the screen 80 may include features similar to those of conventional graphical email interfaces. Such features may include, for example, an inbox folder 85 for storing newly received email and a user-definable hierarchy of subfolders 90 into which email from the inbox folder 85 may be selectively placed using a mouse or other pointing device associated with the client 15. The screen 80 may also include a scrollable display panel 95 listing email stored in a particular folder subsequent to selection of the folder by the user. Other features included on the screen 80 may include, for example, user-definable rules for automatically filing newly-received email into a specified subfolder, a search tool for searching received and/or sent email (e.g., based on the sender's name and/or other email content), and an address book feature.

Content may be provided to the screen 80 in accordance with a Web-based email scheme. According to such embodiments, email sent to a user from one or more parties 65 (or from other Internet banking users or the host institution) may be stored in the email server 60 and selectively accessed by an email client application resident on the application server 30. For example, when the screen 80 is initially displayed by the user, the email client application of the application server 30 may access email associated with the inbox folder 85 for communication to the UI 45 using a suitable communication protocol, such as, for example, an Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). In response to the subsequent selection of a subfolder 90, the email client application of the application server 30 may similarly access and communicate the email associated with the selected subfolder 90. Email communicated to the UI 45 may be listed in the display panel 95 of the screen 80, with each listed email including summary information, such as, for example, the sender's name, a subject line, and a date and/or time of transmission. In certain embodiments, the summary information may further include an icon or similar indicia for identifying the sender generally. In cases where an email is sent by the host institution, for example, an icon in the form of the host institution's corporate logo may be included with the summary information. An identical or different icon may be provided to identify email sent from another client 15 of the host institution, and another icon may be used to identify email originating from the parties 65. In this way, a relative indication of email authenticity may be provided.

In addition to enabling the display and manipulation of received email, the screen 80 may include email composition features for generating and sending email. Email recipients may include one or more of the parties 65, users associated with other clients 15, and the host institution. In certain embodiments, the screen 80 may include document attachment features such that one or more files associated with applications resident on the client 15 (e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, etc.) or other files stored on the client 15 may be attached to and transmitted with an email. Email originating from the client 15 may be communicated to the email server 60 via the email client application of the application server 30. Depending on the specified recipient, sent email may be communicated to an email server (not shown) external to the host system 10 using any suitable communication protocol, such as, for example, a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). In cases where the specified recipient of sent email is a user associated with a client 15 or the host institution, sent email may be retained on the email server 60 for internal delivery. Sent email may be automatically placed into a sent email folder (not shown) accessible from the screen 80.

One advantage afforded by the screen 80 is the ability to receive bills or electronic statements by email from within the UI 45 and without the need for a separate email application. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an email in the form of an electronic statement 100 received from a credit card company according to one embodiment. The email may be opened to display the statement 100, for example, by double-clicking on the email from the display panel 95. The statement 100 may indicate, for example, a name of the billing party, a payment amount due, and a date by which payment is expected. In certain embodiments, the statement 100 may include selectable buttons 105 providing the user with options to submit the payment amount at the present time or to schedule a future payment. Selection of either option may activate corresponding bill payment or payment scheduling functionalities associated with other screens of the UI 45.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the screen 80 may include tools for tagging or otherwise associating bill-related email (such as the statement 100 of FIG. 3) with particular billing parties. In one embodiment, for example, the screen 80 may include a biller list 110 containing tags representative of billing parties currently used by the user. A tag from the list 110 may be selectively associated with a corresponding email received from the billing party (e.g., by dragging and dropping the tag onto the corresponding email). In this way, senders of bill-related email may be tagged such that features of other screens of the UI 45 may be cross-utilized. For example, tagging a newly received email received from a billing party via screen 80 may automatically provide a calendar-based indication or other indication on one or more separate UI screens showing the payment amount, the due date, and the billing party's identity. Similarly, the status of transactions conducted using other UI screens (e.g., bill payment and scheduling activities) may be reflected on the screen 80 by virtue of the tag/email associations. For example, payment of a bill using a bill payment screen of the UI may be reflected on the screen 80 by suitably coloring email associated with the paid billing party. In a similar fashion, bills scheduled for payment and/or bills that have not been timely paid may be reflected on the screen 80 by suitably coloring email associated with the corresponding billing parties. In certain embodiments, for example, email associated with billing parties that have been timely paid may be colored green, email associated with billing parties having scheduled payments may be colored blue, and email associated with billing parties that will be paid late may be colored red.

Although embodiments described above may access the UI screen 45 via a network-enabled client 15, it will be appreciated that the UI screen 45 may be accessible using other devices and communication channels. In certain embodiments, for example, the screen 80 or features thereon may be accessible to users via an automated teller machine (ATM) in communication with the application server 30 via a communication network. In such embodiments, graphical and textual aspects of the screen 80 may be adapted to conform to the particular hardware and software requirements of the ATM.

The examples presented herein are intended to illustrate potential and specific implementations of the present invention. It can be appreciated that the examples are intended primarily for purposes of illustration of the invention for those skilled in the art. No particular aspect or aspects of the examples are necessarily intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the present invention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevant for a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating, for purposes of clarity, other elements. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, however, that these sorts of focused discussions would not facilitate a better understanding of the present invention, and, therefore, a more detailed description of such elements is not provided herein.

Any element expressed herein as a means for performing a specified function is intended to encompass any way of performing that function, including, for example, a combination of elements that performs that function. Furthermore, the invention, as defined by such means-plus-function claims, resides in the fact that the functionalities provided by the various recited means are combined and brought together in a manner as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, any means that can provide such functionalities may be considered equivalents to the means shown herein.

In general, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that some of the embodiments as described hereinabove may be implemented in many different embodiments of software, firmware, and/or hardware. The software code or specialized control hardware used to implement some of the present embodiments is not limiting of the present invention. For example, the embodiments described hereinabove may be implemented in computer software using any suitable computer software language. Such software may be stored on any type of suitable computer-readable medium or media such as, for example, a magnetic or optical storage medium. Thus, the operation and behavior of the embodiments are described without specific reference to the actual software code or specialized hardware components. The absence of such specific references is feasible because it is clearly understood that artisans of ordinary skill would be able to design software and control hardware to implement the embodiments of the present invention based on the description herein with only a reasonable effort and without undue experimentation.

Moreover, the processes associated with the present embodiments may be executed by programmable equipment, such as computers. Software that may cause programmable equipment to execute the processes may be stored in any storage device, such as, for example, a computer system (nonvolatile) memory, an optical disk, magnetic tape, or magnetic disk. Furthermore, some of the processes may be programmed when the computer system is manufactured or via a computer-readable medium. Such a medium may include any of the forms listed above with respect to storage devices and may further include, for example, a carrier wave modulated, or otherwise manipulated, to convey instructions that may be read, demodulated/decoded and executed by a computer.

It can also be appreciated that certain process aspects described herein may be performed using instructions stored on a computer-readable medium or media that direct a computer system to perform process steps. A computer-readable medium may include, for example, memory devices such as diskettes, compact discs of both read-only and read/write varieties, optical disk drives, and hard disk drives. A computer-readable medium may also include memory storage that may be physical, virtual, permanent, temporary, semi-permanent and/or semi-temporary. A computer-readable medium may further involve one or more data signals transmitted on one or more propagated computer-readable media.

Computer devices disclosed herein may include memory for storing certain software applications used in obtaining, processing and communicating data. It can be appreciated that such memory may be internal or external to the disclosed embodiments. The memory may also include any means for storing software, including a hard disk, an optical disk, floppy disk, ROM (read only memory), RAM (random access memory), PROM (programmable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable PROM), and other computer-readable media.

In various embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein, a single component may be replaced by multiple components, and multiple components may be replaced by a single component, to perform a given function or functions. Except where such substitution would not be operative to practice embodiments of the present invention, such substitution is within the scope of the present invention. Any of the servers described herein, for example, may be replaced by a “server farm” or other grouping of networked servers that are located and configured for cooperative functions. It can be appreciated that a server farm may serve to distribute workload between/among individual components of the farm and may expedite computing processes by harnessing the collective and cooperative power of multiple servers. Such server farms may employ load-balancing software that accomplishes tasks such as, for example, tracking demand for processing power from different machines, prioritizing and scheduling tasks based on network demand, and/or providing backup contingency in the event of component failure or reduction in operability.

While various embodiments of the invention have been described herein, it should be apparent, however, that various modifications, alterations and adaptations to those embodiments may occur to persons skilled in the art with the attainment of some or all of the advantages of the present invention. The disclosed embodiments are therefore intended to include all such modifications, alterations and adaptations without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A user interface having an integrated email service hosted by a financial institution, the user interface accessible via a communication network by a first user using a client device, the user interface comprising: at least one first screen within the user interface for managing financial transactions of the first user; anda second screen within the user interface for conducting email communication between the first user and at least one party other than the financial institution, wherein the second screen comprises: a first list comprising at least one email received from a billing party by the first user, wherein the at least one email comprises an identity of the billing party, anda second list comprising a tag that is representative of the billing party and selectively associable with the at least one email received from the billing party using a drag and drop operation;wherein selective association of the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen causes an indication of a corresponding financial transaction between the first user and the billing party to be provided on the at least one first screen.

2. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the second screen is for conducting email communication between the first user and the financial institution.

3. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the email associated with the tag comprises indicia representative of a status of the financial transaction.

4. The user interface of claim 3, wherein the indicia comprises a green color to represent a completed transaction.

5. The user interface of claim 3, wherein the indicia comprises a blue color to represent a scheduled transaction.

6. The user interface of claim 3, wherein the indicia comprises a red color to represent a late transaction.

7. The user interface of claim 1, wherein each email contained in the first list includes graphical indicia identifying a sender.

8. The user interface of claim 1 comprising an email address issued to the first user by the financial institution.

9. The user interface of claim 1 wherein the at least one first screen is selected from the group consisting of a financial calendar screen, an account detail screen, a bill scheduling screen, a payment screen, and an alert screen.

10. The user interface of claim 1 wherein selectively associating the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen automatically provides a calendar-based indication of the corresponding financial transaction between the first user and the billing party on a financial calendar screen.

11. The user interface of claim 1 wherein selectively associating the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen automatically provides a bill payment indication of the corresponding financial transaction between the first user and the billing party on a bill payment screen.

12. The user interface of claim 1 wherein selectively associating the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen automatically provides a bill scheduling indication of the corresponding financial transaction between the first user and the billing party on a bill scheduling screen.

13. The user interface of claim 1 wherein selectively associating the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen automatically provides an indicia representative of a status of the financial transaction by coloring the email received from the billing party.

14. A system comprising: a network-enabled client device associated with a first user of a financial institution, wherein the client device includes a display; anda user interface having an integrated email service hosted by a financial institution, the user interface accessible via a communication network using the client device, wherein the user interface comprises: at least one first screen within the user interface for managing financial transactions of the first user; anda second screen within the user interface for conducting email communication between the first user and at least one party other than the financial institution; wherein the second screen comprises:a first list comprising at least one email received from a billing party by the first user, wherein the email comprises an identity of the billing party, anda second list comprising a tag that is representative of the billing party and selectively associable with the at least one email received from the billing party using a drag and drop operation;wherein selective association of the tag with the at least one email received from the billing party on the second screen causes an indication of a corresponding financial transaction between the first user and the billing party to be provided on the at least one first screen.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the second screen is for conducting email communication between the first user and the financial institution.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the email associated with the tag comprises indicia representative of a status of the financial transaction.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the indicia comprises a green color to represent a completed transaction.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the indicia comprises a blue color to represent a scheduled transaction.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the indicia comprises a red color to represent a late transaction.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein each email contained in the first list includes graphical indicia identifying a sender.