3772results about "Franking apparatus" patented technology

Methods and systems for real time margin management are provided. A margin inquiry request from a user is processed in real time. Such a margin inquiry request may include a real time on-demand margin inquiry. In addition, a margin inquiry request may also correspond to a hypothetical margin inquiry.

The invention concerns a multiparty accounts receivable and accounts payable system that allows business trading partners to use a single, shared system for both accounts receivable and accounts payable management. The system of the invention forms an electronic “bridge” between a plurality of business trading partners for purposes of invoicing, dispute resolution, financing, and settlement of single and multiple currency debts. As the invoicing and settlement activities of the participants are funneled through a common system, the system allows a participant to aggregate all debts owed to other participants, aggregate all debts owed by the other participants, and net debts owed to other participants with debts owed by these participants. After aggregation and netting, the participant issues a single payment to settle numerous accounts payable items, and receives a single payment that settles numerous accounts receivable items. The system allows participants to use the substantial amount of financial and cash flow information captured by the system to borrow more efficiently by permitting lenders to view this information. Furthermore, the system provides a confirmation process to convert existing debt obligations into a new, independent payment obligation due on a date certain and free of any defenses to the underlying contract. The confirmed debt obligations provide a better source of working capital for the participants, or can be converted into electronic promissory notes. The system provides an electronic exchange for electronic promissory notes, allowing participants to raise working capital in various ways, for example, by selling them.

A system for facilitating payment transaction disputes is provided. According to one aspect of the system, a user, such as an issuer, is allowed to use the system to resolve a disputed transaction. Based on information provided by a cardholder, the issuer is able to use the system to retrieve transactional information relating to the disputed transaction reported by the customer for review. When the issuer uses the system to retrieve information relating to the disputed transaction, a case folder is created. The case folder is a repository for storing all the relevant information and documentation relating to the disputed transaction. Using the information retrieved by the system, the issuer then determines whether to initiate a dispute. Alternatively, the system can also be used by an acquirer to respond to a dispute, usually on behalf of one of its merchant. If a dispute is responded to, a questionnaire is then created by the system. Alternatively, the issuer may decline to initiate a dispute and either seek additional information from the cardholder or deny the cardholder's inquiry. The case folder and the questionnaire are created for a specific disputed transaction. The questionnaire is designed to capture information from the cardholder and / or the issuer relating to the disputed transaction. The questionnaire may be pre-populated with previously retrieved transactional information which is stored in the case folder. Relevant documents in support of the disputed transaction may also be attached as part of the questionnaire. Various parties to the dispute may then provide relevant information (including supporting documentation) to the system. The relevant information provided by the parties is maintained in the case folder. The system then keeps track of the relevant timeframes for the case folder to ensure that each party to the dispute is given the correct period of time to respond during the processing of a dispute. Prior to filing the dispute for arbitration or compliance, the system permits the parties to resolve the dispute amongst themselves without the help of an arbiter through pre-arbitration and pre-compliance. If the parties to the dispute are unable to resolve the dispute on their own, the system also permits the parties to resolve the dispute via arbitration or compliance with the help of an arbiter. The system provides the arbiter with access to the case folder to allow the arbiter to render an informed decision on the dispute.

A payment authentication service authenticates the identity of a payer during online transactions. The authentication service allows a card issuer to verify a cardholder's identity using a variety of authentication methods, such as with the use of tokens. Authenticating the identity of a cardholder during an online transaction involves querying an access control server to determine if a cardholder is enrolled in the payment authentication service, requesting a password from the cardholder, verifying the password, and notifying a merchant whether the cardholder's authenticity has been verified. Systems for implementing the authentication service in which a cardholder uses a mobile device capable of transmitting messages via the Internet are described. Systems for implementing the authentication service in which a cardholder uses a mobile device capable of transmitting messages through voice and messaging channels is also described.

A system provides audit opinions on an enterprise's organizations, processes, risks, and risk controls. The system first evaluates the enterprise's set of risk controls. The audit opinions of the set of risk controls are used to evaluate the set of risks associated with the set of risk controls. The audit opinions of the set of risks and of the set of risk controls are in turn used to evaluate the set of processes associated with the set of risks. Finally, all of these audit opinions are used to evaluate the set of organizations associated with the set of processes. The system streamlines the evaluation of risk by determining suggested audit opinions. Suggested audit opinions for a given item can be determined from audit opinions previously determined and associated with the given item. Rules can be defined for a given item to specify how to determine the suggested audit result.

A virtual pooled account is used in operating a system having multiple financial partners. In a specific implementation, the system is a mobile banking system. Instead of maintaining separate general ledgers for each financial institution, the system will keep one general virtual pooled account. This will reduce the settlement and operational costs of the system. The owner of the virtual pooled account will receive the float on the virtual pooled account, and this float will be distributed to the multiple financial partners according to a formula.

A computer data signal embodied in a propagation medium is provided. The signal enables a variable number of data transfers and includes an initial connection source code segment and a data transfer source code segment. The initial connection source code segment establishes a connection between at least two devices via predetermined listening ports, with at least one predetermined listening port residing within each device. The initial connection source code segment also dynamically assigns a first data port within a first device, and transmits the address of the first data port to a remaining device via the predetermined listening ports. The data transfer source code segment is for each of the variable number of data transfer operations. The data transfer source code segment dynamically assigns a corresponding second data port within the remaining device and transfers data between the connected devices via the data ports so that the data is substantially simultaneously transferred between a variable number of devices via the data ports. Each pair of first and second data ports is established in response to each listening port connection.

Any of various comparisons of computer folders from different points in time is performed. Such comparisons provide the ability to discover missing documents or documents with modification dates that have changed when there would otherwise have been no need to change them and thus allows discovery of missing documents to discover fraud or to search for evidence after a fraud is suspected. In another embodiment, deltas in accounting system vendor invoice accounts are compared at different points in time, potentially exposing the practice of moving fraudulent vendor transactions into a large group of legitimate transactions for a legitimate vendor. Per period transaction totals for specific periods for legitimate vendors are compared over historical time for suspicious activity. A comparison of reports from the two different periods, using exact data and software from those separate periods (instead of reporting from “current’” data), may raise a red flag otherwise missed.