System and method for administering spend driven rebates

Abstract

The system enables participating service establishments to select and configure rebate programs and define which corporate clients to include in the offer. Corporate clients may interface with the system in order to view corporate card spend data, including a summary of savings obtained through purchases made with participating service establishments. The system further uses this information to generate rebate checks for the corporate client and invoices for the service establishments. The annual cash rebates may be based on the volume of cardmember spend at participating service establishment partners. The system provides benefits to a corporate client rather than to individual cardmembers, thereby revealing the value of participation in any number of savings programs directly to the decision maker of the corporation.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 608,764 filed Jun. 27, 2003 and entitled “System and Method for Web Access to Financial Data”, which itself claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 468,495 filed on May 6, 2003, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to rebates, and more particularly, to a system and method for managing corporate client rebates based on spend at participating service establishments, along with related reporting functions. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In recent years, the financial services industry has experienced an increase in the level of competition as the financial services market has expanded globally. This has meant that financial services providers must strive to attract and retain new clients and attract service partners through building a strong value proposition. ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a system and method that allows mid-market corporate clients to receive cash rebates based on the volume of cardmember spend at participating service establishments. The system also provides the client with an aggregate summary of point of sale savings and any rewards accumulated at the corporate level. By automating the cash rebate and reporting functionality, the system enables the client to earn corporate benefits without additional effort and expenditure resulting from redemption of coupons or redemption codes. The system encourages brand loyalty to card products, while driving spend at participating service establishments. The system processes and reports on all client savings in order to achieve these goals. The system further facilitates the provisioning of offers representing negotiated savings among any number of service establishments. The offer types made available through the system may include, for example, point accumulation, cash rebates based on all cardmember spend, cash rebates on incremental year-to-year spend, and cash rebates based on a baseline with criteria predefined by the service establishment. The service establishment is provided with a report of activity from clients including transaction level detail, if requested, in order to better maintain the relationship with the service establishment."

Problems solved by technology

Thus, traditional rewards programs may be effective in persuading individual cardmembers to obtain and utilize a specific charge card; however, such programs are less likely to influence corporate cardmembers who simply utilize the charge card issued by their employer.

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