Funds Transfer Method and Apparatus

Abstract

A withdrawal of assets is initiated from a first account at a first financial institution. A deposit of the assets withdrawn from the first account is initiated to a second account at a second financial institution. The first account and the second account have a common account holder. The withdrawal and deposit of assets may be initiated after analyzing multiple accounts of the account holder and determining whether an adjustment of funds among the multiple accounts would benefit the account holder. A debit instruction is used to initiate the withdrawal of assets and a credit instruction is used to initiate the deposit of the withdrawn assets. The withdrawal and deposit of assets can be implemented using one or more payment networks, debit networks, or a wire transfer between the two financial institutions.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to the handling of financial transactions and, more particularly, to the transfer of funds between accounts at different financial institutions.BACKGROUND[0002]Customers of financial institutions (both individual customers and businesses) typically maintain multiple financial accounts at one or more financial institutions. Financial institutions include, for example, banks, savings and loans, credit unions, mortgage companies, lending companies, and stock brokers. A customer's financial accounts may include asset accounts (such as savings accounts, checking accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), mutual funds, bonds, and equities) and debt accounts (such as credit card accounts, mortgage accounts, home equity loans, overdraft protection, and other types of loans).[0003]In many situations, a user's asset accounts may not be earning the best available interest rate or the user's debt accounts my not be at the most competitive interes...

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