Prepaid Staging Account System for Mobile Payment Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Financial institutions face significant effort and cost barriers when deploying NFC payment systems on mobile devices, making it challenging for issuers to launch NFC device payment programs without a large initial investment.
Innovation Solution
A prepaid staging account system that allows issuers to quickly and efficiently deploy NFC device payment programs by using a staging account provider to manage mobile account provisioning and transactions, reducing the need for extensive system upgrades and development costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If financial institutions deploy NFC payment systems on mobile devices using traditional issuer systems, then payment functionality is achieved, but development cost and system complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a prepaid card issuer as an intermediary entity that provides NFC payment infrastructure services to traditional financial institutions. This intermediary handles the complex NFC stack implementation, mobile device provisioning, and transaction processing, allowing traditional issuers to offer NFC payments without building their own infrastructure. The intermediary absorbs the technical complexity while delivering reliable payment functionality to end users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the NFC payment ecosystem into distinct functional layers: the prepaid card issuer manages the NFC infrastructure and mobile account provisioning, while traditional financial institutions focus on customer relationships and funding. This segmentation allows each entity to specialize in their core competencies, reducing overall system complexity for individual participants while maintaining full payment functionality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If financial institutions invest in full NFC deployment infrastructure, then comprehensive payment capabilities are achieved, but initial investment cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables traditional financial institutions to adopt NFC payments partially by leveraging the prepaid card issuer's existing infrastructure. Institutions can offer NFC payment capabilities to select customers or in specific regions without committing to full-scale deployment across their entire portfolio. This partial adoption allows institutions to test and adapt to NFC technology with minimal investment, scaling up only as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The prepaid card issuer's NFC infrastructure serves multiple traditional financial institutions simultaneously, providing universal payment capabilities across different issuer networks. This multi-functional infrastructure reduces the need for each institution to make separate large investments, as they share the underlying NFC processing platform while maintaining their own customer relationships and branding.
3Ease of operation
If traditional issuers implement their own NFC systems, then control over the payment process is maintained, but development time and effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The prepaid card issuer performs preliminary actions by pre-building and pre-testing the NFC infrastructure, mobile provisioning systems, and transaction processing capabilities before traditional financial institutions need them. This advance preparation eliminates the need for institutions to invest significant time in development, as they can immediately leverage the ready-made infrastructure while retaining control over customer-facing aspects of the payment process.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, apparatus and computer readable media for provisioning a prepaid mobile staging account to consumer mobile devices are disclosed. In an embodiment, a staging account provider computer receives a request to provision a prepaid mobile payment staging account from a prepaid staging account application program running on a consumer's mobile device, wherein the request includes identification information. The staging account provider computer then associates the identification information with a staging account program developed by a primary issuer comprising at least one a pre-packaged prepaid mobile account, identifies a financial account of the consumer held by the primary issuer, generates a pre-packaged prepaid mobile staging account from the staging account program of the primary issuer which is loaded with funds from the consumer's financial account, and transmits a confirmation message indicating successful setup to the consumer's mobile device.