Transaction String Merchant Identification via Master Lookup Table

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current financial transaction data processing systems lack the ability to effectively identify merchants or counterparties from transaction strings, limiting data analytics and reporting capabilities.

Innovation Solution

A computer-implemented system and method that processes transaction strings by gathering input data, discarding invalid city information, executing a match process using logistic regression and waterfall methods, and creating a master lookup table to uniquely identify merchants, enabling data correlation and enhanced reporting.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If merchant information is included in transaction strings, then transaction data can be processed, but the merchant cannot be accurately identified for data analytics

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemerchant identification informationVSAvoiddata processing system

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the transaction string into distinct components (merchant_name, city, state, zip_code) and processes each segment separately through matching algorithms. This segmentation allows the system to extract and validate specific merchant identification information without being overwhelmed by the complexity of the entire transaction string.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary master lookup table that contains pre-stored merchant information (merchant_name, city, state, zip_code, duns_number). This intermediary structure mediates between the transaction string and the final merchant identification, enabling accurate matching without requiring direct complex processing between all possible data elements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If a comprehensive matching process is implemented to identify merchants accurately, then merchant identification precision improves, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemerchant identification accuracyVSAvoidtransaction processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and storing merchant information in the master lookup table before actual transaction processing. The matching algorithms are pre-configured with validation rules and matching criteria, allowing rapid execution during transaction processing without performing complex computations in real-time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The matching process applies different matching strategies and validation rules based on the specific characteristics of each transaction string component. For example, exact matching is used for merchant_name while fuzzy matching or validation ranges are applied to location data, optimizing the balance between accuracy and processing speed for each data element.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Reliability

If city data validation is performed to improve matching accuracy, then merchant identification reliability improves, but processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemerchant identification reliabilityVSAvoidvalidation process

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system changes the parameter of city data from raw unvalidated strings to validated standardized location codes by comparing against the master lookup table. This parameter transformation ensures that only reliable, pre-validated location data is used in matching, improving reliability while the validation logic is encapsulated in reusable functions that manage complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS20220076231A1System and method for enrichment of transaction data

Publication Date: 2022.03.10 JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA

AI summary

The invention relates to a computer-implemented system and method for uniquely identifying a merchant from a transaction string transmitted by a payment network. The method may comprise the steps of: gathering input information, including receiving the transaction string from the payment network and receiving from a data provider a data set containing merchant information; cleansing the transaction string; executing a match process between the transaction string and the data set from data provider to find the best merchant match; wherein the match process comprises using a logistic regression model, a waterfall process, or an override process; consolidating results of the matching process to create a master lookup table having attributes from transaction strings mapped to matching merchant attributes from the data provider data set; and executing a transaction tagging process on a received transaction string.