Checkfree Corporation

Fiserv Incorporated

Mark T Harris

Hans Daniel Dreyer

Ravi Ganesan

Kathryn Randall Wolfe

Donald Kenneth Hobday, Jr

Mark Edward Bowman

John Alexander Kell

Sanjeev Dheer

William Richard McMichael

Randal A McCoy

Teri W Bemis

William D Zielke

John J Frech

Juan Carlos Miqueli

Sherry Pleasant Sondergaard

Michael Edward Martin

Brian Corey Sondergaard

David Michael Keenan

Sherry Pleasant Lewter

Systems, methods and computer-readable media for initiating, facilitating and/or performing financial transactions are disclosed. A request associated with a financial transaction may be received on behalf of a requestor. At least one financial account to be debited and at least one financial account to be credited in connection with the financial transaction may be identified based on information included or provided in association with the request. Respective payment networks that provide access to the financial accounts may be identified. One or more of the financial accounts may be accessible in real-time via a respective payment network. A respective debit or credit instruction may be transmitted to each of the identified payment networks to post a debit or credit to a corresponding financial account. Corresponding debit and/or credit status information may be received, and various status indications may be generated and transmitted, potentially for presentation to the requestor.

Systems and methods for performing financial transactions

Methods and systems may be provided for user association of a computing application with a contact in a contact list. A view of one or more contacts of the user may be transmitted to a user, the view included a first contact. A request may be received from the user to associate an application with the first contact. A revised view may be transmitted to the user responsive to the received request, the revised view including a user-selectable mechanism for invoking the application on the first contact. The user may be redirected to a user interface of the application subsequent to the user selecting the user-selectable mechanism associated with the contact in the revised view, and the redirection may include transmission of information associated with the user and information associated with the first contact.

User association of a computing application with a contact in a contact list

Systems, methods and computer-readable media for facilitating the provision of content associated with a financial transaction are disclosed. The content may be identified by a requestor of the financial transaction or any party to the financial transaction. The content may also be generated by a service provider system that executes the financial transaction. A content location identifier that identifies a location where the content is stored may be identified or generated and may be included in or otherwise provided in association with a debit or credit instruction. The content location identifier may facilitate access to the content by any of a variety of systems or users.

Facilitating presentation of content relating to a financial transaction

Systems, methods and computer-readable media for facilitating the presentation of content associated with a financial transaction are disclosed. The content may be identified by a requestor or a party to the financial transaction on whose behalf a request associated with the financial transaction is received. A content location identifier that identifies a location where the content is stored may be identified or generated and may be included in or otherwise provided in association with a debit or credit instruction. The content location identifier may be presented by a user interface associated with a financial institution in conjunction with other transaction information and may facilitate access to the content and presentation of the content to a user.

Methods and systems may be provided for user association of a computing application with a contact in a contact list. A view of one or more contacts of the user may be transmitted to a user, the view including a first contact. A request may be received from the user to associate an application with the first contact. A revised view may be transmitted to the user responsive to the received request, the revised view including a user-selectable mechanism for invoking the application on the first contact. The user may be redirected to a user interface of the application subsequent to the user selecting the user-selectable mechanism associated with the contact in the revised view, and the redirection may include transmission of information associated with the user and information associated with the first contact.

To electronically present bills and request payment of presented bills, billing information representing a bill of a biller for a payee, and an associated selectable payment indicator having a first linking function, are received from a first network site associated with a bill presentment entity via a first communications link over a communications network. The received billing information and payment indicator are displayed. An input representing a selection of the displayed payment indicator is received. Based on the receipt of this input, the first linking function is activated to establish a second communications link over the communications network to a second network site, different that the first network site, associated with a bill payment entity, and to transmit a request to pay the represented bill on behalf of the payee to the second network site via the second communications link.

Integrated electronic presentment and payment of bills by different entities

Bill information is electronically presented to a user via a wide-area communications network. The wide-area communications network has multiple different network sites, including a first network site associated with a first bill information presentment entity, a second network site associated with a first user entity, and a third network site associated with a second bill information presentment entity. First information for authenticating the first user entity is received by the first bill information presentment entity. The first user entity is authenticated to the third network site based on this received first authentication information. First bill information, which represents a first bill of a first biller for the first user entity, is accessed at the third network site based on the authentication of the first user entity to this site. The accessed first bill information is transmitted from the first network site to the second network site, for presentation to the first user entity.

Electronic bill presentment via a wide area communications network

A technique for accessing an electronic commerce function (ECF) is provided. A first signal identifying an entity and an ECF associated with the entity is transmitted to a user from a contact list service. The user selects the ECF, causing a second signal indicating the selection to be transmitted to the contact list service. In response to receipt of the second signal, the contact list service transmits a third signal. The third signal identifies a network address associated with an electronic commerce service provider for providing and/or facilitating the ECF. The third signal also identifies information associated with the entity. The third signal, either directly or indirectly, is operable to cause a fourth signal to be transmitted to the user from the service provider. The fourth signal includes information associated with invoking the ECF and is based upon the information associated with the entity included in the third signal.

System using contact list to identify network address for accessing electronic commerce application

A technique for identifying a consumer's electronic billers in which the consumer does not identify billers is provided. The consumer transmits, from a consumer station, a request for a service provider to identify his or her electronic billers. This request includes information identifying the consumer, but excludes any information identifying any biller. In response to the transmitted request, the consumer receives, at the consumer station, a listing of one or more electronic billers of the consumer. That is, these are electronic billers with which the consumer has a relationship. Also, the consumer has not previously requested to the service provider to electronically present bills of any of the electronic billers included in the listing.

Technique for presenting matched billers to a consumer

An electronic bill presentment system includes network, a central network station, and a plurality of user and biller network stations. Each of the user stations is associated with a respective one of a plurality of users and is operable to transmit first requests for bills via the network. The central network station receives the transmitted first requests and transmits, responsive thereto, bill availability information via the network. The user stations receive the transmitted bill availability information and are operable to transmit second requests for bills via the network. Each of the biller stations is associated with a respective one of the plurality of billers. The biller stations receive the transmitted second requests and transmit, responsive thereto, the requested bills via the network.

Electronic bill presentment technique with enhanced biller control

A method is provided for centrally tracking transactions in an electronic billing system. The system includes multiple different billing entities, multiple different financial institute entities and multiple different user entities. Each of the multiple different billing entities is associated with a respective portion of the multiple different user entities and each of the multiple different financial institute entities is associated with a respective portion of the multiple different user entities. A message is received from any of the multiple different financial institute entities indicating a request from any of the multiple different user entities associated with the applicable financial institute entity to view billing information. The receipt of the request to view the billing information is logged in a database as first event information. A message indicative of the billing information of at least one of the multiple different billing entities associated with the applicable user entity which is available for viewing is transmitted to the applicable user entity. A message indicating a request from the applicable user entity to view the available billing information of that billing entity is received from any of the at least one of the billing entities. The receipt of the message indicating the applicable user entity request to view the billing information of the applicable billing entity is logged in the database as a second event information.

Technique for centrally tracking transactions in an electronic billing system

A distributed data accessing technique is disclosed. The technique is realized by storing, at a first network station, information identifying data which is available at a second network station, the second network station being different than the first network station. A signal is generated at the first network station representing the information identifying the available data and linking information to the second network station. The signal is transmitted to a third network station, the third network station being different than the first and the second network stations. The transmitted linking information is operable at the third network station to establish a network link over which the identified available data is transmittable from the second network station to the third network station.

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Westerville, OH, United States of America

Mark T Harris