Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 13
Claim 1
Independent Claim
156 words
An electronic financial transaction server, associated with a financial institution, comprising: a first interface for receiving electronic checking transactions, each electronic checking transaction specifying a payor, a payor's financial institution, a payee and a payee's financial institution; a second interface for transferring electronic checking transactions to and from other electronic financial transaction servers associated with other financial institutions; a third interface for transferring electronic checking transactions to and from other computer systems associated with said financial institution; transaction logic for determining, for each electronic checking transaction received via said first interface, whether said received electronic checking transaction satisfies predefined integrity criteria; and settlement logic for clearing and settling each received electronic checking transaction by updating at least one account balance associated with at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions, and forwarding said received electronic checking transaction to at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions via said second or third interface.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
156 words
An electronic financial transaction server, associated with a financial institution, comprising: a first interface for receiving electronic checking transactions, each electronic checking transaction specifying a payor, a payor's financial institution, a payee and a payee's financial institution; a second interface for transferring electronic checking transactions to and from other electronic financial transaction servers associated with other financial institutions; a third interface for transferring electronic checking transactions to and from other computer systems associated with said financial institution; transaction logic for determining, for each electronic checking transaction received via said first interface, whether said received electronic checking transaction satisfies predefined integrity criteria; and settlement logic for clearing and settling each received electronic checking transaction by updating at least one account balance associated with at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions, and forwarding said received electronic checking transaction to at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions via said second or third interface.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
22 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, further comprising: a fourth interface for transferring electronic transactions to an automatic clearing house.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
73 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, wherein: said settlement logic includes logic for accumulating electronic checking transactions to be forwarded to each other distinct electronic financial transaction server, said settlement logic aggregating the accumulated electronic checking transactions to be sent to said each other distinct electronic financial transaction server into distinct cash letters, and then transmitting the cash letters to said other distinct electronic financial transaction servers via said second interface.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, wherein: said first interface is also adapted to receive electronic credit transactions and electronic billing transactions.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
74 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, wherein: the payor's and payee's financial institutions specified by at least one of said electronic checking transactions are both the same as said financial institution associated with said electronic financial transaction server; and said settlement logic updates account balances associated with both the payor's and payee's financial institutions and forwards said electronic checking transaction to the payor's and payee's financial institutions via said third interface only.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
99 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, wherein: the payor's financial institution specified by at least one of said electronic checking transactions comprises one of said other financial institutions; the payee's financial institution specified by said electronic checking transaction is the same as said financial institution associated with said electronic financial transaction server; and said settlement logic updates account balances associated with both the payor's and payee's financial institutions, forwards said electronic checking transaction to the payor's financial institution via said second interface, and forwards said electronic checking transaction to the payee's financial institution via said third interface.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
99 words
The electronic financial transaction server of claim 1, wherein: the payor's financial institution specified by at least one of said electronic checking transactions is the same as said financial institution associated with said electronic financial transaction server; the payee's financial institution specified by said electronic checking transaction comprises one of said other financial institutions; and said settlement logic updates account balances associated with both the payor's and payee's financial institutions, forwards said electronic checking transaction to the payor's financial institution via said third interface, and forwards said electronic checking transaction to the payee's financial institution via said second interface.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
135 words
A method of operating an electronic financial transaction server associated with a financial institution, comprising the steps of: receiving electronic checking transactions from clients, each electronic checking transaction specifying a payor, a payor's financial institution, a payee and a payee's financial institution; transferring electronic checking transactions to other electronic financial transaction servers associated with other financial institutions and receiving electronic checking transactions from said other electronic financial transaction servers; determining, for each electronic checking transaction received from said clients whether said received electronic checking transaction satisfies predefined integrity criteria; and clearing and settling each received electronic checking transaction by updating at least one account balance associated with at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions, and forwarding said received electronic checking transaction to at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
135 words
A method of operating an electronic financial transaction server associated with a financial institution, comprising the steps of: receiving electronic checking transactions from clients, each electronic checking transaction specifying a payor, a payor's financial institution, a payee and a payee's financial institution; transferring electronic checking transactions to other electronic financial transaction servers associated with other financial institutions and receiving electronic checking transactions from said other electronic financial transaction servers; determining, for each electronic checking transaction received from said clients whether said received electronic checking transaction satisfies predefined integrity criteria; and clearing and settling each received electronic checking transaction by updating at least one account balance associated with at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions, and forwarding said received electronic checking transaction to at least one of the payor's or payee's financial institutions.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
65 words
The method of claim 8, wherein: said processing step includes accumulating electronic checking transactions to be forwarded to each other distinct electronic financial transaction server, aggregating the accumulated electronic checking transactions to be sent to said each other distinct electronic financial transaction server into distinct cash letters, and then transmitting the cash letters to said other distinct electronic financial transaction servers via said second interface.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 8, wherein: said receiving step further comprises receiving electronic credit transactions and electronic billing transactions.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method of claim 8, wherein: said clearing and settling step includes updating account balances associated with both the payor's and payee's financial institutions and forwarding said electronic checking transaction to both the payor's and payee's financial institutions.