System and method for registering financial accounts

摘要

A session to enroll customers to make payments has two stages, a first stage completed on the telephone or on a merchant or debt collector website, and a second stage completed via a communications link such as a telephone or Internet link. The customer enrollment record is linked to financial account information received from the customer in the second stage and stored on a second, secure server. A token linked to the securely stored financial account information is returned to the merchant and then used by the merchant to initiate payments on that financial account. The merchant's personnel and customer record system do not store or have access to the underlying financial account information.

主权项

1. A method for enrolling a payer in an electronic system and subsequently making a payment to a payee, comprising the steps of:
a. creating a payer account record in a first computing system operated for the benefit of the payee, and storing in said payer account record electronic enrollment data received via the Internet for a payer that wishes to provide the payee with payment information to be used in a payment from said payer to said payee; b. contemporaneously with step (a), transmitting an electronic instruction to a second computing system to obtain financial account information from the payer, said instruction including at least one data element indicating the payer and defining a communications link to be used by said second computing system to obtain said financial account information directly from said payer; c. receiving an electronic data token from said second computing system subsequent to the transmission of said instruction, said token representing financial account information of the payer obtained from the payer by said second computing system via said defined communications link without providing said token to said payer; d. electronically storing said token in said first computing system in association with said electronic enrollment data for the payer, without said first computing system receiving or storing said financial account information; and e. subsequent to steps (a) through (d), processing a payment to said payee by electronically generating a payment transaction instruction, including a representation of the token, and electronically transmitting said payment transaction instruction to a payment processing system having access to said financial account information in said second computing system corresponding to said token, causing said payment processing system to transmit the payment instruction and the payer's financial account information to a financial payment processor without the first computing system having access to the payer's financial account information represented by said token.