LU87706A1 - COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NOTIFICATION OF REFUND AND VERIFICATION OF DATA - Google Patents

Description

COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NOTIFICATION OF REFUND AND VERIFICATION OF DATA.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system making it possible to notify holders of bonds, depositaries, and any other holder of financial instruments, that specific securities are called to be redeemed.

More particularly, this invention relates to a specific computer system and a method for processing and transmitting information concerning vouchers called for reimbursement.

Prior art processes used to notify holders of securities or coupons of their redemptions have existed for centuries. These processes were for the most part manual processes, therefore requiring a great deal of manpower, inefficient, and expensive. After a difficult preparation of a list of all the financial instruments to be reimbursed, including the numbers of the certificates, the essential dates, and the amounts to be reimbursed, the information is published by press for the benefit of depositaries and all another carrier of these instruments. The way depositors discover that some of these certificates contained in their coffers are called for reimbursement is very uncertain and unreliable. In addition, exorbitant back-office costs, financial responsibility resulting from the non-reimbursement of a voucher, and slow or outdated procedures have made the process of notification of reimbursements very ineffective.

Participants in this operation typically include a fiduciary agent (hereinafter referred to as the fiduciary) responsible for the reimbursement of issues, the newspaper which publishes the notice for the reimbursement of certificates or other financial instruments, an "intermediary" advertising agency organizing the publication of notices, and the depositaries who must respond to notices of reimbursement and determine whether the vouchers they hold have been called for reimbursement. The back office costs and old-fashioned processes mentioned above include repeated manual entry of the same data by multiple organizations, verification of the data by a communications agent who functions as a liaison between the trustee and the custodians, an audit additional by the trustee, the issuance of costly press notices, the manual process by which depositaries verify the published notice against the certificates they hold and the large percentage of errors that inevitably result. The cost of the press notice may in some cases exceed $ 500,000. In addition, the interest lost on called coupons that have not been presented for redemption by the specified date may exceed several hundred thousand dollars per redemption.

It would be very advantageous to provide a system and method eliminating the need to issue costly press notices intended to convey information about coupons called for reimbursement. It would also be very advantageous to provide a system and method that reduces back office costs and the manual processes associated with common reimbursement methods. The present invention offers such a system and such a method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, a computer system is provided for the notification of reimbursement of financial instruments and for the verification of data. IT resources generate a first file containing a list of financial instruments to be reimbursed. Other computer means transmit the first file to the depositary. A second file is received from the depositary containing a list of the financial instruments that the depositary claims to hold. Means responding to the computer compare these two files to identify the financial instruments in the first file which are not included by the depositary. A list of unclaimed financial instruments is created and put in the form of a notice for publication. In this way, financial instruments held by one or more depositaries can be eliminated from the press notice, considerably reducing costs. It is common for a majority of the financial instruments to be reimbursed to be held by one or more depositaries.

In an ideal configuration, the first data file is transmitted to a set of custodians. Each depositary transmits a second separate file back to the computer, each of these second files containing a list of financial instruments that the depositary at the origin of the file claims to hold. The comparison means identifies the financial instruments contained in the first data file which are not claimed by any of the depositaries.

This

Means for a first verification are provided to compare the second files received from each of the depositaries in order to identify financial instruments whose possession is claimed by more than one depositary. Means responding to those used for the first verification generated an error report concerning the financial instruments claimed by more than one depositary. This report is sent to each of the depositaries claiming to hold a financial instrument held by another depositary. The second corrected files are received from the custodians, and the process of creating and transmitting error reports is repeated until a set of mutually exclusive second files has been received.

The means for the second verification associated with the computer compare the first and second files in order to identify any financial instrument listed in the second file which is not included in the first file. Means responding to the means of the second verification generates an error report identifying the wrongly listed financial instruments. The error report is then sent to the depositary, which has misappropriated the financial instruments. The error report received by the depositary is used to prepare another corrected file and transmitted to the computer. The process is repeated until a set of correct second files has been received.

Means are also provided to produce a final report identifying the depositaries holding the financial instruments to be reimbursed, and which also identifies those of the called financial instruments that are not held by any depositary. Ideally, financial instruments are vouchers and the final report specifies the numbers of the certificates.

Another element of the present invention relates to the verification of each of the data transmissions to and from the depositary. Ideally, the financial instruments are vouchers and the files contain data indicative of each certificate number as well as the amount to be reimbursed. The data for each voucher in a file is identified by a registration number. In order to verify that the data transmission is correct, the certificate number is multiplied by the amount of the reimbursement of this voucher in order to result in a first product. This product for each voucher is then multiplied by the voucher registration number to obtain a second product specific to each voucher. The second products of all the vouchers in a file are then added together to give a total. This is then compared to a total calculated in the same way at the other end of the communication line through which the file was transmitted. If the two totals are the same, it is assumed that the transmission was made correctly.

The system of the present invention may also include the means for receiving electronically from the trustee the information necessary for the creation of the first file. The validity of the transmission is checked upon receipt.

IT resources are made available to the depositary to receive the first file.

The depositary's computer compares the list of financial instruments to be reimbursed with the list held by the depositary. In response, the second file is generated and transmitted. Means are provided to the depositary's computer to verify the validity of the transmission each time data is received from and transmitted to a communications agent.

A method is provided for interactively processing reimbursement notification data. A first file is generated by the computer of a communications agent comprising a list of financial instruments called for reimbursement. This first file is transmitted to the depositary's computer for comparison with the depositary with the list of financial instruments it holds. A second file is prepared including a list of financial instruments called for reimbursement that the depositary claims to hold. The first and second files are compared on the communication agent's computer to identify financial instruments not claimed by the depositary. A publication notice is then prepared summarizing the unclaimed financial instruments. Ideally, the first file is sent to multiple custodian computers for processing. All second files received from the depositaries' computers are checked to determine if more than one depositary claims to hold the same called financial instruments. Any errors discovered are corrected. All the second files which contain financial instruments which have not been called are also identified and corrected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION CHART

Figure 1 is a flowchart illustrating the various elements of a computer system in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating existing processes for notification of reimbursements.

Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating the method of notification of reimbursement of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flowchart showing the technique of verifying a data transmission used in the ideal configuration of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating the verification technique for detecting errors in files received from depositaries.

Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating another verification method used to detect errors in files received from custodians.

Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for identifying financial instruments that have been called up and are not claimed by any depositary.

Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for combining a list of financial instruments with data on the issue in a composition file forming a notice that can be sent to newspapers for publication; finally,

Figure 9 is a flowchart of the method for creating the final report.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 shows the components of the computer system in accordance with the present invention. The system concerns three entities: the issuers of the coupons to be reimbursed or the trustees assigned to these issues.

Custodians who may hold a large number of financial instruments to be redeemed.

The communications agent who provides an interface between the issuer and the fiduciary agent (hereinafter referred to as the fiduciary) and which generates the necessary reimbursement notifications.

Each of the entities described communicates via one or more computers. The computer 10 of a trustee is used by the latter to provide basic information to the communications agent, who then uses it to generate a file comprising a list of financial instruments to be reimbursed. This computer 10 is connected with one or more storage means such as magnetic tape (12) and a memory (14). Memory 14 can consist of one or more disks

Wincester of a type well known in the art. The computer (10) of the trustee includes a communication module (16) for communicating with the computer of the communication agent (20) via a connection 18. The data of the trustee is received by the computer of the communication agent by a module (30) The computer (20) is also connected to magnetic tape type storage means (26) and a conventional memory (28).

In addition, the computer (20) interfaces with a linotype (22) and a printer (24). The printer (24) is used to print various reports used in connection with the repayment process, including a final report identifying which depositaries hold which financial instruments to repay and which financial instruments are not held by any depositary. The linotype (22) is used to compose a press notice of the financial instruments to be reimbursed which are not held by any of the depositaries. A press notice can be sent to one or more newspapers, after appropriate electronic verification by one or more of the ports (40) connected to the connection (18). Alternatively, the compound opinion can be sent to newspapers, by mail, fax or other well-known means.

The communications agent computer (20) communicates with a custodian computer (32) via modules (30), (38) and connection (18), or by transferring tapes generated by the tape drive (26) at the level of the communication agent's computer and read by a reader (34) on the depositary's computer. As a security measure, it is necessary that certain depositaries receive by magnetic tape all the data to be entered rather than from a communication network and by module. The depositary's computer (32) also includes a memory (36) which is generally a hard disk.

The system of the present invention provides data communications, verification, analysis and processing of the notification of the reimbursement of financial instruments.

Typically, the financial instruments to be redeemed are vouchers held by individuals or stored in vaults with various custodians around the world. The present invention eliminates the need for costly advertising in the press regarding reimbursement. Instead, a file is sent to each of the depositaries holding bonds concerned by a reimbursement. Following the transmission of this file to the depositaries by the communications agent, each depositary sends back to the agent a list of the certificate numbers identified in the original file and held by this depositary. The agent checks the accuracy of the depositary list and informs the depositary thereof. The agent also analyzes the data received from the depositary to determine which vouchers called for redemption are not held by any of the depositaries. The agent then publishes one through the press. or several notices giving the list of the numbers of the called coupons not held by the depositaries. For each voucher held by a depositary, the latter informs the beneficiary of the reimbursement voucher and delivers the called certificates to the paying agent for reimbursement. These methods are much more efficient than the usual reimbursement methods and significantly reduce the costs associated with these reimbursements.

The existing methods for the notification of a reimbursement are described in the flow diagram of FIG. 2 which is presented in four columns. The first describes the actions taken by a custodian bank. The second describes those undertaken by the communications agent. The third shows the activity of one or more newspapers and the fourth describes the activities of one or more depositaries.

A trustee who has received instructions to initiate a redemption from a bond writer obtains a list of all outstanding bonds in the relevant issue, as shown in box 50. In box 52, a draw sort is organized to produce a list of vouchers to be called for reimbursement, as indicated in box 54. In box 56, the list of vouchers to be called is supplemented by other information relating to the particular issue and transmitted by facsimile or mail to a printer or an advertising agency. The printer or advertising agency enters the certificate numbers into a typesetting computer (66) and typesets them in the form of a provisional refund notice (68). In box 70, the communications officer compares the original reimbursement notice generated by the trustee (56) with the composition of the reimbursement notice, using a manual comparison procedure. finds a part of the new notice different from that received from the trustee, the notice of the communications agent is revised, as indicated in boxes 72, 74 to be similar to the version received from the trustee. After revision, a new comparison procedure is started (box 72) and the process repeated until the composed version is identical to that received from the trustee.

When the two versions of the reimbursement notice are recognized as being identical as regards both the text and the figures, the composed opinion is sent by the communications agent to the trustee for verification (box 60). The trustee compares the composed opinion to the original both in numbers and in letters. If after verifying the composed version of the reimbursement notice, the trustee finds that part of this new notice is incorrect, it is returned to the communications agent as indicated in boxes 62,78. The communications officer then performs the necessary revisions as indicated in box 76 and transmits the latest version to the trustee.

As soon as the trustee agrees on the similarity between the composed version and the original file, she sends a signed approval to the communications officer, thereby approving the notice for publication in one or more newspapers such as 'indicated in box 64. Transmissions between the trustee and the communications agent are made by messenger, facsimile or mail.

After receiving the signed approval, the communications officer makes the necessary arrangements for publication in the newspapers, as indicated in box 80. The reimbursement notice is printed in box 82. and the depositaries and others bondholders should read the newspapers in order to be aware of coupon redemptions as indicated in box 84. If the depositary does not receive the journal, they will not see the redemption notice as indicated in box 85. This can lead to serious legal consequences for vouchers that are not correctly reimbursed. Even if the depositary receives the newspaper in which the redemption notice is published, there is no guarantee that it will identify all the coupons it holds among those called for redemption. Therefore this current manual system is subject to caution.

Assuming that the depositary receives the journal containing the reimbursement notice, it will compare the information concerning the certificates of the notice with what it holds, as indicated in box 86. If the depositary holds one or more of the vouchers called, the certificate numbers will be identical, as indicated in boxes 88 and in box 90 the vouchers concerned will be removed from the coffers and sent to the trustee for reimbursement, as indicated in box 92. If, at the box 88, it is determined that none of the called coupons are held by the depositary, the latter will close the file for this reimbursement as indicated in box 89 .;

Figure 3 is a flow chart depicting the reimbursement notification process in accordance with the present invention. The various methods detailed in the flow diagram of FIG. 3 are divided into three columns. The one on the left indicates the actions taken by the trustee. The middle one indicates the actions taken by the communications agent. The right column shows the actions taken by each custodian.

In box 100, the trustee organizes a draw on the entire list of certificates in progress of an issue to create the new list of certificates (including a subset of the list of certificates in progress) to be called. reimbursement. A file of the numbers of the vouchers retained is prepared in box 102. This file is produced in original as indicated in box 104 and in the form of a computer file as indicated in box 106. The original list of numbers of certificates called for reimbursement is transmitted to the communications agent, eg by mail or facsimile. The receipt of this original by the agent is indicated in box 110. The computer file containing the list of the numbers of the certificates called for reimbursement is transmitted to the communication agent electronically. For example, the computer 10 of a trustee as illustrated in FIG. 1 can transmit the list via the telecommunication module 16, the connection 18 and the module 30 to a computer 20 of a communications agent. The computer file is received as indicated in box 112 and a verification procedure initiated as indicated in box 108 to ensure that the data have been correctly transmitted from the trustee to the communications officer. The same verification takes place each time data is transmitted between the communications agent and a depositary. The ideal verification procedure is explained below in relation to Figure 4.

After the computer file has been received by the communications agent, it is restructured into a standard transmission format as indicated in box 114 for transmission to the depositary's computer. Any of the well known standards can be used. For example, the file can be sent in ASCII form by a module as indicated in box 126, to be received by the depositary as indicated in box 130. On receipt at the depositary, the viability of the transmission is checked as indicated in box 128.

After receipt by the depositary, the information concerning the issue and the certificate contained in the file is compared with what is held by the depositaries, as indicated in box 132. This comparison is made either by manual procedure or by automated means. At the end of this comparison, the depositary issues a report which includes the list of certificates it holds which must be similar to that contained in the file received from the communications agent. This report is then returned to the communications officer, as indicated in box 134. Again the viability of the transmission is checked, in box 136.

Although only one depositary is shown in the flowchart in Figure 3, it is understood that normally more than one depositary will receive the reimbursement notification file from the communications agent, process it and return a report corresponding to the agent. On receipt of the depositary's report establishing the list of certificates it claims to hold, the communications agent's computer will initiate a data analysis procedure which compares the report received with those received from the other depositaries, in order to check whether the possession of the same certificate is claimed by more than one depositary, as indicated in box 138.

The comparison procedure is explained below in relation to Figure 5.

The comparison process in box 138 is repeated with each of the files received from each depositary. If it is determined that identical numbers have been transmitted to the communications agent by two or more depositaries, a report is sent to each of them as indicated in box 14 6, listing the numbers of conflicting certificates. The report is received by each depositary as indicated in box 150 and the validity of the transmission verified as indicated in box 148. The depositaries receiving the list of incompatible numbers must resolve the problem by themselves, by carrying out their own research. In order to attempt to resolve each of the incompatibilities, using the procedure described in box 132, the depositary sends a new revised file containing the certificate numbers to the communication agent, in box 134 where the procedure for comparing data from box 138 is used again. The process is repeated until all incompatibilities are resolved.

Completely analyzed and verified files received from depositaries are then subjected to a second level of analysis in box 140. This step makes it possible to identify all the certificates listed by a depositary that are not included in the original file submitted by the trustee. The process is described later in relation to the flow diagram of FIG. 6. If a file sent by a depositary includes one or more certificates not called for reimbursement, a report is generated and returned to the depositary, as indicated in the box. 152. The report is received in box 150 and the validity of the transmission checked in box 154. The report is analyzed by the depositary, the problem corrected and a new data file sent to the communications agent by the depositary as as indicated in box 134. The process is repeated until a set of correct and mutually exclusive second files has been received from all the depositaries At this stage, the communications agent will have received files listing all the good held by custodians. This information is consolidated in a report in box 142. The report is compared, in box 144, with a list of certificates called for reimbursement by the trustees to determine which of the certificates contained in the original list are not held by the depositaries. This process is described in more detail in figure 7. The list from box 144 contains those of the certificate numbers which must appear in a published reimbursement notice. In cases where all the good called are held by the depositaries, there is no need to publish a notice in the newspapers.

Returning to box 112 of diagram 3, where the file containing the reimbursed vouchers was received by the communication agent, we see that after having received this file from the trustee a new "Source" file is constructed from the data received (box 116).

This file is stored in the communication agent's computer to generate several reports. In box 118, the source file is updated with the data in box 144 to indicate that of the depositaries who hold the called certificates. In box 120, a report listing the certificates not held by the depositaries is generated. In box 122, a reimbursement notice is made for certificates not held by the depositaries. After approval by the trustee, the reimbursement notice is sent to one or more newspapers for publication. The information contained in the reimbursement notice, along with any other important information from the data file, is sent to the institutions concerned as indicated in box 124. The procedures for generating the reimbursement notice and transmitting information to interested institutions are illustrated in greater detail in Figures 8 and 9, respectively.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram of the method for verifying the transmission of data between the communications agent, the trustee, and the depositaries. This method is used in each of boxes 108, 128, 136, 148 and 154 of diagram 3. The purpose of this verification method is to create a reference making it possible to validate and identify the data which emanate from the sender in order to ensure that the data, after receipt, is identical to the original data. This file containing the certificate numbers is entered into the verification program in box 160 by the sender.

Each entry in this file contains data intended to identify the specific issue of the coupons concerned by these redemptions, the certificate numbers of each issue concerned, and the value to be reimbursed of each certificate. The data for each certificate in a file is identified by a registration number. At the start of this method a register is set to zero as shown in box 164.

In box 166, the method uses the first data corresponding to a certificate called for reimbursement. In box 168, two fields of information are multiplied. These are the certificate numbers and the amount to be reimbursed for each certificate. The product of this multiplication is transferred to box 170 where it is multiplied by the registration number corresponding to the certificate processed. The product of this multiplication is added to the register in box 172. As each consecutive recording total is produced, it is added to the register. This is accomplished by determining in box 174 if the last entry in the file has been reached. If this is not the case, the following data is taken up in box 175 and the processing continues until all the data have been processed. When the last total has been added to the register, it contains the final total as indicated in box 176. This final total is the result of this verification method, and is printed in a report presented to management as indicated in the box 178.

The same file verified by the sender is transmitted electronically to the recipient with the checks as indicated in box 162. The recipient performs the same process of "final total" as the sender as indicated in boxes 182-198. Then, in box 180, the sender and the recipient compare their results of the verification program manually or electronically. If the results are identical, as indicated in box 200, the files are supposed to be identical as indicated in box 204. If they are not identical, the attention of management is drawn to a report from box 202 , new files are exchanged, and the verification process started again.

Figure 5 illustrates the method used to determine whether multiple depositories hold the same financial instruments to be redeemed. Figure 5 assumes, by way of example, that a file containing different certificate numbers has been received from each of the four custodians. These four files are represented by boxes 210, 216, 222 and 228.

The method compares each of the received files with the other received files. The process is illustrated by comparing the file of depositary 1 in box 210. And the files of the other three depositaries in consecutive steps. First, depositary 1's file is compared with depositary 2's file in box 212. If identical numbers are found between the two files, a report is generated in box 214. Then, depositary 1's file is compared to depositary 3 file in box 234. If identical numbers are found between the two depositaries, a report is generated in box 236. Then, the depositary 1 file is compared to the depositary 4 file in box 238. If identical numbers are found between the two depositaries, a report is generated in box 240. This process is repeated for each file received from a depositary. If the verification reveals that identical numbers have been transmitted to the communications agent by two or more depositaries, a report is sent to each of them as mentioned above with reference to Figure 3. This report contains the contested numbers, and custodians must resolve this difference.

Figure 6 is a flow diagram of the method used to determine whether a depositary has included certificates in its list that are not called for redemption. A source file 248, which contains the validated list of certificates called for redemption, is compared with each of the files received from the depositaries. In the example, we show four depositaries. However, it should be noted that the number of depositaries affected by a particular reimbursement may vary.

Each certificate number contained in the depositary 1 file in box 256 is compared with each number contained in the source file. If certificate numbers contained in the depositary 1 file are not found in the source file in box 250, a report is generated in box 252. This report is sent electronically by the communication agent to depositary 1, with verification of the data as indicated in box 254.

The depositary must, at that time, resolve this conflict and send a revised report again to the communications agent, with verification of the data transmitted, as indicated in box 258.

The communication agent again compares the certificates taken up by the depositary with those contained in the source file to determine whether this depositary has taken up certificates which are not contained in the source file. If necessary, this process continues until a correct file is received from the depositary. This same process is used for depositary 2 in boxes 260, 262, 264, 266, and 268; for depositary 3 in boxes 270-278; and for depositary 4 in boxes 280-288.

Figure 7 illustrates a method used to prepare a report containing the numbers of certificates to be reimbursed by the trustee that are not held by any of the custodians contacted by the communications agent. The source file of the trustee containing the list of all the certificates to be reimbursed contains data for each of the certificates called. The certificate numbers include the complete file of certificates contained, originally in the file received by the trustee. Each of the certificate entries has been annotated with a field marked "flag". The flag is initialized with the letter "S" for each field. This indicates that each certificate represented by a data is part of the source file. The data processing of the four different custodians is illustrated in Figure 7. The actual number of custodians may vary.

The file of depositary 1 is read in the active memory of the communication computer, box 302. In box 304, each certificate number in the depositary file is compared with each certificate number in the source file. For each certificate number appearing in the two files, the character "S" in the flag field is replaced by the number representing the depositary by whom the certificate is held. Thus, for example, when two identical numbers are found in box 304, the data identifying the certificate is transferred to box 306. The "S" then turns into a flag "1". In box 308, a report is generated containing a list of all the certificates held by depositary 1.

All certificates not held by depositary 1 and identified in the source file will continue to be marked with the "S" flag, and this data goes from box 304 to box 312 or a comparison is made with the certificates held by the depositary 2.

Boxes 310-316 repeat the process explained above for the depositary 2. Boxes 318-324 repeat the process for the depositary 3. Boxes 3326-332 repeat the process for the depositary 4. The result is a series of four reports that together identify which custodians hold which certificates. At the same time, box 328 sends to box 334 the data identifying all the certificates in the source file always bearing the letter "S". This identifies certificates that are not held by any of the custodians 1-4. In box 334, a list of these "unclaimed" certificates is generated for the preparation of a reimbursement notice to be published in one or more newspapers.

Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the process used to produce the press advisory. The certificate number folder in the source file, still under the "S" flag, reads in a new file in box 340. Other data received from the trustee in box 342, such as the name of the issuer, the program title and CUSIP numbers are combined with the source file, into a new database on the communications officer's computer. This new database, sometimes called "notice database" is indicated in box 344. In box 346, the "notice" database is reformatted into an ASCII file usable in computerized composition. A file is opened in a computerized composition program in box 348, and the ASCII file "transferred to this file in box 350. Preprogrammed" style sheets "are used to further format the data in box 352.

Once the appearance of the reimbursement notice considered satisfactory by the linotypist, the notice is printed in original as indicated in box 356, and sent to the trustee for final approval in box 356. Transmission can be done by fax or other. Once the trustee approves the notice, the communications officer sends the notice to one or more newspapers for publication as indicated in box 360. If corrections are required on the printed reimbursement notice, the communication will do it as shown "in box 358.

The communications agent also transmits the information contained in the reimbursement notice to other interested institutions, such as depositaries, banks, and brokerage firms. A procedure for this is illustrated by the flowchart in Figure 9. The certificate number file from the source file with the "S" flag is received in box 372. Other information from the trustee, such as the issuer, program title and CUSIP are received in box 372. Additional information relating to communications between the bond holder and the paying agent can also be received from the trustee in box 372, and all of these information is combined with the source file into a database in box 374. An output file, formatted so that it can be processed by the receiver, is created in boxes 376 and 378. This file is then forwarded to interested parties as indicated in box 380.

The various computer components of this invention are well known. For example, the trustee and communications agent computers may include IBM 386 or equivalent PCs. Depositary computers are normally minicomputers, or centralized systems. The logic routines applicable to the present invention can be performed in dBASE IV. Any communication software, such as SMARTCOM marketed by Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. can be used for the transmission of data between the terminals of the communication agent and those of the trustees and of the certificates from the source file with the flag "S" is received in box 372. Other information from the trustee, such as the issuer, the title of the program and the CUSIP is received in box 372. Additional information relating to communications between the holder of the voucher and paying agent can also be received from the trustee in box 372, and all of this information is combined with the source file into a database in box 374. An output file, formatted so that it can be processed by the receiver, is created in boxes 376 and 378. This file is then transmitted to the interested parties as indicated in box 380.

The various computer components of this invention are well known. For example, the trustee and communications agent computers may include IBM 386 or equivalent PCs. Depositary computers are normally minicomputers, or centralized systems. The logic routines applicable to the present invention can be performed in dBASE IV. Any communication software, such as SMARTCOM marketed by Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. can be used for data transmission between the terminals of the communication agent and those of the trustees and depositaries. For depositaries who do not accept data from communications networks, standard nine-track format magnetic tapes may be used to transmit the data.

The composition software used by the communication agent can be any known product such as the Aldus Pagemaker.

It should be appreciated that the invention provides a computer system and a method of notification of reimbursement of financial instruments and verification of data. The present invention provides substantial cost and time savings and errors in processing the reimbursement notification are practically eliminated.

Although the invention has been described in an ideal situation, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many adaptations and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and objective of the invention, such as as described in the claims.

Claims (21)

1. A computer system for the notification of the reimbursement of financial instruments and the verification of data comprising: computer means for generating a first data file containing a list of financial instruments to be reimbursed; means operatively associated with said computer means for transmitting said first files to a depositary; means operationally associated with said computer means for receiving a second file from said depositary containing a list of each of said financial instruments that the depositary claims to hold. means responding to said computer means for comparing said first and second files in order to identify the financial instruments contained in the first file not claimed by said depositary; and means responding to said computer means to create a list of financial instruments identified by said comparison means. 2. A computer system in accordance with claim 1 comprising: means for formatting the list of financial instruments identified by said comparison means in a notice for publication 3. A computer system in accordance with claim 1 by which the said first file is transmitted to several depositaries, a second separate file is received from each of the depositaries and contains a list of the financial instruments which the depositary claims to hold, and by which the These means of comparison make it possible to identify the financial instruments contained in the first file and not held by the depositaries. 4. A computer system in accordance with claim 3 comprising: first verification means operationally associated with said computer to compare the second files received from each depositary with one another in order to identify any financial instrument whose possession is claimed by more than one '' a depositary; means responding to said first verification means to generate an error report concerning the financial instruments claimed by more than one depositary; and means responding to said computer means making it possible to transmit said error report to each depositary claiming the holding of a financial instrument already claimed by another depositary. 5. A computer system in accordance with claim 4 comprising: means for receiving the second corrected file and for repeating the creation and transmission of an error report until a set of mutually exclusive second files has been received. 6. A computer system in accordance with claim 4 comprising: second verification means associated with said computer for comparing the first and second files in order to identify all the financial instruments listed in any second file and which is not included in the first file; means responding to said means of second verifications and making it possible to generate an error report showing improperly listed financial instruments. means responding to said computer means for transmitting said error reports to the depositary which improperly listed the financial instruments 7. A computer system in accordance with claim 6 comprising: means for receiving second corrected files and for repeating the creation and transmission of an error report until a set of second corrected files and each other have been received. 8. A computer system in accordance with claim 7 comprising: means for formatting the list of financial instruments not claimed by the depositaries in a notice for publication. 9. A computer system in accordance with claim 8 comprising: means operatively associated with said computer for producing a final report identifying which depositary holds which financial instruments to be reimbursed and those of said financial instruments are not held by any depositary 10. A computer system in accordance with claim 9 wherein said financial instruments are vouchers and said final report specifies the numbers of the vouchers. 11. A computer system in accordance with claim 10 comprising: means for verifying the validity of the data transmission each time data is transmitted to and received from a custodian. 12. A computer system in accordance with claim 11 wherein said financial instruments are vouchers and said files contain data indicative of each number of vouchers as well as the amount to be paid upon redemption of each voucher. 13. A computer system in accordance with claim 12 wherein the data for each voucher in a file is identified by a registration number and where said means of verification include: means for multiplying the number of each voucher by the amount of reimbursement of this voucher to provide a first product for each voucher; means for multipiering the first product obtained for each voucher by the corresponding registration number to provide a second product for each voucher; means for adding the second products of all the vouchers to a file to obtain a total; and means for comparing the total to a total calculated in the same way at the end of a communication line through which the data file has been transferred. 14. A computer system in accordance with claim 1 comprising: means for receiving electronically from a trustee the information necessary to generate said first file, and means for verifying the validity of the transmission of data upon receipt of said information. 15. A computer system in accordance with claim 1 comprising: computer means at said depositary for receiving said first data file; means operatively associated with said depositary computer to compare said list of financial instruments to be reimbursed with a list of financial instruments held by said depositary; means responding to said depositary comparison means for generating said second file; and means transmitting said second data file. 16. A computer system to be used by a depositary to obtain and process notifications of the reimbursement of financial instruments comprising: computer means for receiving a first data file from a communications agent identifying a series of financial instruments to be reimbursed for means operationally associated with said computer to compare said series with a list of financial instruments held by said depositary; means responding to said comparison means making it possible to generate a second file containing a list of financial instruments identified in said first file and held by the depositary; and means for transmitting said second file to a communication agent. 17. A computer system in accordance with claim 16 comprising: means for verifying the validity of the data transmission each time data is received from and transmitted to said communication agent. 18. A method for interactively processing reimbursement notification data comprising the following steps: creation of a first file on a communication agent computer containing a list of financial instruments to be reimbursed. transmission of said files to a depositary's computer for comparison with the depositary with a list of the financial instruments held by it. preparation of a second file containing a list of the financial instruments called that the depositary claims to hold. comparison of said first and second files on the communications agent's computer to identify the financial instruments called not claimed by this depositary, and preparation of a notice for publication containing the list of unclaimed financial instruments. 19. A method in accordance with claim 18 comprising the following steps: transmission of said first file to several computers of depositaries preparation of a second data file for each depositary containing a list of financial instruments called and allegedly held by depositaries , and comparison of the first file with all the second files to identify the called instruments not held by the depositaries. 20. A method in accordance with claim 19 consisting of the following steps: verification of all the second files in order to determine if more than one depository claims possession of the same financial instruments called, correction of any error discovered in this verification step , 21. A method in accordance with claim 20 consisting of the following steps: identification and correction of any second file which includes financial instruments which have not been called.