WO2015102009A1

WO2015102009A1 - Systems and methods for money transfer between inter entity accounts on a liquidity management structure

Info

Publication number: WO2015102009A1
Application number: PCT/IN2014/000010
Authority: WO
Inventors: Deepak Venkata Sai POLAKI; Nabendu DAS; Raghavan MUTHUKRISHNAN; Vinod Kumar KUMARESAN
Original assignee: Infosys Limited
Priority date: 2014-01-06
Filing date: 2014-01-06
Publication date: 2015-07-09

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method for money transfer between inter entity accounts on a liquidity management structure. The invention involves linking the plurality of inter entity accounts to the liquidity management structure and fetching the account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts. The invention further involves transferring money between the plurality of inter entity accounts to achieve and maintain the target balance for the inter entity accounts.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONEY TRANSFER BETWEEN INTER ENTITY ACCOUNTS ON A LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT

STRUCTURE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention generally relates to achieve the target balance of the inter entity accounts on a liquidity management structure, and in particular, to a system and method for money transfer between inter entity accounts on a liquidity management structure. BACKGROUND:

It is very important to manage adequate liquidity to ensure smooth functioning of the business houses. A good liquidity management ensures the availability of funds to meet all cash flow commitments. Financial institutions having worldwide operation need sound liquidity management system in place. The task of managing liquidity is very simple in case of "uni-banking" relationship with a single account to monitor and manage. But now a days most of the customers of financial institutions have multiple accounts either in different financial institutions or in different branches of the same financial institutions and often resulting in chunks of idle cash left in various accounts.

Presently, the services provided by the Liquidity Management product enable the user to achieve holistic view of a group of accounts to take funding or investment decisions, minimize overdraft charges on individual account balances and Enhance customers' return on funds management. But the services provided by the liquidity management product are only restricted to internal accounts of a financial institution. Thus there is no mechanism available to transfer excess fund from a particular account of one entity to another account which has lower balance than the target balance of any other entity.

In view of the foregoing discussion, there is a need for a technology that can help the customer having inter entity accounts to transfer funds from one account to other to achieve the target balance for liquidity management.

SUMMARY:

The present invention overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks by linking the inter entity accounts which belong to different financial institutions or to different branches of the same financial institution operating on the same database instance.

According to the present embodiment, a method for transferring money between pluralities of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure is described. In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention, data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. The method includes linking the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure. Thereafter, account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure is fetched by context switching. After that, money between the pluralities of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure is transferred to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts. In an additional embodiment, a system for transferring money between pluralities of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure is described. According to various embodiments of the present invention, data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. As disclosed, the embodiment includes a linking module configured to link the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure, a account balance information fetching module configured to fetch account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure and a money transfer module configured to transfer money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts.

In another embodiment, a computer program product for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure is described. According to various embodiments of the present invention, data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. The computer program product includes a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure. The computer readable program code storing a set of instructions configured for linking the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure, fetching account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure and transferring money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts.

DRAWINGS: Various embodiments of the invention will, hereinafter, be described in conjunction with the appended drawings provided to illustrate, and not to limit the invention, wherein like designations denote like elements, and in which:

FIG.l is a computer architecture diagram illustrating a computing system capable of implementing the embodiments presented herein.

FIG.2 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG.3 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for fetching account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG.4 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for transferring money based on a plurality of money transfer mode between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG.5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

The foregoing has broadly outlined the features and technical advantages of the present disclosure in order that the detailed description of the disclosure that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the disclosure. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the disclosure, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present disclosure.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system and method for money transfer between a plurality of inter entity accounts on a liquidity management structure, wherein data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. In various embodiments of the present disclosure, the inter entity accounts refers to one or more accounts in the same or different branches of the same financial institution or one or more accounts in the different financial institutions. The plurality of inter entity accounts are linked to the liquidity management structure for efficiently managing the liquidity i various accounts of the customer belonging to the same and different branches of the same financial institute and belonging to different financial institutes. The account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts linked to the liquidity management structure is fetched by using context switch mechanism. As part of managing the liquidity across the accounts in a liquidity management structure, one of the controlling parameters available is setting Target Balance for a linkage in the structure. The system ensures the above set target balance is met on the child account of a linkage.

Effectively, If it is found that the account balance of any of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer is below the target balance then the amount that is arrived at in order to meet the target balance will be credited to the inter entity account from an internal account which is directly linked to the said inter entity account. Similarly, if the inter entity account is having excess amount than the target balance then the excess amount is transferred from that inter entity account to the said linked internal account. FIG.l illustrates a generalized example of a suitable computing environment 100 in which all embodiments, techniques, and technologies of this invention may be implemented. The computing environment 100 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope of use or functionality of the technology, as the technology may be implemented in diverse general- purpose or special-purpose computing environments. For example, the disclosed technology may be implemented using a computing device (e.g., a server, desktop, laptop, hand-held device, mobile device, PDA, etc.) comprising a processing unit, memory, and storage storing computer-executable instructions implementing the service level management technologies described herein. The disclosed technology may also be implemented with other computer system configurations, including hand held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, a collection of client/server systems, and the like.

With reference to FIG.l, the computing environment 100 includes at least one central processing unit 102 and memory 104. The central processing unit 102 executes computer- executable instructions. In a multi-processing system, multiple processing units execute computer-executable instructions to increase processing power and as such, multiple processors can be running simultaneously. The memory 104 may be volatile memory (e.g., registers, cache, RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.), or some combination of the two. The memory 104 stores software 116 that can implement the technologies- described herein. A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 100 includes storage 108, one or more input devices 110, one or more output devices 112, and one or more communication connections 114. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as a bus, a controller, or a network, interconnects the components of the computing environment 100. Typically, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 100, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 100.

FIG.2 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure. In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. The financial service layer is connected to the central database through the network communication system. The financial data of each local entity is segregated using logical rules. The logical rules are stored and manipulated in a central rule database via the financial service layer hosted on the central database. One skilled in the art would recognize that the storage space on the central database can be allocated, removed and reallocated dynamically. The method includes linking the plurality of inter entity accounts to the liquidity management structure, as in step 202. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer belongs to various branches of the same financial institution or to different financial institutions. The account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts are fetched by the customer, as in step 204.

FIG.3 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for fetching account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure. The customer first requires to login in one entity, say host context, of the plurality of multi entities where the customer's accounts belong. After login into the host context, the customer can view the account balance information of other entities by switching context. For switching context, the customer needs to enter a customer identifier for the entity for which he wants to fetch the account balance information, as in step 302. After switching context, the account balance information of the other entity is fetched, as in step 304. The customer, then, can restore the host context by logging off from the other entity context, as in step 306.

Referring back to FIG.2, the money is transferred to one of the plurality of inter entity accounts having account balance lower than the target balance for that account from an internal account which is directly linked to the said inter entity account in such a way that the money is transferred only in between the said inter entity account and the internal account. If the said inter entity account has excess amount that the target balance then that excess amount is transferred from that inter entity account to the said internal account. If the said internal account does not have enough money to transfer then the transaction does not happen.

FIG.4 is a flowchart, illustrating a method for transferring money based on a plurality of money transfer mode between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure. The method includes, initiating the money transfer between two different accounts of the plurality of inter entity accounts, as in step 402. Thereafter, the money transfer mode is decided, as in step 404. The money transfer mode may be credit transfer or debit transfer. If the money transfer mode is credit then the credit transfer happens in PO (payment order) payment transfer method, as in step 406. On the other hand, if the money transfer mode is debit then, the Debit transfer happens in ACH (Automatic clearing house) payment transfer method, as in step 408.

FIG.5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure. More particularly, in FIG. 5, system 500 includes a linking module 502, a account balance information fetching module 504 and a money transfer module 506. In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database. In various embodiments of the present invention, the linking module 502 is configured to link the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer belongs to various branches of the same financial institution or to different financial institutions. The account balance information fetching module 504 is configured to fetch account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure. The information is fetched based on the context switching mechanism. A virtual id is required to maintain at host bank for context switching which will be mentioned as part of the inter entity setup that is used by the system automatically when the context switch is required. The money transfer module 506 is configured to transfer money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts. Each account associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts has to achieve and maintain a target balanced specified for the particular account, i.e. each account may have different target balance to maintain for managing liquidity. Sometime, one of these accounts may have excess amount than the specified target balance and other account may have lower amount than the target balance. In this case, the excess amount can be transferred from the first account to the second account to meet the target balance of both the accounts. Here, the important point to be noted is the plurality of inter entity accounts may belong to various branches of the same financial institution or these may belong to different financial institutions. The money transfer mode may be credit transfer or debit transfer. If the money transfer mode is credit then the credit transfer happens in PO (payment order) payment transfer method. On the other hand, if the money transfer mode is debit then, the Debit transfer happens in ACH (Automatic clearing house) payment transfer method.

The above mentioned description is presented to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of the requirement for obtaining a patent. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the generic principles of the present invention may be applied to other embodiments, and some features of the present invention may be used without the corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiment shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.

Claims

CLAIMS: We claim,

1. A computer implemented method, executed by one or more computing devices, for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure, wherein data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database, the said method comprising:- linking, by at least one of the computing devices, the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure; fetching, by at least one of the computing devices, account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure; and transferring, by at least one of the computing devices, money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts is fetched by context switching between a plurality of entities.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the context is switched by providing an identifier of the customer associated with the plurality of entities.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the money is transferred using an internal payment system.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the internal payment system performs synchronously with the funds transfer process.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transferring of money includes debit transfer and credit transfer.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the credit transfer is performed by Payment Order (PO) method.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the debit transfer is performed by Automatic Clearing House (ACH) method.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transferring of money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer includes account sweeping and interest allocation.

10. A system for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure, wherein data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database, comprising: a processor in operable communication with a processor readable storage medium, the processor readable storage medium containing one or more programming instructions whereby the processor is configured to implement: a linking module configured to link the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure; a account balance information fetching module configured to fetch account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure; and a money transfer module configured to transfer money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts is fetched by context switching between a plurality of entities.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the context is switched by providing an identifier of the customer associated with the plurality of entities.

13. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the money is transferred using an internal payment system.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the internal payment system performs synchronously with the funds transfer process.

15. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the transferring of money includes debit transfer and credit transfer.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the credit transfer is performed by Payment Order (PO) method.

17. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the debit transfer is performed by Automatic Clearing House (ACH) method.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the transferring of money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer includes account sweeping and interest allocation.

19. A computer program product for use with a computer, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for transferring money between a plurality of inter entity accounts of a customer on a liquidity management structure, wherein data associated with the plurality of inter entity accounts are stored in a central database, the computer readable program code storing a set of instructions configured for: linking, by at least one of the computing devices, the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer to the liquidity management structure; fetching, by at least one of the computing devices, account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure; and transferring, by at least one of the computing devices, money between the plurality of inter entity accounts of the customer linked to the liquidity management structure to achieve a target balance for a particular account of the plurality of inter entity accounts.

20. The computer program product as claimed in claim 19, wherein the account balance information of the plurality of inter entity accounts is fetched by context switching between a plurality of entities.

21. The computer program product as claimed in claim 19, wherein the money is transferred using an internal payment system.

22. The computer program product as claimed in claim 19, wherein the transferring of money includes debit transfer and credit transfer.