WO2019140489A1

WO2019140489A1 - A system and method for facilitating transactions

Info

Publication number: WO2019140489A1
Application number: PCT/AU2019/050034
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul Stokes
Original assignee: NexPay Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2018-01-19
Filing date: 2019-01-21
Publication date: 2019-07-25

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for facilitating foreign exchange transactions which may include payments to multiple parties. A transaction processing system is provided as a pre-processor for conventional FX transfer systems. Pre-processing enables the calculation and provision of split payments, before the usual FX transfer systems are applied. This results in an improvement in efficiency for transaction processing.

Description

A System and Method for Facilitating Transactions

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for facilitating transactions and, particularly, but not exclusively, relates to a system and method for

facilitating foreign exchange transactions which may include payments to multiple parties.

Background of the Invention The Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market is the largest trading market in the world. There is trading in excess of four trillion USD per day. International money transfers are currently performed using complex systems and processes often requiring multiple transfers between multiple banks utilising FX exchange and money transfer systems (such as SWIFT) . The transfer and FX exchange process can comprise multiple steps, the application of multiple systems and the levying of a number of fees for FX and transfer by each of the entities involved in the process. Current systems and processes are cumbersome and expensive .

These problems are particularly exacerbated, when multiple parties may be involved in a transaction, for example a party transferring a sum to a number of

different people, requiring splitting of the sum and payment of parts of the sum to different entities. With the increasing mobility of people (e.g. 6 million students studying overseas) and the growing third party agent services sector (e.g. education agents, travel agents, migration agents) there is an increasing requirement for implementation of more complex payment solutions. In the overseas student market, for example, a student may be required to pay an amount to an overseas school for their study. The overseas school placement may typically be arranged by an agent. The agent is paid commission by the school. This currently requires a complex process of the agent advising the student how much they must pay, the student transferring a local currency payment amount into an overseas currency amount via their bank and FX; the amount being transmitted in the foreign currency to the school; the school taking out the agent's commission in the foreign currency and sending it back, by the usual transfer systems to the agent, where it is FX' d so that the agent receives local currency. This involves significant delay and cost (because of multiple processing steps and multiple fees) . This results in an increase in expense for all parties, and a delay in processing.

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a transaction processing system for processing a transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, the system comprising a payment engine arranged to receive a payment amount from a payer in a first currency, to calculate a transfer amount in a second currency as an FX of the first currency minus a remainder amount and a transfer engine arranged to communicate with foreign transfer systems to transfer the transfer amount overseas to a first payee, and the transfer engine being arranged to transfer the remainder amount to a second payee in the first currency.

In an embodiment, the transaction processing system is arranged to be interposed before the usual foreign transfer systems (e.g. banks, systems like SWIFT, etc.) so as to implement the system processes before transfer of the monies overseas occurs. Advantageously, in an embodiment, this results in a "split" of the received payment amount into an overseas currency amount to go overseas to the first payee and local currency amount to be paid to the second payee.

In an embodiment, the payer may be a person requiring a service, such as payment to an entity overseas. The first payee may be the entity overseas. The second payee may be an agent or the like who has arranged matters between the payer and the first payee, and receives commission on the transaction. The remainder amount, in this embodiment, is the second payee's commission.

In an embodiment, the system has the advantage that it can create split payments at the point of initiation of the transaction so an agent, for example, knows how much commission they are going to receive in their local currency, and receives that commission in their local currency without having to wait for the entirety of the payment to be processed, go overseas, and then have their commission returned via FX and banking systems from the first payee overseas.

In an embodiment, the system further comprises an overall payment calculation process, which is arranged to calculate the payment amount in the first currency, from an invoiced amount in the second currency.

In accordance with a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of processing a transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, comprising the steps of receiving a payment amount in a first currency from a payor, calculating a transfer amount in a second currency as an FX of the first currency minus a remainder amount, transferring the transfer amount to a first payee overseas by utilising foreign transfer systems, and paying the remainder amount for a second payee in the first currency.

In accordance with a third aspect, the present invention provides a method of dealing with a transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, utilising foreign transfer systems, comprising the step of implementing a further local transaction system interposed before the foreign transfer systems, to split a received payment into a foreign currency amount to go via the foreign transfer systems to a first payee overseas, and a second payment amount in a local currency to go to a second payee locally.

In accordance with a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a transaction processing system for processing a transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, utilising foreign transfer systems, the transaction processing system comprising a payment engine arranged to split a received payment into a foreign currency amount to go via the foreign transfer systems to a first payee overseas, and a second payment amount in a local currency to go to a second payee locally, and a transfer engine arranged to communicate with the foreign transfer systems to implement the foreign transfer, whereby the transaction processing systems is interposed in the payment process before the foreign transfer systems .

In accordance with a fifth aspect, the present invention provides a computer program, comprising

instructions to control a computer, to implement a transaction processing system in accordance with the first or fourth aspect of the invention.

In accordance with the sixth aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable medium, providing a computer program in accordance with the fifth aspect of the invention.

In accordance with a seventh aspect, the present invention provides a data signal, comprising a computer program in accordance with the fifth aspect of the invention .

Brief Description of the Figures

Features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of

embodiments thereof, by way of example only, with

reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a prior art process for transferring funds to a plurality of parties via a foreign transfer process;

Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram of a

transaction processing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a computer system which may be utilised to implement the transaction processing system of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a transaction process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figures 5, 6 and 7 are "screensnaps" of an interface of the transaction processing system of Figure 2, and

Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of a further embodiment of a transaction processing system in

accordance with the present invention.

Please note that the term "NexPay™" used in the drawings is a trademark, and is not limiting to any features of the invention.

Detailed Description of Embodiments

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a prior art process for implementing a transaction which requires transfer of money overseas to pay a first payee and payment in a local currency to a second payee, both the transfer overseas and the payment to the second payee being taken from an overall payment in a local currency.

With the increasing mobility of people and their movement overseas, there is an increasing demand for the implementation of more complex payment solutions which require payments to multiple parties as well as transfers overseas and foreign exchange.

One example which illustrates the complexity of transactions that may be required, is where a student from one country wishes to study overseas . There is a growing third party Agent services sector (e.g. education agents, travel agents, migration agents). In this example, an education agent will liaise with a student and an overseas school and arrange for the student to obtain a place at the school to study there. The school will require overall payment of a certain amount (e.g. tuition fees, etc.) For the agent services, the school will usually pay the agent commission out of that amount which is

originally invoiced to the student. First, the student is required to pay a total amount to the school which, after the school has received that total amount, commission must be paid to the agent.

Figure 1 illustrates the current process using, as an example, a Colombian student who has arranged to study at a University in Australia;

At step 1, the agent creates a AUD $10,000 (this is a notional sum for the purpose of this example) invoice for the student. The agent and the student will already have arranged with the school for the student to study there.

The total cost of AUD $10,000 is to be paid to the school. The school will return the agent' s commission from this amount after they have received it. At step 2, in the current system, the student attends their bank which calculates an amount of Colombian peso's (COP) to meet the $10,000 Australian dollar amount. This calculation will, of course, include a bank fee which will include a portion for dealing with the FX as well as a handling fee. The student pays the required amount of COP to the bank.

At step 3, an overseas transfer is made from the bank to the school's bank. This overseas transfer of funds may typically involve multiple banks and systems and different accounts e.g. Bank Suspense Accounts. Systems such as SWIFT are used. In Australia the RTGS system is used to transfer between banks. The complex transfer of funds includes multiple charges . These charges are partly taken into account by the handling fee of the student's bank. Further, charges will be levied to and by the school' s receiving bank, to take into account all these handling costs.

At step 4, the school receives the monies in their bank account, minus fees for all the transfer costs. In this case, the school receives, say, $9,800 Australian dollars .

At step 5, the school must pay the agent's commission which, in this case is $1,000 AUD. They ask their bank to transfer this to Colombia.

At step 6, another transfer is implemented to the Colombian bank via the usual complex systems (with associated costs and charges) . At step 7, the agent receives their commission less bank charges and FX charges . For example they may receive only Australian dollars $900 in the equivalent COP.

The current system is therefore very costly to all of the parties. The process is slow, particularly for the agent who does not receive their commission until the school has received its funds and then returned commission (via multiple banks and systems) to the agent. The agent does not know when they are going to receive their commission or have any real idea how much it will be in their local currency.

Figure 2 illustrates a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system of this embodiment can ameliorate some of the disadvantages of the prior art process (as illustrated in Figure 1) .

Referring to Figure 2, reference numeral 1 generally designates a transaction processing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The

transaction processing system 1 comprises a payment engine 2 which is arranged to receive a payment amount from a payer in a first currency and calculate a transfer amount in a second currency as a foreign exchange of the first currency, minus a remainder amount. The transaction processing system 1 also comprises a transfer engine 3 which is arranged to communicate with foreign transfer systems 4 (which may include financial institutions such as banks and other overseas transfer systems) to transfer the transfer amount overseas to a first payee. The transfer engine 3 is arranged to communicate with FI institutions systems 5, which may be local FI systems to transfer the remainder amount to a second payee in the local currency.

The transaction processing system 1 is interposed before the usual FX and transfer systems and processes 4. It implements "pre-processing" before the usual

transactions (such as illustrated in Figure 1) take place. The transaction processing system effectively acts to "split" a payment into a transfer amount in a foreign currency and a remainder amount in a local currency, prior to any overseas transfer.

In the example of Figure 1 if the transaction processing system 1 of Figure 2 is applied, significant advantages are realised;

In the agent/student scenario discussed in Figure 1, instead of the entire payment amount being transferred overseas and then the commission being returned to the agent (two total sets of overseas transfers), only one set of transfers is required if the system of Figure 2 is applied. This results in approximately 50% reduction of the number of transactions, or more. Processing time of the transactions is also reduced and the cost is reduced because not so many handling fees/processing fees are applied .

Further, because the overall payment is "split" locally, there is no FX charge required for the commission amount to the second payee (agent) . Further, the agent can be advised of the amount of commission in their local currency that they are going to receive, during their local interaction with the transaction system 1. Another advantage is that agents know the exact amount they will receive in their local currency before the transaction has taken place. This is a significant improvement over conventional transection methods where agents only know the approximate amount of commission they will receive.

The transaction processing system 1 is implemented by one or more computers, comprising processors and memory. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of computer system which may be utilised to implement the system 1 of the

embodiment of Figure 2.

The computer system 900 may be a high performance machine, such as a supercomputer, a desktop workstation or a personal computer, or may be a portable computer such as a laptop or a notebook or may be a distributed computing array or a computer cluster or a networked cluster of computers. In the embodiment of Figure 1, the computing apparatus 2 is a server computer. The invention is not limited to this arrangement. The computers may include any types of system discussed above. In an embodiment, the server may compromise "virtual" server (s) implemented in the "Cloud" .

The computer system 900 comprises a suitable

operating system and appropriate software processes for implementation of embodiments of the present invention.

The computer system 900 comprises one or more data processing units (CPUs) 902; memory 904, which may include volatile or non-volatile memory, such as various types of RAM memories, magnetic discs, optical disks and solid state memories; a user interface 906, which may comprise a monitor, keyboard, mouse and/or touch-screen display; a network or other communication interface 908 for communicating with other computers as well as other devices; and one or more communication busses 910 for interconnecting the different parts of the System 900.

The computer system for implementing embodiments of the invention is not limited to the computer system described in the preceding paragraphs. Any computer system architecture may be utilised, such as standalone computers, networked computers, dedicated computing devices, handheld devices or any device capable of receiving processing information in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The architecture may comprise client/server architecture, or any other architecture. The software for implementing embodiments of the invention may be processed by "cloud" computing architecture .

Software may be implemented in any convenient software architecture, routines or sub routines, or software modules, or any other architecture that can implement the functionality described in this description.

In this embodiment, the transaction processing system 1 is housed in the "Cloud".

In more detail, referring to Figure 2, the

transaction processing system 1 may be accessed via user systems 10. The user systems 10 may be computing systems, including laptop computers, portable computers,

smartphones, PC's or any computing systems as described above. The user computer systems may be operated by persons wishing to utilise the transaction processing system 1 to process transactions.

For example, Agents transacting on behalf of clients who wish to transfer money overseas to pay for education, travel or any other service, may access transaction processing system 1 via their computing system 10.

Note that in Figure 2 only three user computing systems 10 are shown. It will be appreciated that there may be many more .

A user 10 may access the transaction processing system via public website 11, generated by the transaction processing system 1. They may access via any network connection. Where they access the public website 11 they will access using appropriate browser software.

A link 12 is provided to a user website 13 which provides an interface via which the user may access the transaction processing system 1 services.

In this example, the payment engine comprises a calculator widget 14 which is arranged to carry out FX transaction calculations based on FX rates accessed via a data access/processing service 15 and database 16. The data access processing service may also access external FI systems 4 and 5 to obtain information.

The calculator widget 14 is also arranged to

calculate commissions which may be payable to agents, for example, and other service charges, handling charges, etc.

The payment engine 2 also comprises a quote/payment form generator which is arranged to generate interfaces for the user website 13, including payment amount requests and other payment information for the user systems 10.

The transfer engine 3 comprises the data

access/processing service 15 which is arranged to

communicate with transfer systems 4 (see for example, financial institution transfer systems for transferring overseas) and local financial institution systems 5. The processing service 15 may provide instructions 2, 4 and 5 for the processing of payments, with amounts.

Administration interface 17 enables system

administrators to control payments 5 and processing service 15. It also enables administrators to control the transaction processing system 1.

An example transaction using transaction processing system 1 will now be described, with reference to Figures 4 through 7.

In this scenario an agent (the "user") has arranged for a student to be enrolled at a University in Australia. The total fee to be paid is $4,000 Australian dollars (it will be appreciated that this is a "notional" amount purely for illustration, and the amount may vary from this) . In the prior art, this payment amount would be transferred to the school with all the disadvantages described above in relation to Figure 1. In this

scenario, however, the agent accesses the transaction processing system 1 to have the transaction dealt with by the system 1.

At step 1 (Figure 4) the agent accesses the system 1 via the user website 13. The agent creates payment instructions (Figure 5) for payment to a payee (reference numeral 50 Figure 5) . The payment amount in total is $5,000 Australian dollars which includes $1,000 Australian dollars commission 51 for the agent 52 and $4,000 53 or the school. The calculator widget 14 calculates the amount of commission in the agent's local currency (in this case Colombian pesos, COP) see reference numeral 54 in Figure 5. So the agent knows at the point of payment, before the transaction is transferred overseas, how much they are to receive in their local currency. The calculator widget, via the processing service 15, is able to access current FX rates so is able to make the calculation accurately at the time. A total payment amount is calculated for the student which incorporates the commission and the $4,000 AUD to go to the school, in a local currency (COP) . Payment amount also includes any charges that the transaction processing system 1 may levy.

An invoice is generated for the student to pay the transaction processing system the payment amount in local currency. See Figure 7 for the payment instructions generated for the student.

The student pays a financial entity associated with the transaction processing system 1. This is detected by the processing service 15 which then operates to "split" the received payment into a $4,000 dollar amount to be sent via FX and transfer systems and processes 4 to the overseas school, and the commission amount in COP to be returned to the agent. See step 3, Figure 4. The processing system 1 requests the associated FI to transfer the rest of the COP into $4,000 Australian dollars via FX into account associated with the system and the system instructs the transfer via transfer systems 4 to the school. At step 5, therefore, the school receives an AUD amount already minus the commission (and any other transfer fees) . At step 6, the agent receives their commission in local currency and does not suffer loss because of further FX and transfer fees.

Having the transaction processing system 1

automatically controlling payment instructions and interposed as a pre-processing system before the

conventional FX and transfer systems, results in much less transaction time and processing costs, particularly from the point of view of the users 10. Figure 8 is a block diagram of a further embodiment of a transaction processing system in accordance with the present invention.

Education agents (and other agents) often have their own software/hardware systems. One of the issues of having a separate, browser based system that the agent must access, is that they may have to enter information (e.g. student information) on two systems.

In the embodiment of Figure 8, an API 50 operates as an interface between agent software 51 and the payment processing system 52.

The API 50 can be used with a number of different types of education agents software.

The API 50 utilises function calls to interface with the payment system 52.

In the above embodiments, only two payees are shown. It will be appreciated that the system may work with more than two payees, and that there may be multiple payees and multiple splits of a payment amount. The system can split a payment amount in "N" ways .

In the above embodiment, the example given is of a student wishing to pay an overseas school. The invention is not limited to this, and there are many other scenarios where the transaction processing system may be used.

Applications include travel and travel agents, migration and migration agents, and other applications.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

1. A transaction processing system for processing a

transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, the system comprising a payment engine arranged to receive a payment amount from a payer in a first currency, to calculate a transfer amount in a second currency as an FX of the first currency minus a remainder amount, and a transfer engine arranged to communicate with foreign transfer systems to transfer the transfer amount overseas to a first payee, and the transfer engine being arranged to transfer the remainder amount to a second payee in the first currency.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1, arranged to be interposed as a pre-processing system prior to

conventional foreign transfer systems.

3. A system in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2,

further comprising an overall payment calculation process, which is arranged to calculate a payment amount in the first currency, from an invoiced amount in the second currency.

4. A method of processing a transaction requiring

foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, comprising the steps of receiving a payment amount in a first currency from a payer, calculating a transfer amount in a second currency as an FX of the first currency minus a remainder amount, transferring the transfer amount to a first payee overseas by utilising foreign transfer systems, and paying the remainder amount for a second payee in the first currency.

5. A method of dealing with a transaction requiring

foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, utilising foreign transfer systems, comprising the step of implementing a further local transaction system interposed before the foreign transfer systems, to split a received payment into a foreign currency amount to go via the foreign transfer systems to a first payee overseas, and a second payment amount in a local currency to go to a second payee locally.

6. A transaction processing system for processing a

transaction requiring foreign exchange and payment to a plurality of parties, utilising foreign transfer systems, the transaction processing system comprising a payment engine arranged to split a received payment into a foreign currency amount to go via the foreign transfer systems to a first payee overseas, and a second payment amount in a local currency to go to a second payee locally, and a transfer engine arranged to communicate with the foreign transfer systems to implement the foreign transfer, whereby the transaction processing systems is interposed in the payment process before the foreign transfer systems.

7. A computer program, comprising instructions to

control a computer, to implement a transaction

processing system in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 3 or claim 6.

8. A computer readable medium, providing a computer

program in accordance with claim 7.

9. A data signal, comprising a computer program in

accordance with claim 7.