TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods that facilitate consumer transactions, and more particularly to systems and methods with respect to the merchant processing side of consumer transactions.

BACKGROUND

Computer systems and networks have facilitated the tasks of buying, selling and transferring goods both locally and in virtual environments. Credit card, debit card, smart card, eCheck, and other modes of purchase rely on sophisticated networks and devices that process proposed transactions rapidly so as not to frustrate the pace and consummation of regular consumer transactions for either the purchaser or the merchant. Technology advances have also allowed for a wider variety of devices and transaction types in retail and other marketplaces.

In many individual point of sale consumer transactions, payment choices are controlled by the purchaser, such as, for instance, a consumer, with the merchant having little role in such choices. That is, many merchants allow consumers and other purchasers to pay for goods or services by his or her choice of cash, check, debit card, eCheck, and/or several different types of credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and the like. The merchant has little, if any, choice in the choice of tender type by the consumer. Recent developments in commerce have also seen more acceptance and use of even further payment methods, such as by accounts and devices promulgated by electronic commerce providers such as PayPal, Bank of America, Square, Intuit, Groupon, and Google, among others. The ability of consumers to select from numerous different payment types is one way that many merchants attract more business from more and a wider variety of consumers.

As is generally well known, payment systems can be centralized, decentralized or subject to virtual systems that connect end users, such as, for instance a payer and a receiver. These payment systems include open looped systems, such as checks and most credit card systems, where banks act as intermediaries between end parties and the payment system, as well as closed looped systems, such as Western Union and other proprietary services, where a typically, non-bank service provider, has a direct relationship with one or both end parties. Core payments systems include cards, an Automated Clearing House (“ACH”), checking, wire transfer and cash. Payments can be “push” payments, where money is sent, and “pull” payments, where money is taken. Examples of “push” payments include ACH “credits” and wires, and examples of “pull” payments include checks, cards and ACH “debits.” An ACH or other similar item can be used for such systems and other electronic networks to process large volumes of debit transactions in batches. The Electronic Payments Association (“NACHA”) manages the development, administration, and governance of the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data (see, e.g., www.nacha.org). Some ACHs can offer same day service or processing for transactions (i.e., same day ACH), and global ACHs can facilitate more streamlined transactions across differing countries and currencies, such that interchange fees and delays are reduced or eliminated.

As is also generally well known, various payment card technologies can involve the use of magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, contactless and chip and pin cards, such as EMV cards. Also, rates and fees imposed for the use of a card may be impacted depending upon whether an actual card is present, which is referred to as “card present,” or not present, which is referred to as “card not present,” for a given transaction.

There are multiple stages in a transaction, such as the authorization step and the clearing and settlement step. In general, authorization is real time from a point of sale (“POS”), and involves conducting security and fraud checks, estimating risks, verifying funds or credit availability, and binding an actual card issuer for the use of funds. In general, clearing and settlement traditionally involves batch processing of many transactions at the end of the day, where the acquirer edits and forwards such items to various financial networks for sorting, computing of fees and routing to separate card issuers. The financial networks collect funds from the card issuers and pay the acquirers, such that the acquirers can move funds into individual merchant accounts. The card network defines interchange fees that are transferred from the merchant's acquiring bank to the cardholder's issuing bank. The interchange fee is typically set by the network and is non-negotiable. Further, it is often the largest component of any merchant discount fee. This is in contrast to the ACH, in which there are no interchange fees and no floats. Of course, various risks are involved where cards and financial systems of this nature are used, and the risks of fraud, liability and the like can shift depending upon whether magnetic stripe, contactless, chip, or other cards are instruments are used, as is generally well known.

It is generally well know that the responsibilities of the credit issuers can include posting transactions, funding settlements, managing credit, rewards and fraud losses, among other possible items. Similarly, it is well known that the responsibilities of the debit issuers can include authorizing and posting transactions and funding settlement, among other possible items.

Current acquiring ecosystems are also generally well known. A merchant typically has an agreement with an acquiring bank, which provides access to the financial network. The acquirer may provide options for front end authorization processing. The back end processing can include clearing and settlement functions. The infrastructure (hardware, software, etc.) is usually provided by the acquirer or arranged by the merchant.

Cross border payments are another feature of financial systems that arise when banks in different countries are used to facilitate given transactions. Such payments are generally governed by a series of bilateral agreements and arrangements between banks that agree to handle such transactions. Such arrangements have been traditionally limiting, are difficult to break into, and are generally outdated given new technologies and systems for facilitating electronic international commerce. Cross border payments typically involve transactions between multiple banks. For instance, on the sender's side, a settlement bank and a correspondent bank is involved and on the receiver's side a correspondent bank and the receiver's bank is involved. This type of correspondent banking is very profitable given fees, account balances and foreign exchange margins involved.

Unfortunately, such diversity of choice where electronic financial systems are used have traditionally benefited purchasers and not merchants. That is, many merchants are often forced to deal with a particular bank, financial institution or system to authorize and process many or all of the non-cash financial transactions accepted by any given merchant. As is generally well known, such relationships and systems are often established on a long term and inflexible contractual basis between a given merchant and a given bank or other back-end financial service provider. This tends to lock in many merchants to unfavorable or less favorable terms, however, as trends in financial markets and offerings might provide better terms at a later time or for particular transactions. Moreover, these fixed arrangement involve the use of expensive infrastructure (e.g., hardware, software and connectivity) that may be leased over a lengthy term, which further limits merchant choice on authorizer and processer.

Although many systems and methods for facilitating consumer payments using electronic systems have generally worked well in the past, there is always a desire for improvement. In particular, what is desired are systems and methods that provide for greater merchant flexibility in conducting consumer transactions using the electronic systems and networks of financial service providers. This flexibility, in turn, will foster a more efficient marketplace that results in benefits for the purchaser, merchant and financial service providers.

SUMMARY

It is an advantage of the present disclosure to provide systems and methods that provide for greater merchant flexibility in conducting consumer transactions using the electronic systems and networks of financial service providers. This can be accomplished at least in part through the use of computing systems and networks that facilitate merchant influenced or controlled point of sale transactions. In particular, such systems and networks can facilitate transactions that involve receiving terms of a point of sale transaction and then selecting a particular third-party financial service provider from a plurality of possible providers to facilitate authorization and processing (e.g., clearing and settlement functions, etc.) of the point of sale transaction for the merchant. Such systems and networks can further facilitate transactions that involve the automatic evaluation of parameters or rules to enable the immediate and real time selection of third-party financial service provider from a plurality of possible providers.

As noted above, payment transaction choices have traditionally been controlled by the consumer or purchaser. Usually, the purchaser decides whether to pay with cash, check, credit, debit or other card types. A merchant has little control, other than to agree to accept cards, and if so, to select an authorization and processing partner. Often times, the terms of the agreement with the authorizer and processor can be fixed, unfavorable and rigid. Sometimes the selection by a merchant of an acquiring bank determines the partners that provide front end (e.g., authorization) and back end processing (e.g., clearing and settlement). Various embodiments disclosed herein seek to change this framework by putting some level of control into the hands of the merchant.

Where a consumer or purchaser decides to pay with a card, such as a credit, debit, gift card and the like, the various embodiments provided herein now allow the merchant to influence or take some level of control over the acceptance and processing of the payment. This control may be exercised on each and every transaction, in real time or automatically, so as to maximize the benefit to the merchant, or such control can be exercised on a batch basis, such as hourly, daily, monthly or some other periodic basis. The merchant can select choices manually or on an automated or semi-automated basis on the fly, by preprogramming, or by making a selection of some default choices or parameters.

The partner that provide the front end or back end processing can offer benefits to the merchant by influencing or motivating the selection of services of a given processor, such as by way of volume rates, targeted purchasers, and the like. The merchant can in turn pass some of this value to purchasers, such as by way of discounts, freebies and other promotions, lower or no cross border or other transactional fees, and so forth.

Such merchant control can create an ecosystem that benefits everyone involved in the process, including the merchant, purchaser, and front end and back end processor. Such an ecosystem may even include a marketplace where competing bids are placed by the processers in an effort obtain the business of a merchant. Advantages can include, but are not limited to, for example:Permitting merchants to obtain the cheapest rates and fees for payment authorization and processing (e.g., per transaction or via bulk rates etc.);Offering merchants various value (e.g., rewards, free promotions and advertising, points program, memberships, discounted rates in the future, rebates, cash backs, samples, hardware and software);Giving merchants the ability to influence what payment mechanism the consumer or purchaser will select (e.g., if a purchaser pays with a specific branded card instead of cash, the purchaser gets, for example, a free item, discount, extended warranty, more time to return the item, price protection, consolidated statements or other benefit while the merchant may get a separate value as well);Offering consumers or purchasers value, such as in the foregoing examples.Providing the payment authorizer and processer the ability to acquire new merchants, or additional business from an existing merchant, such as by offering any of the above and/or other benefits by being selected as the payment authorizer or processor on particular transaction(s); andAllowing the opportunity to facilitate cross border transaction, such as by having a processor from the home country of the purchaser do authorization and processing when the purchaser is travelling abroad.

In various particular embodiments of the present invention, a computing system can include one or more communication interfaces, one or more storage components, and one or more processors in communication with the communication interface(s) and the storage component(s). The communication interface(s) can be adapted to couple the computing system to one or more remotely located computing devices having information regarding a plurality of third-party financial service providers, while the storage component(s) can be adapted to store merchant information, participating third-party financial service provider information, or any combination thereof. Also, the processor(s) can be adapted to facilitate merchant controlled point of sale transactions, wherein such transactions can each involve receiving terms of a point of sale transaction between a consumer and the merchant at the computing system and then selecting a particular third-party financial service provider from a plurality of possible providers to facilitate processing the point of sale transaction for the merchant after receiving and based upon one or more of the terms of the point of sale transaction.

In various further embodiments of the present invention, methods of use can include the process steps of facilitating one or more communication exchanges between a merchant computing device and one or more remotely located computing devices regarding information for a plurality of third-party financial services providers, receiving terms of a first point of sale transaction between a first consumer and the merchant at the merchant computing device, and selecting a particular third-party financial service provider from the plurality of providers to facilitate the first point of sale transaction, said selecting step occurring after said receiving step at the merchant computing device. his selecting step may be performed manually in real time, automatically and immediately based on specified rules or criteria or delayed.

In still further embodiments of the present invention, a non-transitory medium having a plurality of machine-readable instructions can be provided. Such instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a server controlled by a service provider, can be adapted to cause the server to perform a method such as that which is provided above.

Other apparatuses, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

