WO2022043888A1

WO2022043888A1 - Transacting

Info

Publication number: WO2022043888A1
Application number: PCT/IB2021/057785
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nicolaas Jacobus THERON
Original assignee: Incatorque Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Incatorque Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-25
Filing date: 2021-08-25
Publication date: 2022-03-03
Anticipated expiration: 2023-02-25
Also published as: ZA202106133B

Abstract

The invention is for a guaranteed payment transaction and processing system, which includes a banking interface arranged simultaneously to interface with a plurality of third party commercial banks at which a plurality of bank accounts are hosted, a user interface arranged to interface with a plurality of user devices operable to receive transaction instructions from the user devices, a general ledger system operatively connected to the banking interface and the user interface, which general ledger system is operable to cause transactions in the plurality of commercial bank accounts in accordance with transaction instructions received from the plurality of users via the user interface. The banking interface may be in the form of Host to Host and Application Programming bank interfaces. The transactions that may be conducted may include any transaction that can be performed directly on a banking interface and may be conducted on the general ledger system periodically.

Description

TRANSACTING

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to transacting. In particular, the invention relates to a guaranteed payment transaction and processing system, to a method of transacting and processing, and more specifically to a method of processing a requisition in order to guarantee the payment or settlement of such transaction and requisition. The invention further relates to an instrument provided to represent guarantee capabilities in a digital format.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The inventor is aware of online banking systems and online transaction systems. All online banking systems and transaction systems provide a consumer with a user interface from which transactions can be conducted on a bank account or on a trading platform.

On commercial banking platforms, banking system users (as consumers of goods/services) can create beneficiaries and effect payment to beneficiaries. Obviously, beneficiaries (as vendors of goods and/or services) do not have control over such payments as they are merely recipients of payments for the goods and/or services that they provide. This leaves the vendors at a risk that they might provide goods and/or services and might not receive payment for such goods/services.

In a scenario where larger corporations are acting as consumers (in this context), their procurement process will entail the issuance of a purchase order, as part of a procurement process. Normally, upon receipt of a purchase order the risk of non-payment due to incorrect procurement procedures is eliminated. However, a purchase order does not guarantee that the consumer will have funds available to effect payment of the purchase order. Often, to mitigate the risk of non-payment for provision of goods and services for contracts of substantial value, it might happen that the provider of such goods and services require a payment guarantee for the goods/services that they are to provide. Such payment guarantees are often issued by commercial banks as bank guarantees or sometimes by governments (as government bonds) for governmental procurement contracts.

This payment scenario becomes more complex where the vendor is part of a longer supply chain involving multiple vendors (as beneficiaries) and multiple consumers (vendors downstream of the supply chain) that need to be paid. In this scenario in which the supply chain is more dynamic in terms of volume of transactions that need to be performed per time interval or in which the value of transactions do not warrant the administrative burden to obtain bank guarantees, bank guarantees and government bonds are not practical mechanisms to guarantee payment. A specific example is when a consumer places and order on a vendor, which in turn places an order on a supplier, for delivery to the consumer.

Furthermore, when goods and/or services are supplied, disputes often arise upon delivery of goods and/or services and again the vendor of the goods and/or services is at risk of not receiving payment from the consumer as the consumer holds full control over payment for such goods/services. Again, this risk scenario is exacerbated in a longer supply chain involving multiple consumers and vendors.

It is an object of this invention to provide a transaction and processing system and a method of transacting applying general distributed ledger principles that would guarantee payment from a consumer to a vendor and ultimately also the supplier, upon compliance with certain delivery/acceptance criteria of goods and/or services. It is a further object of the invention to provide such system and method through normal commercial banking systems. An object of the invention is to provide a guaranteed, automated and secure method of fund management and processing against goods/services to approved pre-configured vendors only. It is also an object of the invention that such system and method should be scalable into a larger supply chain system. The inventor is not aware of any fully digital and automated system that meet these objectives and therefore invented the invention described below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly, according to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a guaranteed payment transaction and processing system, which includes a banking interface arranged simultaneously to interface with a plurality of third party commercial banks at which a plurality of bank accounts are hosted; a user interface arranged to interface with a plurality of user devices operable to receive transaction instructions from the user devices; a general ledger system operatively connected to the banking interface and the user interface, operable to cause transactions in the plurality of commercial bank accounts in accordance with transaction instructions received from the plurality of users via the user interface.

In this specification, reference is made to a general ledger system. This term is used in the specification to refer to an internally hosted general ledger, a cloud hosted general ledger, or a distributed ledger system, such as a blockchain ledger.

The banking interface may be in the form of Host to Host and Application Programming bank interfaces that may be implemented through a secure point to point integration between the guaranteed payment transaction processing system and the different banks in accordance with requirements and specification provided by each applicable bank.

The transactions that may be conducted on the general ledger system may include any transaction that can be performed directly on a banking interface and may be conducted on the general ledger system at periodic intervals. It is to be appreciated that the periodic time intervals may result in near real time transactions. As the system may be integrated with any bank for which a Host to Host or Application Programming interface may be provided, the system may conduct the same transactions users can conduct online in their bank accounts in "near real time". The “near real time” ability refers to “Notify”, “Provisional Transactional Information” or Rapid Payments which is recorded in the system in “near real time” and reconciled with the actual bank statements received on a daily basis. The system may thus contain a copy of all transactions on the bank account which is available through the system.

The user interface may include user profile definitions, selected from any one of a consumer’s profile, vendor profile, supplier profile and a system operator profile.

In this specification, any reference to the term services should be interpreted to include any financial contracts such as futures, options and guarantees.

In this specification, the definition of a consumer will be an entity that receive goods and/or services against payment from any one or more of their bank accounts.

In this specification, the definition of a vendor will be an entity that provides goods and/or services against payment into any one or more of their bank accounts.

In this specification, the definition of a supplier will be an entity that provides goods and/or services to the vendor against payment into any one or more of their bank accounts.

In this specification, the definition of a system operator will be an entity that does not receive or provide goods and/or services, but that is involved in the management of the system.

In this specification, the definition of a third-party payment provider will be an entity that is authorised to accept funds, to hold funds and process funds for payment to third parties on behalf of consumers, vendors and suppliers. The transaction instructions related to the consumer profile may include any one or more of: adding a desired transaction, creating a requisition for a desired transaction, creating a goods received note, reconciling a transaction and recording a payment/balancing an account from which payment was effected.

The transaction instructions related to the vendor profile may include any one or more of: accepting or rejecting a requisition, allocating a requisition, cancelling a requisition, confirming a delivery and processing a requisition settlement.

The transaction instructions related to the supplier profile may include any one or more of: monitoring the transaction progress, viewing of requisitions, balances and withdrawal of available funds.

The transaction instructions related to the system operator may include configuration of the client requirement, the configuration of the supplier, the vendors and its consumers, the activation of system users, assigning roles and permissions and general commissioning of the system that may facilitate the processing of transactions configured for specific purposes and for specific utilisation with the ultimate ability to guarantee such payments.

The general ledger system may include a plurality of sub-ledgers associated with each commercial bank account to which it is operatively connected. The general ledger system may thus be operable to cause a transaction in any one of the sub-ledgers associated with each commercial bank account.

The transaction system may include a rules engine, operable to direct the transactions caused by the general ledger system. The rules engine may automate transactions based on certain predefined rules which, when a certain incident takes place, would cause the rule engine to direct transactions following such incident.

The invention extends to a method of transacting and processing, which includes providing a transaction system as described; receiving transaction instructions from the plurality of user devices via the user interface; conducting transactions on the general ledger system according to the transaction instructions received; and causing transactions directly in the specifically styled commercial banking accounts of the consumer, vendor and supplier via the banking interface.

In this specification, the term "account" should be interpreted as referring to either one of a bank account hosted by a commercial bank or a general ledger accounted hosted in the public or private domain.

In one particular embodiment, conducting a transaction may include processing a requisition, which includes receiving a request from a consumer for funds to be reserved in their account for a particular transaction; receiving a requisition for goods/services to be supplied for the particular transaction from the consumer for which the funds were reserved; forwarding the requisition for acceptance or rejection to a vendor; upon acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, locking funds in the account of the consumer to the value of the requisition to enable the guaranteed payment of such requisition; allocating a requisition to the supplier of the vendor, locking funds in the account of the vendor to the value of the requisition to guarantee payment with the supplier; capturing a goods received notice from a consumer to a vendor; receiving a request for settlement of the requisition from a vendor; creating a payment instruction to the account of the consumer against the funds that were locked and guaranteed for payment into an account of the vendor; creating a payment instruction to the account of the vendor against the funds that were locked and guaranteed for payment into an account of the supplier; receiving an acknowledgement of payment from the consumer bank or general ledger account and forwarding the acknowledgement to the consumer; and receiving an acknowledgement of payment from the vendor bank or general ledger account and forwarding the acknowledgement to the vendor. The transaction may include, after receiving a request for funds to be reserved, the step of verifying that funds are available in the consumer account to the value of funds to be reserved.

The transaction may include, after acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, the step of permitting the vendor to cancel the transaction following which the reserved funds will be released in the account of the consumer.

The transaction may include, after acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, the step of permitting the vendor to allocate the requisition to the supplier which funds due to the supplier will be locked in the vendor account and payment guaranteed to the vendor and the supplier.

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following figures.

FIGURE(S)

In the figures:

Figure 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a flow diagram of a transaction system in accordance with one aspect of the invention;

Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of a method of transacting in accordance with another aspect of the invention; and

Figure 3 shows a flow diagram of a method of transacting in accordance with one aspect of the invention in which an order processing transaction is executed.

In the figures, like reference numerals denote like parts of the invention unless otherwise indicated.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In Figure 1 , a transaction system (10) is shown. The transaction system includes a banking interface (12) arranged simultaneously to interface with a plurality of third-party commercial banks (14.1-14.3) which are holding a plurality of bank accounts (14.1.1-14.3.3).

The transaction system (10) further includes a user interface (16) arranged to interface with a plurality of user devices (18.1-18.3). The user devices (18.1-18.3) are operable, via the user interface (16) to direct a variety of transactions on the plurality of commercial banking accounts (14.1.1-14.3.3) to which the banking interface (12) is operatively connected. It is to be appreciated that the user devices (18.1-18.3) can take the form of any computer, mobile device, mobile telephone, loaded with an application to interface with the user interface (16). The user interface can be in the form of a web interface, an application programming interface (API), or the like.

The transaction system (10) hosts a general ledger system (20) operatively connected to the plurality of commercial banking accounts (14.1.1-14.3.3) via the banking interface (12) and to the user devices (18.1-18.3) via the user interface (16), operable to cause transactions in the plurality of commercial banking accounts (14.1.1-14.3.3) in accordance with directions received from the plurality of users via the user interface (16).

The general ledger system (20) as shown in Figure 1 can be implemented on an internal server, a cloud-based server or preferably on a distributed ledger system, such as a blockchain system, or the like.

As can be seen in Figure 1 , the third-party commercial banks (14.1-14.3) are connected to the banking interface (12) via a network (22). It is to be appreciated that this network may be a public network, such as the Internet or a dedicated private leased line network. The user devices (18.1-18.3) are connected to the user interface (16) via a public network (24), such as the Internet.

In Figure 2 a method of transacting (50) is shown on the highest level. The method starts at 52 in which a banking interface (12) is provided. The banking interface is arranged simultaneously to interface with a plurality of third-party commercial banks (14.1-14.3) which are holding a plurality of bank accounts (14.1.1- 14.3.3).

At 54, the method of transacting (50) provides a user interface (16) arranged to interface with a plurality of user devices (18.1-18.3) thereby to direct a plurality of transactions on the plurality of commercial banking accounts (14.1.1- 14.3.3).

At 56, the method of transacting (50) provides a general ledger system (20) operatively connected to the plurality of third-party commercial banks (14.1-14.3) via the banking interface (12) and operatively connected to the plurality of user devices (18.1-18.3) via the user interface (16).

At 58 the method of transacting (50) includes receiving directions from the plurality of user devices (18.1-18.3) via the user interface (16).

At 60 the method concludes with conducting transactions on the general ledger system (20) according to directions from the plurality of user devices (18.1 -18.3) and then executing such transactions directly in the commercial banking accounts (14.1.1-14.3.3) via the banking interface (12) to which the plurality of third-party commercial banks (14.1-14.3) are connected.

In Figure 3, a method of processing a requisition (100) is shown being one example of a method of transacting (50) described above.

In Figure 3, the transaction flow as a method of transacting (50) is shown in detail. In this example, the transaction flow between a user (18.1) with a consumer profile, the transaction system (10), a commercial bank (14), a user (18.2) with a vendor profile and a user (18.3) with a supplier profile is shown as can be seen on the left axis of the flow diagram.

The method of processing a requisition (100) includes the following steps: -At 102 a user (18.1) with a consumer profile (a consumer) adds a good/service to be procured to a basket;

- At 104 the general ledger system (20) of the transaction system (10) verifies that the user (18.1 ) has funds available in their selected account (14.1.1);

- If funds are available, the consumer (18.1) creates a requisition at 106;

- At 110, the funds required to cover the requisition is reserved by the general ledger system (20), pending acceptance of the requisition by the vendor;

- At 112, a user (18.2) with a vendor profile (a vendor) is given the option to reject the requisition at 114 or to accept the requisition at 116;

- At 118, the funds are locked in the general ledger system (20) linked to the account (14.1.1) of the consumer (18.1 ) by the general ledger system (20);

- A decision is made at 113 and then at 119 the Vendor allocates the requisition to a user (18.3) with a supplier profile and the funds are locked in the general ledger system (20) linked to the account (14.2.1) of the vendor (18.2) by the general ledger system (20);

- The vendor (18.2) still has the option at 113 to cancel the requisition at 120;

- At 121, the supplier (18.3) receives the requisition; through the general ledger system;

- At 122, physical delivery of the good/service by the supplier and vendor (18.2) to the consumer (18.1) takes place;

- At 124, the consumer (18.1) generates a goods received notice in the general ledger system;

- At 126, the vendor (18.2) confirms the quantity of goods/services delivered and process the requisition at 128 in the general ledger system;

- At 130 the general ledger system (20) creates a payment file and forward it at 132 to the bank (14.2) which holds the vendor's bank account 14.2.1 ;

- At 135, the settlement is made from the bank account (14.1 .1 ) of the consumer

(18.1) to the bank account (14.2.1) of the vendor (18.2);

- At 137, the settlement is made from the bank account (14.2.1 ) of the vendor

(18.2) to a bank account (14.3.1 ) of the supplier (18.3);

- At 134 the general ledger system (20) receives a confirmation that the payment has been effected as at 135 and 137 above;

- At 136 the transaction is reconciled by the general ledger system (20) and the consumer (18.1 ) records are updated at 138. The inventor believes that the invention provides a new a transaction and processing system, to a method of guaranteed transacting and processing, and in particular a new method of processing a requisition, which will be if particular use in industry.

In particular this invention achieves the objective to provide a transaction and processing system and a method of transacting applying general distributed ledger principles that guarantees payment from a consumer to a vendor and ultimately also the supplier upon compliance with certain delivery/acceptance criteria of goods and/or services. It further achieves the objective to provide such system and method through normal commercial banking systems. The system and method thus provide a guaranteed, automated and secure method of payment for goods/services. As is clear from the foregoing, this system and method is scalable into a larger supply chain system. The above objectives are achieved by ensuring that funds that are available in the respective parties' bank accounts remain available for the specific purpose for which such funds have been allocated.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A guaranteed payment transaction and processing system which includes a banking interface arranged simultaneously to interface with a plurality of third- party commercial banks at which a plurality of bank accounts are hosted; a user interface arranged to interface with a plurality of user devices operable to receive transaction instructions from the user devices; and a general ledger system operatively connected to the banking interface and the user interface, operable to cause transactions in the plurality of commercial bank accounts in accordance with transaction instructions received from the plurality of users via the user interface.

2. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the general ledger system refers to an internally hosted general ledger, a cloud hosted general ledger, or a distributed ledger system such as a blockchain ledger.

3. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the banking interface is in the form of Host to Host and Application Programming bank interfaces that are implemented through a secure point to point integration between the guaranteed payment transaction processing system and the different banks in accordance with requirements and specification provided by each applicable bank.

4. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the transactions that are conducted on the general ledger system includes any transaction that can be performed directly on a banking interface.

5. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 4, in which the transactions are conducted on the general ledger system at periodic time intervals.

6. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the general ledger contains a copy of all transactions on the bank account.

7. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the user interface includes user profile definitions, selected from any one of a consumer profile, vendor profile, supplier profile and a system operator profile.

8. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 7, in which the transaction instructions related to the consumer profile include any one or more of: adding a desired transaction, creating a requisition for a desired transaction, creating a goods received note, reconciling a transaction, recording a payment and balancing an account from which payment was effected.

9. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 7, in which the transaction instructions related to the vendor profile include any one or more of: accepting or rejecting a requisition, allocating a requisition, cancelling a requisition, confirming a delivery and processing a requisition settlement.

10. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 7, in which the transaction instructions related to the supplier profile include any one or more of: monitoring the transaction progress, viewing of requisitions, balances and withdrawal of available funds.

11. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 7, in which the transaction instructions related to the system operator include any one or more of: configuration of the client requirement, configuration of the supplier, configuration of the vendors, configuration of the consumers, activation of system users, assigning of roles and permissions to users and general commissioning of the system to facilitate the processing of transactions configured for specific purpose and for specific utilisation with the ultimate ability to guarantee such payments.

12. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the general ledger system includes a plurality of sub-ledgers associated with each commercial bank account to which it is operatively connected such that the general ledger system is operable to cause a transaction in any one of the sub-ledgers associated with each commercial bank account. 14

13. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the transaction and processing system includes a rules engine, operable to direct the transactions caused by the general ledger system.

14. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 13, in which the rules engine automates transactions based on certain predefined rules such that the occurrence of a certain incident causes the rule engine to direct transactions following such incident.

15. A method of transacting and processing which includes providing a transaction system as claimed in any of claims 1 to 14; receiving transaction instructions from the plurality of user devices via the user interface; conducting transactions on the general ledger system according to the transaction instructions received; and causing transactions directly in the specifically styled commercial banking accounts of the consumer, vendor and supplier via the banking interface.

16. A method of transacting and processing as claimed in claim 15, in which the step of conducting transactions includes the step of processing a requisition which comprises receiving a request from a consumer for funds to be reserved in their account for a particular transaction; receiving a requisition for goods/services to be supplied for the particular transaction from the consumer for which the funds were reserved; forwarding the requisition for acceptance or rejection to a vendor; upon acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, locking funds in the account of the consumer to the value of the requisition to enable the guaranteed payment of such requisition; allocating a requisition to the supplier of the vendor, locking funds in the account of the vendor to the value of the requisition to guarantee payment with the supplier; capturing a goods received notice from a consumer to a vendor; receiving a request for settlement of the requisition from a vendor; 15 creating a payment instruction to the account of the consumer against the funds that were locked and guaranteed for payment into an account of the vendor; creating a payment instruction to the account of the vendor against the funds that were locked and guaranteed for payment into an account of the supplier; receiving an acknowledgement of payment from the consumer bank or general ledger account and forwarding the acknowledgement to the consumer; and receiving an acknowledgement of payment from the vendor bank or general ledger account and forwarding the acknowledgement to the vendor.

17. A method of transacting and processing as claimed in claim 16, in which the step of conducting transactions, post the step of receiving the request for funds to be reserved, includes the step of verifying that funds are available in the consumer account to the value of funds to be reserved.

18. A method of transacting and processing as claimed in claim 16, in which the step of conducting transactions, post the step of the acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, includes the step of permitting the vendor to cancel the transaction following which the reserved funds will be released in the account of the consumer.

19. A method of transacting and processing as claimed in claim 16, in which the step of conducting transactions, post the step of the acceptance of the requisition from the vendor, includes the step of permitting the vendor to allocate the requisition to the supplier which funds due to the supplier will be locked in the vendor account and payment guaranteed to the vendor and the supplier.

20. A transaction and processing system as claimed in claim 1 , substantially as herein described and illustrated.

21. A transacting and processing method as claimed in claim 15, substantially as herein described and illustrated.