Integrated systems for electronic bill presentment and payment

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce, and more particularly to methods and systems for integrating electronic bill presentment and payment among biers, consumers, banks and other financial institutions, electronic payment facilitators, and web portals and other spaces able to support an interface for presentment and/or payment of bills.

1 - 21 . (canceled) 
     
     
         22 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, via a bill data processor, bill data relating to a plurality of bills from a plurality of billers, the bills being associated with a plurality of consumers having consumer terminals;   converting, via the bill data processor, the bill data into a format compatible with a database; and   storing, via the bill data processor, the converted bill data in the database;   authenticating, via a bill report processor, merchant identification numbers received from billers;   upon authentication, providing, via the bill report processor, a report to a biller, the report including data relating to a status of bills corresponding to the bill data stored in the database;   granting access, via a bill security processor, to the database upon receipt of encrypted access information; and   in response to instructions received from a selected one of the consumer terminals, creating, via a portal interface implemented on a platform separate from the consumer terminals and configured by instructions received from the consumer terminals, at least two bill portfolios for the selected one of the consumer terminals, the two portfolios corresponding to different aspects of a financial profile of a consumer associated with the selected one of the consumer terminals;   upon receipt of a request from the selected one of the consumer terminals, transmitting, via the portal interface, signals to the selected one of the consumer terminals to cause display of an electronic bill representing a selected bill;   upon receipt of instructions from the selected one of the consumer terminals, initiating, via the portal interface, payment of the selected bill; and   updating, via the portal interface, information in the database with payments information.