HK1242824A1 - Systems and methods for universal identification of credit-related data in multiple country-specific databases - Google Patents

Description

System and method for universal identification of credit-related data in multiple country-specific databases

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This international application claims the benefit of united states provisional patent application No. 62/068,111, filed on day 24, 10/2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The invention relates to a system and a method for universal identification of credit-related data records. More particularly, the present invention provides systems and methods for: the method includes the steps of generating a central database having credit identification data associated with individuals who have resided in a plurality of countries, matching credit-related data associated with the individuals in a plurality of country-specific databases, marking the existence of matching credit-related data in the countries in the central database, and generating a universal identifier for uniquely identifying each of the individuals.

Background

Lenders (e.g., financial institutions, utility companies, and the like) typically decide to give credit or to release loans based on the general principles of risk. Lenders typically avoid giving credit or loans to high risk individuals, or may give credit or loans to such individuals at higher interest rates than credit is typically given to low risk consumers, or under conditions that are less favorable than credit is typically given to low risk consumers. Consumer data, including consumer credit information, is collected and used by credit unions, financial institutions, and other entities for assessing the credit value and aspects of personal financial and credit records.

Individuals may migrate from one country (e.g., their ancestors) to another for economic, personal, or other reasons. Some individuals are permanently colonized and colonized in another country. Other individuals temporarily migrate to another country, for example, due to work distribution or attending educational institutions. After migrating to another country, these individuals may need to obtain credit and/or loans. However, a person migrating to another country may have insufficient credit records in that country, and thus, a lender in that country may not be able to adequately assess the risk of the person, and the person may not be able to obtain credit and/or loans. While a lender in a particular country may have a counterpart in a previous country in which the individual lives, the lender currently has no mechanism for identifying and utilizing the existing credit history of the individual in the previous country.

In addition, some individuals may fail to pay for liabilities while residing in one country and then migrate to another country. After these types of individuals migrate, the lender who gives credit or issues a loan may not have sufficient information about the location of the individual because the individual no longer lives in the country. Thus, because the credit and credit parties cannot contact the individuals, it may be difficult for the credit and credit parties to recover the liabilities. It may also be desirable to track and/or contact individuals who have been credited for personal or public welfare, such as, for example, whether healthcare services are provided, or whether there are product-related issues that need to be followed.

Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that can generate a central database with credit identification data associated with individuals who have lived in multiple countries, match credit-related data associated with the individuals in the multiple country-specific databases, flag the presence of matching credit-related data in the countries in the central database, and generate universal identifiers for uniquely identifying individuals, in particular, in order to enable individuals that have migrated to another country to more easily obtain credit by allowing credit lenders to retrieve their credit-related data from their previous countries and generate more accurate risk analysis of such individuals, and to assist credit lenders in tracking the whereabouts of individuals who have been credited.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention seeks to address the above problems by providing a system and method for generating a central database containing credit identification data associated with individuals who have resided in multiple countries. The system and method are designed to, among other things: (1) creating a record associated with the individual in a central database based on data from a first database in a first country having credit-related data associated with the individual; (2) tagging the record in the central database to indicate that credit-related data associated with the individual exists in the first country; (3) generating a universal identifier for uniquely identifying the individual; (4) storing the universal identifier in the central database and transmitting the universal identifier to the first database; (5) determining whether a second database has credit-related data associated with the individual in a second country; and (6) if the second database has such credit-related data in the second country, marking the record in the central database to indicate that there is credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country, and transmitting the universal identifier to the second database.

In one embodiment, first data may be received at a processor from a first database. The first data may be derived from first credit-related data associated with the individual in the first country. A record associated with the individual may be created in a central database, and the record may contain the first data. The record may be marked in the central database to indicate that the first credit-related data associated with the individual is present in the first country. A universal identifier for uniquely identifying the individual may be generated and stored in the record in the central database. The universal identifier may also be transmitted to the first database. It may be determined whether the second database has second credit-related data associated with the individual in a second country. If the second database has second credit-related data, the record in the central database may be marked to indicate that the second credit-related data associated with the individual exists in the second country. The universal identifier may also be transmitted to the second database. Second data derived from second credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country may be received from the second database. The second data may be stored in the record in the central database.

These and other embodiments, as well as various arrangements and aspects, will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, which set forth illustrative embodiments which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a universal identification system including a central database.

FIG. 2 shows exemplary database fields that may be included in a central database and country-specific database that may be used for the universal identification system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one form of the computer or server of FIG. 1 having a memory element with a computer-readable medium for implementing a universal identification system.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a process for performing the generation of a central database having credit identification data associated with individuals who have resided in multiple countries using the universal identification system of FIG. 1.

Detailed Description

The following description describes, illustrates, and exemplifies one or more specific embodiments of the present invention according to the principles thereof. This description is not provided to limit the disclosure to the embodiments described herein, but rather to explain and teach the principles of the disclosure in such a way as to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to understand these principles and with that understanding be able to apply them to practice not only the embodiments described herein, but other embodiments as may be contemplated in accordance with these principles. The scope of the invention is intended to cover all such embodiments as may come within the scope of the following claims, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.

It should be noted that in the description and drawings, similar or substantially similar elements may be labeled with the same reference numeral. However, sometimes these elements may be labeled with different numbers, such as, for example, where such labeling facilitates a clearer description. Additionally, the drawings set forth herein are not necessarily drawn to scale and, in some instances, proportions may have been exaggerated to more clearly depict certain features. This labeling and drawing practice does not necessarily imply a potentially substantial purpose. As noted above, this description is intended to be taken as a whole and to be construed in accordance with the principles of the invention as taught herein and understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.

With respect to the exemplary systems, components, and architectures described and illustrated herein, it should also be understood that embodiments may be embodied by, or for, numerous configurations and components, including one or more system, hardware, software, or firmware configurations or components, or any combination thereof, as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, while the drawings illustrate exemplary systems including components of one or more of the embodiments contemplated herein, it should be understood that with respect to each embodiment, one or more components may not be present or required in the system.

It should also be noted that the disclosure made in this specification is in accordance with the principles of the embodiments, which are intended to be disclosed or interpreted in its broadest sense in accordance with the patent laws of the united states and other countries, and nothing in this disclosure is intended to imply or imply that the assignee is not in compliance with any such laws or regulations when this disclosure may describe or otherwise encompass subject matter that may be regulated by other active laws or regulations in the united states and other countries, including, but not limited to, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

Fig. 1 illustrates a universal identification system 100 for generating a central database 104 containing credit identification data associated with individuals who have resided in multiple countries, according to one or more principles of the invention. A process 400 for generating the central database 104 that may utilize the universal identification system 100 is shown in fig. 4. The universal identification system 100 and process 400 may use a matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 to match credit-related data associated with individuals in a plurality of country-specific databases 150. The credit-related data in country-specific database 150 may include information associated with individuals in the respective country, relating to, for example, credit header data (e.g., name, date of birth, etc.), queries, balance changes, transaction amounts, balances, activations, defaults, and payments.

The presence of credit-related data in a particular country may be marked in the central database 104 and a universal identifier may be generated by the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 to uniquely identify an individual. The universal identifier may be stored in the central database 104 and/or transmitted to the country-specific database 150 for storage locally, as described herein.

Once generated, the central database 104 may include information identifying whether the individual has credit-related data in one or more of a plurality of countries corresponding to the database 150. Individuals that have migrated to another country may be more likely to earn credit because a credit party in an individual's new country may utilize the central database 104 to quickly determine the existence of a credit record for the individual in its previous country. For example, a loan party may issue a search query to a search engine 106 in communication with the central database 104 or an analysis request to an analysis engine 108 in communication with the central database 104. According to applicable laws and regulations, if an individual is found to have credit records in other countries, credit-related data may be retrieved from databases 150 specific to those other countries. For example, the search engine 106 may retrieve credit-related data from the country-specific database 150 in an aggregated mode (i.e., aggregated mode, if allowed). As another example, the analysis engine 108 may analyze the credit-related data in the country-specific database 150, such as by calculating a credit score based on the retrieved credit-related data and returning the calculated credit score to the requestor. With this data, the lender may perform a more accurate risk analysis on the individual in deciding whether to extend credit. Lenders can also improve their recovery efforts by more easily tracking individuals that have migrated to other countries. In some embodiments, the location and other attributes of the individual may also be used for other purposes unrelated to the retrieval job.

The various components of the universal identification system 100 may be implemented using software executable by one or more servers or computers, such as a computing device 300 having a processor 302 and memory 304 as shown in fig. 3, which will be described in greater detail below. The universal identification system 100 may generate the central database 104 in a batch mode (e.g., periodically when the central database 104 is initially created and/or when the central database 104 is updated) and/or in real-time (e.g., when the central database 104 is updated). Although the systems and methods may be described herein with respect to processing credit-related data for a single individual, it is contemplated that the systems and methods may also be used with respect to processing credit-related data for multiple individuals simultaneously or in series.

To generate the central database 104, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may match credit-related data from one of the country-specific databases 150 with credit-related data in another one of the country-specific databases 150. Matching may be performed between all possible combinations of country-specific databases 150. In this way, all individuals in all country-specific databases 150 may be included in the central database 104. For example, there may be multiple individuals with the same name in different countries. When these individuals may have the same name, as described below, each individual will need to have a different universal identifier assigned to their records in the central database 104 so that each individual can be uniquely identified.

The matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may receive data associated with individuals in a first country, such as the united states, from the first country-specific database 150, for example, at step 402 of the process 400. The data may be derived from credit-related data associated with the individual in the first country and may include, for example, a name, a date of birth, and/or a local identifier for uniquely identifying the credit-related data record in the first database 150. The data may be in any suitable format, such as extensible markup language (XML) or other format.

The received data may be used to create a record associated with the individual in the central database 104, such as at step 404. In some embodiments, the received data may be verified against other databases (not shown) to verify its authenticity. Such other databases may include, for example, official databases (e.g., government databases) and/or other reliable public and/or private local data services, such as social networks. In these embodiments, if the received data is determined to be not authentic, process 400 may stop. However, if the received data is verified as authentic, process 400 may continue.

Exemplary fields of the central database 104 and the country-specific database 150 are shown in fig. 2. The fields shown in fig. 2 are intended to be non-limiting, and more, fewer, and/or different fields may be included in the central database 104 and/or the country-specific database 150 without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, to comply with applicable laws and regulations, other fields may be included in the central database 104 and/or the country-specific database 150, although not necessarily populated with data. The records in the central database 104 may include the name and/or date of birth of the individual, such as shown by examples "name 1" and "date of birth 1". The fields in the central database 104 containing names are not limited to any particular format in order to accommodate changes in names that may exist in different countries. A local identifier for uniquely identifying the credit-related data record in the first database 150 may also be stored in the central database 104. Other fields included in the central database 104 and the country-specific database 150 may include, for example, a link type describing a method for matching an individual to a record in the country-specific database 150, and/or a link score indicating a confidence score for the match.

At step 406, a record may be marked in the central database 104 to indicate that credit-related data associated with the individual exists in the first country. For example, in fig. 2, for person "name 1," the person is marked with the symbol "Y" under the header "US" (representing the united states) as having credit-related data in the first database 150. This notation is merely exemplary, and any suitable notation for marking the presence of credit-related data may be utilized and considered.

In step 408, a universal identifier may be generated by the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102. The universal identifier may uniquely identify the individual and may be stored in the individual's record in the central database 104 (at step 410). The universal identifier may also be transmitted to the first database 150 (at step 412) for storage with the credit-related data records associated with the individual in the first database 150. In fig. 2, the universal identifier for the individual "name 1" is "12345". The universal identifiers shown in fig. 2 are merely exemplary, and any suitable identification scheme may be utilized and is contemplated.

In some embodiments, the universal identifier may be a randomly generated number, such as a 128-bit random number that conforms to the Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) of the RFC 4122 standard. For example, the universal identifier may be 8fbaafb9-c4d5-40e9-a7b6-11f227e37ec 6. Version 4 of the UUID algorithm may be used to generate the universal identifier. According to the RFC 4122 standard, the 6 bits of the universal identifier are not random and specify variations and versions of the RFC 4122 standard for generating universal identifiers.

After the record has been created in the central database 104, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may determine, at step 414, whether the second country-specific database 150, for example, for south africa, has credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country. For example, the name and/or date of birth of the individual stored in the central database 104 (based on the database 150 for the united states) may be matched against records in other databases 150 (for south africa) to see if there is any credit-related data for the individual in the second country. Using a name and date of birth ensures that individuals with the same name do not erroneously match each other because individuals with the same name are unlikely to have the same date of birth and have lived in the same country.

At step 414, if the second database 150 has credit-related data associated with an individual in a second country, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may mark a record for the individual in the central database 104 at step 416 to indicate that there is credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country. For example, in fig. 2, for person "name 1," the person is marked with the symbol "Y" under the header "ZA" (representing south africa) with credit-related data in that particular database 150. The previously generated universal identifier may be transmitted from the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 to the second database 150 at step 418. The second database 150 may store the universal identifier with a credit-related data record associated with the individual.

In some embodiments, data may be received from the second database 150 at the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102, such as at step 420. The data received at step 420 may be stored at step 422 in a record associated with the individual in the central database 104. This data may include name changes, local system generated identifiers, and/or other data. It should be noted that the local system generated identifier is not the same identifier as the government generated identifier (e.g., tax identifier, citizen identifier, etc.).

In other embodiments, one-way hashed or otherwise encrypted data may be received from the country-specific database 150 at the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102. In these embodiments, no explicit textual name (or other indicating information) will be transferred out of the country from the country-specific database 150 to the central database 104.

Returning to step 414, if the second database 150 does not have credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may mark a record for the individual in the central database 104 at step 424 to indicate that there is no credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country. For example, IN fig. 2, for person "name 1," the person is marked with the symbol "N" under the header "IN" (representing india) that the particular database 150 does not have credit-related data.

In addition, fig. 2 also shows that person "name 1" also has credit-related data in database 150 for mexico (represented by "MX"), as shown by the symbol "Y". Other exemplary individuals "name 2", "name 3", "name 4", and "name 5" are shown in the central database 104 of fig. 2 as having respective dates of birth and universal identifiers. Additionally, the presence or absence of credit-related data in a particular country for these other exemplary individuals is also shown in fig. 2.

As described above, it can be seen that the universal identifier generated by the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 can be unique data shared between the central database 104 and the country-specific database 150. The universal identifier serves as a cross-reference between records of the central database 104 and credit-related data records in the various country-specific databases 150. The central database 104 and the country-specific database 150 effectively act as distributed or federated databases. Thus, a lender in a given country may quickly and easily determine from its local credit bureau provider (e.g., through country-specific database 150) whether an individual has credit-related data in other countries. The creditor may then retrieve and/or analyze credit-related data (e.g., credit scores) associated with the individual from other countries when making credit decisions. In some embodiments, the local credit bureau provider may expose the universal identifier to individuals, such as through various direct-to-consumer services of the local credit bureau provider. The individual may in turn provide its universal identifier to a crediting party so that the crediting party may quickly request credit-related data associated with the individual in the country in which the individual has lived from a credit bureau provider.

The matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 and the central database 104 may provide various services to enable credit and local credit providers to query and/or modify information in the central database 104. The first service includes retrieving the person's universal identifier by querying a central database 104 having data associated with the person, such as name, date of birth, address, government generated identification number, telephone number, and/or employment information. The second service includes adding additional information associated with the individual to the central database 104 by executing a command that includes the universal identifier and the additional information. The third service includes confirming a connection between a plurality of records associated with the individual in the central database 104 by executing a command including a plurality of universal identifiers and a link type. The fourth service includes unlocking a plurality of previously associated records associated with the individual in the central database 104 by executing a command including a plurality of universal identifiers.

A fifth service involves retrieving data stored in the central database 104 by executing a command containing a specific universal identifier. The data returned using this service may be filtered according to applicable laws and regulations. A sixth service includes calculating a score from the central database 104 that indicates a likelihood that the person associated with the particular universal identifier is the same as the person associated with the query data. This service may be performed using commands that include specific generic identifiers and query data. A seventh service includes returning a list of individuals associated with a particular universal identifier by executing a command that includes the particular universal identifier. The returned personal list may include link types, link scores, and/or filtered data, depending on applicable laws and regulations.

When a new individual is added to the country-specific database 150, the data associated with the new individual may be matched against the central database 104. In particular, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may compare data associated with the new individual to existing records in the central database 104 to determine whether the new individual matches an existing individual in the central database 104. If there is a match, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may link the existing records of individuals in the central database 104 to new individuals in the country-specific database 150.

It is also possible that the central database 104 may contain multiple records of the same person, where the multiple records have different generated universal identifiers. In this case, if the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 determines that multiple records are indeed associated with the same person, data from these multiple records may be merged into one record in the central database 104. One of the universal identifiers may be maintained for the resulting merged record, and the other universal identifiers may be discarded. The country-specific database 150 may be updated such that it only includes the maintained universal identifiers.

It is further possible that the central database 104 contains a single record associated with an individual later determined to be actually associated with multiple individuals. A single record may have a single universal identifier. In this case, the matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102 may assign one or more new universal identifiers to other individuals and create new records associated with the other individuals. In addition, existing data in a single record may be allocated to each of the individuals as needed. The country-specific database 150 may also be updated so that it includes the original universal identifier and the new universal identifier for the correct individual.

It is also possible that the local identifier in the country-specific database 150 may also change. If the local identifier is changed, the central database 104 may be updated to reflect the new local identifier. Commands may be executed to update the local identifier for a particular individual in the central database 104. The command may include a universal identifier, an identifier of the country-specific database 150, an old local identifier, and a new local identifier.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computing device 300 housing executable software for facilitating the universal identification system 100. One or more examples of computing device 300 may be used to implement any, some, or all of the components in system 100, including matching engine and universal identifier generation module 102, search engine 106, and analysis engine 108. Computing device 300 includes memory element 304. Memory element 304 may include computer-readable media for implementing system 100 and for implementing particular system transactions. The memory element 304 may also be used to implement the central database 104 and/or the country-specific database 150. Computing device 300 also contains executable software, some of which may or may not be unique to system 100.

In some embodiments, the system 100 is implemented in software as an executable program and is executed by one or more special or general purpose digital computers, such as a mainframe computer, commercial server, personal computer (desktop, laptop, or otherwise), personal digital assistant, or other handheld computing device. Thus, computing device 300 may represent any computer in which system 100 resides or partially resides.

In general, with the hardware architecture as shown in fig. 3, the computing device 300 includes a processor 302, a memory 304, and one or more input and/or output (I/O) devices 306 (or peripherals) communicatively coupled via a local interface 308. The local interface 308 may be one or more buses, or other wired or wireless connections, as is known in the art. The local interface 308 may have additional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such as controllers, buffers (caches), drivers, transmitters, and receivers, to facilitate external communication with other similar or dissimilar computing devices. Further, the local interface 308 may include address, control, and/or data connections to enable internal communication between other computer components.

The processor 302 is a hardware device for executing software, particularly software stored in the memory 304. The processor 302 may be any custom made or commercially available processor, such as a Core (Core) series or vPro processor manufactured by Intel Corporation, or a dragon (Phenom), a fast dragon (Athlon), or a flash dragon (sempern) processor manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Where the computing device 300 is a server, the processor may be, for example, a through-strong (Xeon) or Itanium (Itanium) processor from Intel, or an Ohioman (Opteron) family of processors from ultramicron corporation. Processor 302 may also represent multiple parallel or distributed processors operating in concert.

The memory 304 may include volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, flash drive, CDROM, etc.). Which may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. The memory 304 may have a distributed architecture in which various components are located remotely from one another but are still accessed by the processor 302. These other components may reside on devices located elsewhere on the network or in a cloud arrangement.

The software in memory 304 may include one or more separate programs. The individual programs comprise an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. In the example of FIG. 3, the software in memory 304 may include system 100 according to the present disclosure and a suitable operating system (O/S) 312. Examples of suitable commercially available operating systems 312 are the Windows operating system available from Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft Corporation), Mac OS X available from Apple Computer, Inc., the Unix operating system from AT & T, or Unix derived products such as BSD or Linux. Operating system O/S312 will depend on the type of computing device 300. For example, if Computing device 300 is a PDA or handheld computer, operating system 312 may be iOS for operating certain devices from apple computer, Inc., PalmOS for devices from Palm Computing, Inc., Windows Phone 8 from Microsoft Corporation, Android from Google, Inc., or Symbian from Nokia Corporation. Operating system 312 substantially controls the execution of other computer programs, such as system 100, and provides scheduling, input-output control, file and data management, memory management, and communication control and related services.

If the computing device 300 is an IBM PC compatible computer or the like, the software in the memory 304 may further include a Basic Input Output System (BIOS). The BIOS is a set of basic software routines that initialize and test hardware at startup, start the operating system 312, and support data transfer between hardware devices. The BIOS is stored in ROM so that the BIOS can be executed when the computing device 300 is activated.

The steps and/or elements of the present invention and/or portions thereof may be implemented using a source program, executable program (object code), script, or any other entity comprising a set of instructions to be executed. Further, software embodying the present invention may be written in (a) an object-oriented programming language, which has classes of data and methods, or (b) a procedural programming language, which has routines, subroutines, and/or functions, such as, but not limited to C, C + +, C #, Pascal, Basic, Fortran, Cobol, Perl, Java, Ada, and Lua. The components of system 100 may also be written in proprietary languages developed to interact with these known languages.

The I/O device 306 may include an input device such as a keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, touch screen, barcode reader, or infrared reader. It may also include output devices such as a printer, video display, audio speaker or headphone port, or projector. The I/O devices 306 may also include devices that communicate with inputs or outputs, such as short-range transceivers (RFID, Bluetooth, etc.), telephone interfaces, cellular communication ports, routers, or other types of network communication equipment. The I/O device 306 may be internal to the computing device 300, or may be external and connected wirelessly or via a connection cable (e.g., through a universal serial bus port).

When the computing device 300 is in operation, the processor 302 is configured to execute software stored within the memory 304, to communicate data to and from the memory 304, and to generally control the operation of the computing device 300 in accordance with the software. In whole or in part, the system 100 and operating system 312 may be read by the processor 302, buffered within the processor 302, and then executed.

In the context of this document, a "computer-readable medium" can be any means that can store, communicate, propagate, or transport the data object for use by or in connection with system 100. A computer readable medium can be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, propagation medium, or any other device with similar functionality. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection (electronic) having one or more wires, a Random Access Memory (RAM) (electronic), a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM, or flash memory) (electronic), an optical fiber (optical), and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). Note that the computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. System 100 can be embodied in any type of computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system or device, such as a computer.

The computing device 300 is equipped with network communication equipment and circuitry for the purpose of connecting to other computing devices. In a preferred embodiment, the network communication equipment comprises a network card, such as an ethernet card or a wireless connection card. In a preferred network environment, each of a plurality of computing devices 300 on a network is configured to communicate with each other using the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). However, it should be understood that various network protocols may be employed, such as IEEE 802.11Wi-Fi, Address resolution protocol ARP, spanning Tree protocol STP, or fiber distributed data interface FDDI. It will also be appreciated that while the preferred embodiment of the present invention is to have each computing device 300 have a broadband or wireless connection (e.g., DSL, cable, wireless, T-1, T-3, OC3 or satellite, etc.) to the Internet, the principles of the present invention may also be practiced using a dial-up connection through a standard modem or other connection means. Wireless network connections such as wireless ethernet, satellite, infrared, radio frequency, bluetooth, near field communication, and cellular networks are also contemplated.

Any process descriptions or blocks in the figures should be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process, and alternate implementations are included within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention in which functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present invention, particularly, any "preferred" embodiments, are possible examples of implementations set forth merely for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments of the invention without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the invention. All such modifications are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and the present invention and protected by the following claims.

Claims (7)

1. A method for generating, using a processor, a central database comprising credit identification data associated with individuals who have resided in a first country and a second country, the method comprising:

receiving, at the processor, first data from a first database, wherein the first data is derived from first credit-related data associated with the individual in the first country;

creating, using the processor, a record associated with the individual in the central database, the record including the first data;

tagging, using the processor, the record in the central database to indicate that the first credit-related data associated with the individual exists in the first country;

generating, using the processor, a universal identifier for uniquely identifying the individual;

storing, using the processor, the universal identifier in the record in the central database;

transmitting the universal identifier from the processor to the first database;

determining, using the processor, whether a second database has second credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country; and

if the second database has the second credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country, then:

tagging, using the processor, the record in the central database to indicate that the second credit-related data associated with the individual exists in the second country;

transmitting the universal identifier from the processor to the second database;

receiving, at the processor, second data from the second database, wherein the second data is derived from the second credit-related data; and

storing, using the processor, the second data in the record in the central database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises one or more of a name, a date of birth, a one-way hash of information indicative of the individual, or a first country-specific identifier for uniquely identifying a first credit-related data record associated with the individual in the first database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first credit-related data record comprises the first credit-related data associated with the individual in the first country.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the second database has the second credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country comprises matching, using the processor, at least a portion of the records in the central database with the second credit-related data in the second database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein matching at least the portion of the records in the central database comprises matching, using the processor, one or more of a name or a birth date in the central database with the second credit-related data in the second database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the second database does not have the second credit-related data associated with the individual in the second country, marking, using the processor, the record in the central database to indicate that the second credit-related data associated with the individual does not exist in a second country.

7. The method of claim 1:

further comprising validating, using the processor, authenticity of the first data against a validation database;

wherein creating the record comprises creating, using the processor, the record associated with the individual in the central database if the authenticity of the first data is verified.