System and Method for Predicting Card Member Spending Using Collaborative Filtering

Abstract

The disclosed method and system allows a credit or charge card issuer to provide its card members with a list of restaurants that might be of interest based on the financial transactions of similar card members. In one instance, this method filters financial transaction data from a plurality of card members that involves a plurality of restaurants to generate a set of candidate restaurant recommendations for a selected card member. This set of candidate restaurant recommendations is processed to yield a list of restaurant recommendations for the selected customer that is prioritized on the basis of the selected card member accepting the recommendation. The list of restaurant recommendations is then reported to the selected card member to enhance card use and marketing.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A credit provider server, comprising:
 a receiving interface configured to receive financial transaction data for a financial transaction between a first card member and a first merchant;   a storage device configured to store the received financial transaction data, wherein the financial transaction data comprises at least one of: a transaction amount of the financial transaction, a date of the financial transaction, information identifying the first merchant, a card number of the first card member, or information identifying the first card member;   a processor configured to execute instructions to process the received financial transaction data to determine an industry code indicative of a merchant type of the first merchant, wherein the instructions are further executable to cause the credit provider server to:
 based on historical data for financial transactions conducted by the first merchant over a particular time interval, determine a second card member that has transacted with the first merchant; 
 identify a second merchant, based on the determined industry code, that has conducted at least one transaction with the second card member but not the first card member; and 
   a transmitting interface configured to transmit information identifying the second merchant as a recommended merchant to the card member.   
     
     
         22 . The credit provider server of  claim 21 , wherein the identifying is further based on a predicted recommendation acceptance rate of the first card member that is indicative of a probability that the first card member will conduct a future financial transaction with another merchant in the future. 
     
     
         23 . The credit provider server of  claim 21 , wherein the identifying is further based on a similarity between an average transaction amount for financial transactions conducted by the first merchant over the particular time interval and an average transaction amount for financial transactions conducted by the second merchant over the particular time interval. 
     
     
         24 . The credit provider server of  claim 21 , wherein the instructions are further executable to cause the credit provider server to:
 based on a comparison between a transaction percentage of the first merchant and a transaction percentage of the second merchant, rank the first merchant and the second merchant, wherein the respective transaction percentages are based on a number of transactions conducted by a particular card member common to both merchants and respective total numbers of transactions conducted by both merchants.   
     
     
         25 . The credit provider server of  claim 21 , wherein the instructions are further executable to cause the credit provider server to:
 based on a geographical location of the first card member, confirm the second merchant as the recommended merchant.   
     
     
         26 . The credit provider server of  claim 21 , wherein the instructions are further executable to cause the credit provider server to:
 select a preliminary group of merchants based on the industry code; and   filter, based on a threshold average transaction amount, from the preliminary group of merchants an adjusted group of merchants that includes the second merchant.   
     
     
         27 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a network interface included in a credit provider server, financial transaction data indicative of at least one financial transaction conducted by a first card member with a first merchant;   based on the received financial transaction data, the credit provider server determining a second card member has transacted with the first merchant within a particular time interval;   identifying, by the credit provider server, a second merchant that has also conducted at least one transaction with the second card member within the particular time interval, wherein the identifying is based on an industry code indicative of a merchant type of the first merchant; and   transmitting, via the network interface included in the credit provider server, information recommending the identified second merchant to the first card member.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 wherein the identifying is based on a predicted recommendation acceptance rate for the first card member, wherein the predicted recommendation acceptance rate is indicative of a probability that the first card member will conduct a future financial transaction with the second merchant.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the financial transaction data includes at least one of: identifying information for a card used by the first card member to conduct the financial transaction, or identifying information for a credit provider associated with the credit provider server. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 based on acceptance information indicating that the first member conducted a financial transaction with the second merchant based on the recommendation, the credit provider server updating a predicted recommendation acceptance rate for the first card member.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein a predicted recommendation acceptance rate for recommending the second merchant to the first card member is determined by a credit provider associated with the credit provider server. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the network interface of the credit provider server receives the financial transaction data over an encrypted channel. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 based on a standard deviation corresponding to a distance between the first card member and the first merchant, the credit provider server selecting a preliminary group of merchants that include the second merchant.   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising:
 based on the financial transaction data, the credit provider server determining a predicted recommendation acceptance rate for recommending the second merchant to the first card member, wherein the determining further comprises the credit provider server determining a total number of financial transactions between the first card member and the first merchant over the particular time interval and a total number of financial transactions between the first card member and at least one merchant other than the first merchant over the particular time interval.   
     
     
         35 . An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable, by a credit provider server having a storage device and a processor, to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, by a network interface of the credit provider server, financial transaction data indicative of at least one financial transaction conducted by a first card member with a first merchant;   based on the received financial transaction data, determining a second card member has transacted with the first merchant within a particular time interval;   identifying a second merchant that has also conducted at least one transaction with the second card member within the particular time interval, wherein the identifying is based on an industry code indicative of a merchant type of the first merchant; and   transmitting, via the network interface of the credit provider server, information recommending the identified second merchant to the first card member.   
     
     
         36 . The article of manufacture of  claim 35 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining, based on historical transaction data for the first card member, that the first member has not transacted with the second merchant.   
     
     
         37 . The article of manufacture of  claim 35 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 comparing an average transaction amount for financial transactions conducted by the second merchant to a threshold average transaction amount, wherein identifying the second merchant is further based on a result of the comparing.   
     
     
         38 . The article of manufacture of  claim 35 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving the financial transaction data via an encrypted channel; and   decoding the financial transaction data to determine an industry code common to the first merchant and the second merchant.   
     
     
         39 . The article of manufacture of  claim 35 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining a predicted recommendation acceptance rate based on a total number of financial transactions conducted by the first card member, wherein the total number of financial transactions include a particular number of financial transactions between the first card member and the first merchant.   
     
     
         40 . The article of manufacture of  claim 35 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 prior to the identifying, removing, from a plurality of merchants, a first portion of merchants such that a remaining portion of merchants includes the first merchant and second merchant, wherein the removing is based on a threshold distance of ones of the first portion of merchants from a billing address of the first card member.