System for resolving transactions employing automated offer optimization

Abstract

The present design includes a system for settling a debt, including a server arrangement having a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of a creditor party owed money by a debtor using a plurality of dictionaries in XML format. The rules include at least one offer set fitness measure representing a measure of ability to resolve debts and comprises at least one of high lift in settlement amount, low rejection of offers, and high completion of transactions, and at least one offer set termination criterion, a condition under which processing is terminated for at least one offer set. The system also includes a debt recovery manager module configured to evaluate transaction resolution information including transaction offer settlement sets, settlement offers, and accepted settlement offers. At least one of the rules based engine and the debt recovery manager comprise genetic programming logic.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for settling a debt, comprising:
 a server arrangement comprising one or more processors communicatively coupled with memory configured to employ dictionaries stored in XML format, the server arrangement comprising:
 a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of a creditor party owed money by the debtor provided at the server arrangement using a plurality of dictionaries in XML format, wherein the rules comprise at least one offer set fitness measure (OSFM) and at least one offer set termination criterion (OSTC), wherein OSFM represents a measure of ability to resolve debts and comprises at least one of high lift in settlement amount, low rejection of offers, and high completion of transactions, and OSTC is a condition under which processing is terminated for at least one offer set; and 
 a debt recovery manager module configured to evaluate transaction resolution information including transaction offer settlement sets (TSOSs), settlement offers, and accepted settlement offers; 
   wherein at least one of the rules based engine and the debt recovery manager comprise genetic programming logic configured to employ the rules established on behalf of the creditor party and iteratively determine a plurality of TSOSs, each TSOS comprising multiple simultaneously presentable and individually selectable offers to settle the debt;   wherein the genetic programming logic is configured to improve at least one offer in a current TSOS based on goal formulas and performance scoring of offers and comprises:
 an initial population of TSOS variables; 
 instructions for iteratively ascertaining TSOS and offer fitness based on the at least one OSFM to create new TSOS variables originating from the initial population of TSOS variables involving at least one of the operations consisting of reproduction, crossover, and mutation among the TSOS variables and the new TSOS variables; and 
 instructions for declaring a best-so-far individual TSOS solution when at least one OSTC is satisfied, wherein the best-so-far individual TSOS solution is one TSOS most likely to result in resolution of the debt. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein an offer in at least one TSOS scoring below an acceptable threshold is removed and replaced with a different offer. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the server further comprises logic establishing an initial group of TSOSs based on circumstances anticipated to be encountered and based on the rules established on behalf of the creditor party. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the genetic programming logic operates using offer selections previously made by debtor entities and selectively modifies TSOSs based on offer selections previously made by debtor entities. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising scoring logic employed to determine a plurality of scores associated with a plurality of offers, and wherein the system employs scores from the scoring logic to remove selected offers having scores below a threshold. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the genetic programming logic comprises instructions to:
 analyze behavior and characteristics of the current TSOS;   establish a fitness of the current TSOS; and   modify the current TSOS to produce a new TSOS based on the performance scoring;   wherein the new TSOS is provided to the debtor computing device.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the genetic programming logic further comprises instructions to:
 ascertain a new OSFM of the new TSOS; and   determine whether the new TSOS is better than the current TSOS based on OSFM of the current TSOS and the new OSFM of the new TSOS;   wherein a better OSFM results in transmitting the new TSOS to the debtor computing device.   
     
     
         8 . A system for settling a debt, comprising:
 a server arrangement comprising one or more processors communicatively coupled with memory configured to employ dictionaries stored in XML format, the server arrangement comprising:
 a rules based engine including rules established on behalf of a creditor party owed money by the debtor provided at the server arrangement using a plurality of dictionaries in XML format, wherein the rules comprise at least one offer set fitness measure (OSFM) and at least one offer set termination criterion (OSTC), wherein OSFM represents a measure of ability to resolve debts and comprises at least one of high lift in settlement amount, low rejection of offers, and high completion of transactions, and OSTC is a condition under which processing is terminated for at least one offer set; and 
 a debt recovery manager module configured to evaluate transaction resolution information including transaction offer settlement sets (TSOSs), settlement offers, and accepted settlement offers; 
   wherein at least one of the rules based engine and the debt recovery manager comprise genetic programming logic configured to employ the rules established on behalf of the creditor party and determine a plurality of TSOSs, each TSOS based on a set of circumstances and comprising multiple simultaneously presentable and individually selectable offers to settle the debt;   wherein the genetic programming logic is configured to produce one TSOS based on goal formulas and performance scoring, and comprises:
 an initial population of TSOS variables; 
 instructions for iteratively ascertaining TSOS and offer fitness based on the at least one OSFM to create new TSOS variables originating from the initial population of TSOS variables involving at least one of the operations consisting of reproduction, crossover, and mutation among the TSOS variables and the new TSOS variables; and 
 instructions for declaring a best-so-far individual TSOS solution when at least one OSTC is satisfied, wherein the best-so-far individual TSOS solution is a single TSOS most likely to result in resolution of the debt on acceptable terms to the creditor party. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein an offer in at least one TSOS is removed from the TSOS. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the server further comprises logic establishing an initial group of TSOSs based on circumstances anticipated to be encountered and based on the rules established on behalf of the creditor party. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the genetic programming logic operates using offer selections previously made by debtor entities and selectively modifies TSOS based on offer selections previously made by debtor entities. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , further comprising scoring logic employed to determine a plurality of scores associated with a plurality of offers, and wherein the system employs scores from the scoring logic to remove selected offers having scores below a threshold. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the genetic programming logic further comprises instructions to:
 ascertain a new fitness of the new TSOS; and   determine whether the new TSOS is better than the current TSOS based on fitness of the current TSOS and new fitness of the new TSOS.   
     
     
         14 . An apparatus for settling a debt using a server arrangement having one or more processors communicatively coupled with memory and configured to employ dictionaries stored in XML format, the apparatus comprising:
 means for establishing rules on behalf of a creditor party owed a debt by a debtor using a plurality of dictionaries in XML format;   means for employing the rules established on behalf of the creditor party to iteratively determine a plurality of transaction settlement offer sets (TSOSs), each TSOS comprising multiple simultaneously presentable and individually selectable offers to settle the debt;   means for evaluating transaction resolution information including TSOSs, settlement offers, and accepted settlement offers;   means for improving at least one offer in at least one TSOS based on goal formulas and performance scoring of offers selected over a period of time using programming logic employing evolution strategies that determine prior successful transaction resolutions and improve TSOSs based on successful accepted offers, wherein the means for improving comprises:
 means for iteratively executing at least one TSOS program from a population of TSOS solutions and ascertaining program fitness based on at least one offer set fitness measure (OSFM) to create new TSOS programs based on at least one of the operations consisting of reproduction, crossover, and mutation among the TSOS solutions and the new TSOS solutions, wherein OSFM represents a measure of ability to resolve debts and comprises at least one of high lift in settlement amount, low rejection of offers, and high completion of transactions; 
 means for declaring a best-so-far individual TSOS solution when at least one offer set termination criterion (OSTC) is satisfied, wherein OSTC is a condition under which processing is terminated for at least one offer set, and wherein the best-so-far individual TSOS solution includes one TSOS most likely to result in resolution of the debt on terms acceptable to the creditor party; and 
 means for altering at least one offer in at least one TSOS based on the best-so-far individual TSOS. 
   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the means for improving comprises means for removing an offer in at least one TSOS scoring below an acceptable threshold and replacing the offer with a different offer. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , further comprising means for establishing an initial group of TSOSs based on circumstances anticipated to be encountered and based on the rules established on behalf of the creditor party. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the means for improving comprises means for using offer selections previously made by debtor entities and selectively modifies TSOSs based on offer selections previously made by debtor entities. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 means for determining a plurality of scores associated with a plurality of offers; and   means for employing scores from the scoring logic to remove selected offers having scores below a threshold.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the means for employing comprises:
 means for analyzing behavior and characteristics of the current TSOS;   means for establishing a fitness of the current TSOS; and   means for modifying the current TSOS to produce a new TSOS based on the performance scoring.   
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the means for employing further comprises:
 means for ascertaining a new OSFM of the new TSOS; and   means for determining whether the new TSOS is better than the current TSOS based on OSFM of the current TSOS and new fitness of the new TSOS.