The present invention consists of a secure interactive electronic account statement
delivery system suitable for use over open networks such as
the Internet. The invention utilizes a certification hierarchy to insure that electronic bills, invoices, and other account statements can be securely sent over open networks. The participants in the
system are a certification authority, certificated banks, billers, and customers. The certification authority grants digital certificates to the certificated banks, which in turn grant digital certificates to billers and customers. Digital certificates form the basis for
encryption and
authentication of network communications, using public and private keys. The certificates associate a customer and biller with a certificated
bank and with the
electronic billing system, much like
payment cards associate a customer with a
payment card issuer and a particular
payment card
system. Digital signatures are used for
authentication and non-repudiation. The certificates may be stored as
digital data on storage media of a customer's or biller's computer system, or may be contained in
integrated circuit or
chip cards physically issued to billers and customers. The electronic bill itself may be a simple
text message containing the equivalent of
summary information for the bill, or may be more elaborate. In one embodiment of the invention, the electronic bill contains a number of embedded links, for example an embedded URL of a biller's
world wide web server that allows the customer to interactively bring up detailed billing information by activating the link. The e-mail message may also include links to
third party websites.