Abstract: The inventive system provides a distributed data processing system for performing data-related task implemented with a scalable hub and spoke architecture. The advantageous hub-and-spoke architecture comprises a central “hub” system site connected, through one or more high speed communication links, to one or more spoke systems, each of which may be located at a remote spoke system (which may be geographically dispersed from one another). While some information technology infrastructure is necessary for both the hub and the spoke systems, the expensive data processing and control systems, for implementing the majority of the system architecture, and where the majority of automated processing occurs, are concentrated at the hub location. Thus, most of the critical data processing activities are centralized at the hub system, while other activities that either must be performed, or are advantageous to be performed at a particular remote location, are executed by one or more spoke systems.