Over the past decade, a strong foundation of consumer financial data rights have underpinned an open finance ecosystem “that drives competition, choice, and inclusion for hundreds of millions of people today.” This, according to an extensive update from Plaid.
Plaid noted in a blog post that this Fintech trend will only “continue as more consumers move their financial lives online.” In fact, the average consumer uses “between 3-4 fintech apps and services.”
To support rising consumer demand and financial service’s digital transformation, Plaid has built “a network that ensures consumers have the right security and protections in place as they continue to rely on these solutions.”
Core to their existence as a company is “the belief that consumers should have safe and reliable access to their financial data, and be able to share it with the tools and services of their choice, no matter where they bank.”
Today, this value underpins “a thriving global open finance ecosystem.”
In support of this, Plaid continues to “establish new partnerships and innovations with key industry partners who want to participate in an open financial ecosystem – ranging from large financial institutions to auto companies and fintech tools.”
Today many banks recognize “the critical benefits their customers get by being able to connect their accounts to different products or services.”
To this end, some of the most innovative businesses in financial services – such as American Express and TD Bank – have “signed data access partnerships with Plaid to ensure their customers can plug into Plaid’s network via secure and reliable API integrations.”
But it isn’t just about responding to customer demand – many institutions turn to Plaid as a resource “for continued innovation and development within their own products. Open finance can unlock better products and outcomes for consumers across a range of use cases, particularly around payments and lending.”
Recently, CEO Zach Perret sat down with Citi COO Anand Selva to discuss how Citi uses Plaid to “power their PFM solution for their Digital Wealth platform, as well as meet rising consumer expectations for secure and reliable connectivity.”
The conversation demonstrated how Plaid’s partnership “with financial institutions can lead to new and personalized use cases for their customers.”
Their financial institution partners are “an integral part of an open finance ecosystem.”
As part of efforts to equip financial institutions with the tools they need to protect their customers, they’ve also begun “developing new solutions that empower financial institutions with the ability to gain insight into where their customers are connecting and disconnecting their accounts to various apps or services.”
This drives uniformity “across privacy controls across the ecosystem.”
Their efforts to foster an API-based ecosystem “bolster opportunities and outcomes for consumers and businesses.”
They are pleased to see “the CFPB taking steps to formalize a scheme in which open finance can foster innovation while having the means to protect consumers.”
Looking ahead, Plaid says it will continue to partner with financial institutions and fintechs to unlock the power and potential of open finance “by reimagining what it can do for products and customers.”