Finicity, a provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, recently reached a deal with Experian that enables consumers to provide income and asset information to lenders digitally through Finicity’s more than 16,000 integrations with financial services institutions.
Now, Finicity is adding another integration to a financial services institution, and a rather large one at that – Wells Fargo.
This week, Finicity and Wells Fargo announced a new data-sharing agreement that will enable third-party applications to access Wells Fargo customer data.
Specifically, the agreement “provides an application programming interface-based method for sharing Wells Fargo customer information with the financial apps and services that Finicity supports,” the companies said in a release.
According the release, Finicity is the first data aggregation provider to enter into a data exchange agreement with Wells Fargo.
One key to the agreement is the security of consumers’ financial information, the companies said.
“A direct-access relationship eliminates the need for the user to provide credentials through third-party apps,” the companies said in a release. “Instead, this is replaced with direct authorization through Wells Fargo and subsequent authentication through tokenized access.”
And according to Brett Pitts, head of digital for Wells Fargo Virtual Channels, this provides security.
“Establishing a data-sharing process with a provider like Finicity creates a much better experience for our customers,” Pitts said. “This allows our customers to choose where and how to use their financial data, while also maintaining the privacy of their user credentials.”
According to the companies, the API-based method of data sharing is expected to be put into place this summer. Once that is finalized, Wells Fargo customers can directly and securely connect with Wells Fargo, while using financial management tools that use the Finicity financial data API, the companies said.
“We’re continually implementing strategies that ensure the highest levels of data quality, speed and uptime in our industry,” said Finicity CEO Steve Smith. “This agreement will provide Wells Fargo customers using Finicity API partner apps and services greater control over their financial information.”
