Data sharing

Origin Bank is rolling out software to let customers curb or shut down account-data sharing with third-party apps. In the process, it hopes to learn a lot about client behavior and preferences that it could use in its own products.

The company's new agreement with Envestnet Yodlee to share customers' account data over secure pipes is its 17th pact with aggregators and other fintech firms.

Meredith Fuchs, formerly the top lawyer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says data aggregators like Plaid "have matured." She will help the company prepare for new data-sharing rules and its pending sale to Visa.

Meredith Fuchs, formerly the top lawyer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says data aggregators like Plaid "have matured." She will help the company prepare for new data-sharing rules and its pending sale to Visa.

Banks, data aggregators and fintechs have clashed for a decade over how consumers’ bank account data should be shared with third parties. The agency says it will offer a plan, and industry officials have plenty of suggestions already.

Lenders need to use alternative data as an overlay to traditional underwriting methods to help creditworthy customers in hardship because of the coronavirus crisis.

For the past several years, the concept of sharing transaction data between merchants, processors and issuers has been considered a good security measure to curb fraud. But someone has to compile and compare that data in such a way to not only stop fraud, but assure legitimate transactions are not declined.

Thanks to their close relationship with the card networks, banks stand to benefit most from deals like Mastercard’s agreement to buy Finicity and Visa’s pending purchase of Plaid. The prospects for fintechs and consumers are dicier.

The Toronto company is testing new software from Cinchy that lets its technology teams visualize how datasets spread across departments might work together to make client referrals or collaborate with fintechs.

The company's new service is intended to help small banks share account data while avoiding screen scraping.