Data sharing

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.

Ben Soccorsy, head of digital payments in Wells Fargo’s virtual channels group, explains how the bank's 15 data-sharing agreements with fintechs and aggregators and tools like Control Tower give customers visibility into and control over their financial information.

The agency's recent update to its guidelines for banks on working with data aggregators and other third parties was not extreme, but some critics say its heavy emphasis on security could be a setback for open banking.

A CFPB event on data-sharing issues gave the parties a chance to debate the merits and risks of screen scraping, what can replace it and what consumers really want.

The heads of the two companies explain how the deal came about, what hurdles they face and how they plan to mash up their very different operations.

Akoya has been building a data-sharing network that gives fintechs access to bank account data through application programming interfaces as an alternative to screen scraping. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One are among its new owners.

When it comes to customers using application programming interfaces, the bank appears to be outpacing its rivals.