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Why Connected Banking?

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Americans increasingly manage their money online, often using fintech apps that access consumers’ financial data.

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The current system of data aggregation and sharing limits consumer control and puts data privacy at risk.

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The Clearing House set out to increase awareness and facilitate solutions to address data privacy issues.

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The goal is to act in the best interest of consumers, enhance safety and foster efficiency in financial services.

Meeting customers’ security and privacy expectations in this age of data proliferation will require a relationship between banks and fintechs that is focused on serving a mutual customer.

To make this shift, The Clearing House is advocating for new technology standards and infrastructure, risk management requirements and legal agreements, and ongoing industry collaboration – collectively known as Connected Banking.

Connected Banking Framework Elements

Enabling Consumer Permission and Control Mechanisms

Surveys show consumers want greater control over their data. These mechanisms would allow consumers to authorize and control the sharing of their financial information.

Support for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) Across the Industry

APIs allow consumers to share information with fintech apps without giving away their bank account log-in credentials. Migrating to APIs offers better security and greater control over personal data.

Model Agreement

Entirely voluntary, the use of a standardized model legal contract between banks and fintechs would be a valuable starting point, saving time and resources, making deployment faster and cheaper.

API Technical and Security Standards

Common data sharing and security standards (currently being developed with FDX), would facilitate faster and easier technology implementations between banks and third parties enabling a more rapid migration to toward API based data sharing.

Third Party Due Diligence

A common process to evaluate the safety and security of third party apps would streamline and accelerate required compliance processes that help ensure banks and their customers can trust the apps which have access to a customer’s data.

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2011 Tch Consumersurveyreport

Learn more about The Clearing House’s consumer research on fintech apps and data privacy.

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New insights from 2021 Consumer Research:
Data Privacy and Financial App Usage