Joining Chase and Wells Fargo, TD Bank joins Akoya financial data network

TD Bank is joining the Akoya Data Access Network. 

With this new partnership, TD Bank’s customers can opt to securely share access to their banking data with fintech apps and data aggregators. Third-parties receiving financial data will be able to access TD Bank’s U.S. customer data via APIs, as opposed to the less secure practice of screen scraping.

All data between the bank and applications will move through a single point, Akoya APIs. This data is neither copied nor stored. It is also provided in a standard output based on the Financial Data Exchange’s API standard.

TD Bank can support its customers’ demand for fintech services, without putting their data at risk. For data receivers, this can earn them customer trust, from people who were nervous about sharing their sensitive bank credentials.

“TD has always had a strong commitment to digital innovation, and that means continuing to invest in new ways for our customers to manage their finances online,” said Rizwan Khalfan, Chief Digital and Payments Officer, TD Bank.

Fintechs and data aggregators will have access to TD Bank’s customer data through Akoya by October 2021.

Akoya is an independent company co-owned by 12 North American financial institutions. TD Bank is a part of that group, investing in February 2020. The firm is focused on making accessing and sharing financial data secure via APIs, eliminating the risks associated with screen scraping.

“APIs provide a safer, secure way for customers to share data and will play a key role in helping to facilitate innovation through the creation of data-driven apps and financial services -– a win-win for Open Finance,” said Stuart Rubinstein, CEO of Akoya.

TD Bank is the latest of Akoya’s expanding partnerships, joining other industry leaders like Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America. 

This year, Akoya has partnered with key financial institutions to get access to their data, which constitutes about 50% of demand deposit accounts in the United States. In addition, core banking provider Jack Henry & Associates was also integrated into the network. The company claims this enables over 400 community banks and credit unions to participate in Akoya’s data network.

Akoya says announcements of more key partnerships can be expected before the end of the year. “We anticipate adding a few more financial institutions to the Akoya Data Access Network and have all participants active by the end of the year – a key goal for the company,” Rubinstein told Tearsheet.

In December 2020, speaking on the Tearsheet Podcast, Rubinstein laid out Akoya’s plan to, by the middle of 2021, “have more than half of the deposit accounts and around half of the credit card accounts in the country.” The next step, he said, would be to focus on data recipients, and develop the demand side of the business.

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To achieve their demand objectives, Akoya has been developing its APIs. “We have spent the past year developing several APIs that offer reliable consumer-permissioned financial data, such as account information, balances, transactions, and investment holdings, all delivered in a consistent manner based on Financial Data Exchange standards,” he said.

“As a result, we are beginning to gain momentum in adding fintech, data aggregators, and other data recipients, including financial institutions, onto the Akoya Data Access Network. 

This year, Akoya has signed agreements with fintech firms Pentadata and eMoney.

Direct API access deals are becoming more commonplace. This week Silicon Valley Bank entered into an agreement with Plaid to provide secure and efficient tokenized payment solutions, making the bank the first to provide ACH account token integration with Plaid. Plaid also announced an agreement with US Bank earlier this year to employ a ‘new bidirectional permissions hub’, granting consumers the ability to adjust their permissions quickly within the apps, and control what data is shared.