

Ask HN: What would you do with a bank API? - smt88

What would you do if all banks had open APIs? What problems would you solve and for whom?<p>(I&#x27;ve worked for banks and am aware of how hypothetical this is. Just humor me.)
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interlock
Oh man, I just ranted about this at work.

* Transferring money to our clients would ideally be one uniform API request. Globally speaking, moving money around can still be complicated depending on what your business does, how much money you are transferring and the origin/destination. API's could enable a new level of communication about moving money around that could satisfy many countries needs to track/audit about money transfers while making it easier for businesses to actually do it. * Reconciliation of statements with whatever software you use. Right now, there are a lot of different formats for getting account statements. Our bank's commercial services doesn't actually provide a standard format at all. They have a CSV like TXT file that has not documentation and that only Sage Accounting can read. Brilliant! An Open API could allow us to query an account and format out in any standard format we need; or, even better, just directly hook up to our accounting software (Xero) and be done with it. * Integrations. Most integrations are giant hacks right now that simulate a browser logging in with your full access password and download statements/etc. API's could provision access to specific end-points and be revoked. It would greatly enhance security all around. * Automation. Our business pays our our customers on a weekly basis, but it would be awesome if we just checked a box "Approved" and it did all the magic of moving money around. * There are literally some things we need to call our bank to do, but are really just operations their web interface doesn't allow us to do. Ideally, an API would allow us to write our own flow to complete these same operations without bothering our bank.

Honestly, the less I have to deal with any bank with our startup the happier I
am.

Startup idea: Create a tech specific credit union that exposes a
straightforward API to do banking. Expand to integrations with popular online
accounting software and eventually personal banking. Starting from scratch
would hopefully let you build a front facing service that is modern.

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davismwfl
I'd love to see it.

Build a product that allows a consumer to see all their account data in a
single dashboard for review and analytics. Do analysis on spending habits,
deposit trends, where are investments, how are the investments doing etc. Many
people have a very hard time understanding exactly where they stand because
they have multiple accounts, investments etc and it is nearly impossible to
get a real time view of it.

Add to that the ability to print a financial standing document that could be
used by banks and loan companies to help determine credit eligibility. I am
thinking about saving time as most banks have people provide a few months of
bank statements etc, and provide funds proof when getting mortgages and other
loans.

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codegeek
If banks had open API, here is what I will do:

\- Create my own UI. Most bank UIs suck big time. Categorizing accounts,
labeling them as we want etc. and yes, I don't want to do this through a third
party like Mint. Also, when i see a transaction, I want better descriptions if
possible. Don't show me "VISA charge" as a description, really ? I always
wonder if merchants have better descrioptions and banks just make it more
"cryptic" for security reasons ?

\- Connect to accounting system directly. Ability to export data in csv,json
etc format

\- Being able to "send" money to someone easily. This exists already with
banks but each one of them have clunky UIs if at all. I would build my own :)

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ssanders82
I have an automated trading system which places stock trades through my
broker's API (Interactive Brokers).

However, I also trade my Wells Fargo IRA with the same system - since there's
no API, this requires a very fragile Selenium-based system wherein my code
opens Firefox, logs in, and navigates the correct sequence to place a stock
market order. Of course, it also breaks about every three months when Wells
Fargo changes their page layout.

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pdx
So, why not move your Wells Fargo IRA over to Interactive Brokers? I have a
normal account and an IRA account with them.

[https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=iraInforma...](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=iraInformation&p=irafaqs)

~~~
ssanders82
Good question... 1.) I get 100 free trades per year in each account at WF 2.)
I also use WF for all my checking and business accounts, and I have the PMA
package which is better support, low fees, etc but requires me to keep at
least $25k with WF

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mcherm
I just wanted to say, I work for a bank, on the team that is building APIs for
public consumption. I will be very interested in seeing the responses that are
posted here.

In other words, it may not be as hypothetical as you think.

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logn
ClairMail was a company that provided off-the-shelf mobile banking. Banks
essentially needed to just implement their API. ClairMail was acquired by
Monitise. So if you're looking to actually make an open API, you could acquire
Montise, or more likely, approach each of their customers and ask to be a
consumer of their mobile API (which would be no small task given federal
regulations).

[http://www.monitise.com/americas/customers/index.php](http://www.monitise.com/americas/customers/index.php)

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sharemywin
Huge for small business, investors, etc. Person A can only spend xyz amount
per month and only to these vendors. Text me if the amount of the deposit last
night doesn't match what my point of sale system says. Only send x amount of
money to y company once person A and person B agree.

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xpto123
If they all used the same API? You could build your own mobile UI themeable
product and sell them to banks for them to host in their own servers.

Build a company around the product and provide change requests/maintenance
services, further branding the app, etc.

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FroshKiller
You really need to put some boundaries on this. How far does it go? Are we
talking about, like, an API for customers to check their balances? Or are we
talking about an API for creating new accounts and pre-qualifying for loans?
An API for transfers? What?

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smt88
Anything/everything that a bank does. Account management, transfers, payments,
etc.

~~~
FroshKiller
From a personal banking standpoint, I think it'd be nice to have a sort of
overlay on my account that helps me budget by breaking my balance up into
buckets, categorizing my withdrawals, and straightlining my income. I imagine
that with sophisticated service discovery (e.g. common loan options), an
interface like that could recommend additional services that would help me
that I might not know about otherwise.

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sebst
If they had? Isn't there something like FinTS[1] in other countries than
Germany?

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinTS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinTS)

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zhte415
There is a standard API. It is called SWIFT. SWIFT is not just a network, but
a standard message format. Participants in the SWIFT network can also receive
messages from outside the SWIFT network.

