This is a marvelous thread! - I'll read it more carefully, but from a glance it looks like most of the functional links are the right ones... I'll speak more to the theory.
I've recommended that every Bank I've done work for (which is quite a few) consider an external facing API to enable Lead User Behavior (see Von Hippel et al from MIT and MIT Press) and the concept has never gotten good air, for a variety of reasons which, no doubt, make sense to the their reference business models. Much of that can be explained be the theories of Disruptive Innovation (see Clay Christensen, et al, Harvard Business Press).
While I can't speak on this front, I think it's also acknowledged by anyone with a fully functioning brain stem that the various screen scraping solutions are sketchy for all concerned. There are some stable providers (Plaid seems pretty shiney and exciting. Fiserv and Yodalee have been around, and I'd only say that one of them seems yo have more clout than the other.
I think you'll see some exciting possibilities in the not too distant future, but I'd have trouble seeing a major Bank opening their doors to the public for all the reasons mentioned here. If the theories of disruptive innovation hold water, I'd say that once robust services come available that allow smart developers to apply modern thought to services, the disintermediation will be annoying to the big Banks if it strips away their best customers, which it's not likely to.
The problem (from the theory side) is a) there's not much money in providing a service, there's money in selling accounts, and that's where it's really hard for a small player to gain entry and b) in a battle where the incumbent is motivated to fight, that incumbent will likely win, and I personally don't want to fight with an incumbent who makes 5BB a quarter.
I've recommended that every Bank I've done work for (which is quite a few) consider an external facing API to enable Lead User Behavior (see Von Hippel et al from MIT and MIT Press) and the concept has never gotten good air, for a variety of reasons which, no doubt, make sense to the their reference business models. Much of that can be explained be the theories of Disruptive Innovation (see Clay Christensen, et al, Harvard Business Press).
While I can't speak on this front, I think it's also acknowledged by anyone with a fully functioning brain stem that the various screen scraping solutions are sketchy for all concerned. There are some stable providers (Plaid seems pretty shiney and exciting. Fiserv and Yodalee have been around, and I'd only say that one of them seems yo have more clout than the other.
I think you'll see some exciting possibilities in the not too distant future, but I'd have trouble seeing a major Bank opening their doors to the public for all the reasons mentioned here. If the theories of disruptive innovation hold water, I'd say that once robust services come available that allow smart developers to apply modern thought to services, the disintermediation will be annoying to the big Banks if it strips away their best customers, which it's not likely to.
The problem (from the theory side) is a) there's not much money in providing a service, there's money in selling accounts, and that's where it's really hard for a small player to gain entry and b) in a battle where the incumbent is motivated to fight, that incumbent will likely win, and I personally don't want to fight with an incumbent who makes 5BB a quarter.