Finicity, a leading provider of open banking solutions, announced today with BMO Harris Bank that they have signed a data access agreement. The agreement signals a commitment to empower consumers with more control and secure sharing of their financial data.
The agreement enables BMO’s customers to have more secure and convenient access to their financial data, empowering them to manage their finances, access capital, and make financial progress. The data access agreement defines common rules for how Finicity and BMO will communicate and exchange financial data.
Finicity embraces five core consumer-permissioned data sharing principles: access, control, transparency, traceability and security. As consumer-permissioned data sharing continues to grow, these principles can empower consumers with control and awareness of which parties have access to their financial data, what aspects of financial data they want to share, and how to modify the access. Customers retain ownership of their data and have the ability to consent to which data will be shared.
BMO customers will also be able to take advantage of Finicity’s open banking platform to permission access to their financial data for their own benefit across a variety of apps and services. For example, Experian Boost™ enables customers to permission financial data that is added to their credit file, which engages consumers more directly within the credit scoring process.
“It’s important for our customers to be in control of their financial lives,” said Hugh McKee, head of BMO Partners. “This partnership with Finicity not only empowers our customers with more control over their financial data, it also creates an environment for them to meet their goals built on transparency and security.”
“Finicity continues to be at the forefront of partnerships with financial institutions to provide the most robust and secure data sharing environment through our open banking platform,” said Finicity CEO and Co-founder Steve Smith. “Working with forward-thinking organizations like BMO Harris will have a real impact on driving better financial outcomes for consumers, including financial literacy and financial inclusion.”
Finicity continues to take a market leadership role by signing this data access agreement with BMO Harris, marking its eighteenth agreement. Finicity’s signed direct access agreements represent more than 50% coverage access of all direct deposit accounts in the US through direct API connections.