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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

root.co.za

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#151

Post by lol768 »

sjtgraham wrote: post #41
djm_ wrote: post #33

If anyone's looking for API access to UK high street banks: https://teller.io

Thanks! Founder here. Currently in private beta, but if you're with Santander, Nationwide, RBS, Natwest, Ulster Bank NI, or IOM Bank I can give you access - sg@teller.io.

Forgive me for the naive question, but how does this stack up in terms of the legality of what you're doing? I'm aware of some limited exceptions that would allow you to do this sort of reverse engineering for interoperability reasons in the EU.

Also, isn't it going to be reasonably fragile? There's nothing stopping the banks (other than [in my experience] their general inability to make technical changes at a reasonable pace) pushing an update and breaking old API clients, right?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#154

Post by programbreeding »

louwhopley wrote: post #139
apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

Hey (founder of Root here), our platform gives you full API access to, for instance, do any of the things you do on the normal banking interface through code - like initiating a transfer to someone else, or building your own recurring payments system using a simple cron job :)

I believe what apostacy meant was the ability to prevent a recurring payment from occurring without approval. I may have misunderstood what they meant but something along the lines of: a debit shows up in your account as pending, and you have X amount of time to approve or decline it. That way you are preventing a debit from even occurring in the first place, rather than having to fight your bank to get the money back.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#155

Post by jamesrcole »

tarr11 wrote: post #11

What problem does this attempt to solve? Their slack example doesn't seem particularly pressing.

I wonder what could happen in the following circumstances. Multiple companies have such accounts. Perhaps whole industries. And the programmability was used for interactions between those parties. Automated systems, run by those companies, that shift money around between them for whatever purposes. Perhaps it could help automated business functions.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#156

Post by cookiecaper »

wppick wrote: post #137
apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

I think most bank's, websites already allow for this. Look under payees or pay bills

In my experience, this is only the case if you set up the payment through the bank's automatic payment system, which typically uses paper checks (but may do an electronic deposit for some payees who have specially registered).

Most subscription-based businesses that go to your bank account get an authorization to do an "ACH pull". In some instances, this authorization alone can act as collateral (e.g., in securing payday loans or medical payment agreements). As such, I would assume that allowing consumers to revoke the authorization is more problematic than it sounds.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#157

Post by Tharkun »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #27
cryptarch wrote: post #18

In the EU this is soon going to be solved by the PSD2 system. Coming in November 2018 or later, depending on how soon the regulations are finalized. It's a mandatory-to-implement protocol, which will allow consumers to give 1st and 3rd parties API access to their bank accounts.

What protections are in place so that third party doesn't have a glitch and take all a person's money?

The same protections that are in place to access bank accounts right now. Strong authentication being the most obvious one.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#158

Post by matt4077 »

sigi45 wrote: post #112
thesimon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N26 has got a quite decent REST API if you are willing to use your dev tools for a bit :) Edit: Most banks also seem to support FinTS [0], but it seems a bit of a PITA. Edit 2: figo might be worth a try as well, though I don't know their pricing. Edit 3: bunq is quite nice as well. I implemented a few basic calls in node when they launched the API. Not the easiest API to work with, but acceptable. [0]: https://www.hb…

Don't trust them. They really fucked up there security. https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money

No need, you can instead trust the common deposit insurance (up to 100,000 Euro)

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#159

Post by trowawee »

graedus wrote: post #130
hasbroslasher wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The example of your son's school is fine, but imagine that your son lives in another country. Cash has other problems beside being slow. It's insecure - a person could steal your $20 bill from your mailbox or his, or from the Post Office. It's untraceable - if your son's school says "We never got your payment" but your son swears he gave them the cash, you're stuck in a situation where either your son or the school i…

> It's untraceable Feature of cash, not a bug. It's not the best choice for every situation, but neither is digital, which is why it's important that people have both options available.

Yeah, the ability to make payments outside of the scope of the panopticon is one of the better arguments in favor of cash and against a completely cashless society.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#160

Post by matt4077 »

egeozcan wrote: post #9

I'd like to have something like this for Germany. I am willing to pay 10€/month for a simple API access to my bank account. I need neither hosted code nor push. Just give me remote access for my scripts. Probably I'm asking for the impossible because of the heavy regulation in Germany but just wanted to put it out there.

FinTS kinda works, and there some libraries out there to make life easier, but it's still somewhat terrible. PSD2 is coming, tough, and I'm hoping it will improve the situation: https://www.evry.com/en/news/articles/psd2-the-directive-tha...
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