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Teller – API for your bank account

blog.teller.io

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Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#61

Post by bowersbros »

sjtgraham wrote: post #33
alexbilbie wrote: post #14

UK banks don't accept any liability if you give your online banking credentials to a third party. If some fraud was to come about as a result of someone using Teller then they would be out of pocket or has Teller got agreements with the compatible banks to overcome this situation (either by Teller reimbursing the customer or the bank)?

Hi, Firstly, we don't always need a credential. Some banks provide other auth mechanisms, e.g. EMV CAP. We use this for Barclays and Nationwide. Using Teller might not violate your bank's terms of service, which is why we advise you to read them in conjunction with ours. Furthermore, it is the view of some senior bank people that I speak to that PSD2 will make such clauses in banking terms illegal. It is also worth m…

Do you have a mailing list where I can say my bank is with "Halifax let me know when you support them securely?"

I'd like something like this, but I wouldn't want to give the bank details away.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#62

Post by jasiek »

llsf wrote: post #35
sjtgraham wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hypothesis is that PSD2 will not be the golden opportunity everyone hopes. Banks are an oligopoly and unfettered open access to their customers via open APIs is potentially a disaster for them. They have little to gain and everything to lose. When you consider this and then expect incumbent banks to act in their self-interest it follows that they will act to subvert the impact of PSD2, e.g. by fragmentation, lobby…

Removing roaming fees for all European telecom operators was also a something that they had little to gain and everything to lose. But, here we are. From my understanding SEPA is getting implemented. I could see PSD2 following the same path. Some banks will drag their feet, but it is a pandora box situation, as the banks that will implement PSD2 first might get all the apps attention and love, potentially driving new…

Current roaming regulations in the EU are designed with the biggest, transnational players in mind. By subsidizing operations in a less lucrative market using proceeds from other countries, they can bleed smaller national telecoms. They will then proceed to buy them for pennies on the dollar. This will result in less competition down the road, and higher prices for the end user.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#63

Post by Zenst »

sjtgraham wrote: post #33
alexbilbie wrote: post #14

UK banks don't accept any liability if you give your online banking credentials to a third party. If some fraud was to come about as a result of someone using Teller then they would be out of pocket or has Teller got agreements with the compatible banks to overcome this situation (either by Teller reimbursing the customer or the bank)?

Hi, Firstly, we don't always need a credential. Some banks provide other auth mechanisms, e.g. EMV CAP. We use this for Barclays and Nationwide. Using Teller might not violate your bank's terms of service, which is why we advise you to read them in conjunction with ours. Furthermore, it is the view of some senior bank people that I speak to that PSD2 will make such clauses in banking terms illegal. It is also worth m…

Would be prudent and indeed consumer friendly if you where to go thru those TOS the banks have in conjunction with your own and provide a simple at a glance list of liability/impact. Reassure people that way and shows, you care and thought this thru beyond saying we recommend reading this and that as people are wary and equally might not understand it.

Sure would take time and some effort, but would certainly return well for such an effort and as said, people would appreciate that greatly, so can only help you and your business.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#64

Post by r00fus »

maxxxxx wrote: post #48
markbnj wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who founded a software company in the online banking sector 20 years ago I can tell you that my experience at that time was that banks here had no interest in making it easier for 3rd parties to get between their customers and their own branded offerings. Microsoft and Intuit tried to promote a standard "API" for banking back then (OFC/OFX) that got very little support from institutions at the time and…

I used to use MS Money and it was really great while it worked. Then slowly banks dropped their support and at the moment there is really no easy way to get all your accounts into one database (especially one that you own yourself) other than giving all your password to something like Mint. There definitely seems to be a trend for more and more proprietary protocols instead of standards. And we all know that any kind…

Some banks (Cap One 360 formerly ING Direct) allow you to generate a site-specific passphrase, so you would limit your exposure if Mint got hacked.

However, the whole concept of something like Mint is really read-only access, and I wish that site-specific passphrase had that as well.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#66

Post by artosispylon »

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #65

A bank account is usually only part of the financial equation. What would really be useful is an API for a service like Mint. I'd even be willing to pay a low fee for someone to make available all the aggregate data from all the financial institutions via API for me.

IIRC, Mint works by screen-scraping, which is what Teller.io is trying to avoid

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#67

Post by jasiek »

amb23 wrote: post #12
lookingfj wrote: post #9

How does it work if not by screen scraping?

I'd assume they're taking advantage of the Open API laws for financial institutions in Europe. The US is a long ways away from having this.

So does Europe. Open Banking Ltd in the UK is attempting to develop these standards, but they are working with tens of stakeholders across impossible deadlines - which means they cut scope and quality. And since banks in the UK are sponsoring the show, it is beyond certain that no disruptive moves will be taken, and interests of the incumbents will remain preserved.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#68

Post by orliesaurus »

Knowing the founder personally and his level of competency writing code gets me very warm down below. If I still lived in the UK, I would build something around Teller trying to give users a feeling close to what Monzo-bank is/does. Some kind of a hybrid zombie child, but beautiful!

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#69

Post by jessriedel »

mistermann wrote: post #40
foxylion wrote: post #22

As a German it is hard to believe that such things do not exist yet in other countries. We have a standardized protocol called FinTS which is implemented by most banks. This results in a huge amount of desktop and mobile applications for banking.

You should come visit Canada, the level of service we get from our oligopoly of banks would make you cry. They would NEVER support a service like this as it would possibly make their customers happy.

Although I agree that this criticism of Canadian banks is probably broadly true, note that the banks did manage to coordinate on Interac, a quite serviceable standard for sending money electronically between private parties.

Re: Teller – API for your bank account

#70

Post by jorblumesea »

sjtgraham wrote: post #54
jorblumesea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, really? Do the banks know about this? What's to stop them from changing the contract? This is so insanely risky...

It's takes banks 6-12 months to get anything into production. Also breaking APIs to thwart me has to compete with delivering new features to users. When they do change the contract, we know about it. We watch for new app releases, and proactively check.

How do you guarantee SLA uptime with that model? You won't know of any breaking changes until it hits production and when it does you will have to fix it. This may be an easy 30 minute fix and you pause transactions, or it may be a 24 hour fix and your world is broken for "forever" in api standards where 99.9X% is generally standard uptime requirements.

It seems to be that any service that consumes private APIs is going to be inherently unstable, although I agree on the slow pace of work in the finance world.

Also, once they figure out your consuming their APIs there will be an arms race and possibly legal action.

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