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Increase: Banking API

increase.com

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Re: Increase: Banking API

#111

Post by spydum »

londons_explore wrote: post #71

I made an API for a bank... I was a third party and made the API by screen scraping their webUI. I sent their devs a link and initially there were positive messages going back and forth. The API allowed you to see balance, transaction history, and make payments. Before long, the API got quite popular, and lots of people were using it to make lots of payments automatically. You know what makes money laundering super e…

so, treasury management systems exist for big corps (FIS, FIServe, GTreasury, etc), and some banks do have legit apis for cash flow mgmt (payments transfers etc). i think problem is most dont want the hassle of supporting it for consumers.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#112

Post by delusional »

bob1029 wrote: post #74
sofixa wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional banks have literally decades of legacy to deal with which drags them down. Many neobanks have shown that it's possible to provide a better and cheaper service when you start from scratch. A few examples of features neobanks i use provide that traditional banks don't have - virtual cards on the fly, for free; SEPA Instant for free; Open API; smart dynamic budgeting and expense sharing.

> legacy to deal with which drags them down A non-zero amount of that legacy is due to regulations and compliance. Most of what a bank does is totally invisible to the end customer. A "neobank" is almost always just a shiny consumer-oriented facade in front of a grumpy old bank. Someone still has to follow all of those laws.

> A non-zero amount of that legacy is due to regulations and compliance.

Although there's a kernel of truth there, it's far from accurate. Most of the legacy is due to the assumption of regulations and compliance. The truth is that most of the systems are in fact out of compliance, but as long as you don't touch them the likelihood of a serious audit is small. The complexity is more about erecting an impenetrable wall to make the auditor assume it's probably compliant.

It's essentially about overwhelming auditors with details to fatigue them. Not to dissimilar to when lawyers flood each other with documents in tv shows.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#113

Post by mousetree »

swyx wrote: post #44
zachthewf wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a B2B2C product (sold to businesses that are building consumer fintech products). There are a bunch of neobank fintech startups whose offering is "Banking for X", where X is some segment of the population with specific needs that are not well served by traditional banks. (Here for example is X = "Spanish speakers in the US".) [0] To build a startup like that, you need to build a product layer on top of a banking…

ok so followup question - lets say i buy this message and want to start "Banking for Medical Students" (well known gap, they have terrible credit history but are about to be good credits). The precise segment doesnt matter, my question is - how much of the banking capital requirements do i need to put up? because a bank isn't just about payment rails and credit cards, its also about having literal cash in the bank ri…

None, you won't be a bank. You'll need to work with another bank (directly) or via some BaaS that has a pre-existing relationship with a bank.

Depending on who "manages the program" you'll probably still have significant work to do our your side related to KYC and Compliance. You can offload this to the BaaS if they have a pre-existing relationship with a sponsoring bank but then you have very limited latitude to change how your perform KYC etc.

For context, when we started, straight out of YC we worked with a company called Synapse (synapsefi.com) who had a pre-existing relationship with Evolve (sponsor bank) and managed our entire program. They were responsible for KYC, fraud, compliance etc. We basically built an app on top of their APIs.

As we grew we needed more control and a direct relationship with a bank (this also improves the unit economics). We now manage the entire program and the payment rails part and banking APIs are maybe only 5% of the work involved (even within engineering a huge portion of our time is on fraud/compliance/kyc etc).

Re: Increase: Banking API

#114

Post by adventured »

chocolatkey wrote: post #55
swyx wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah ok. so this is a workaround of the traditional banks having crappy UI/APIs? what about using Stripe/Braintree/Paypal/etc (i know those are not exact matches, but just enquiring about the general problem space)

This is completely different. Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website, completely unwieldy for paying freelancers. You'd have to have freelancers set up Stripe merchant accounts and receive card payments, that would be very weird and broken use case, especially considering Stripe's fees. I can send a freelancer an ACH transfer for $0, why would I want to pay 3+%? As fo…

> Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website

Stripe has a banking as a service segment now -

https://stripe.com/treasury

Re: Increase: Banking API

#115

Post by redox99 »

kinjba11 wrote: post #106
redox99 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be "that guy", but this is why I hate banks and like crypto. Both the fact that crypto is obviously trivial to automate, and that banks can unilaterally ban you and steal your money.

Doesn't crypto have the same problem, with money laundering and other crimes? If you lose money with crypto, there is no one to sue nor government insurance.

> Doesn't crypto have the same problem, with money laundering and other crimes?

I don't see how that's the same problem? They are clearly separate, distinct problems.

There are obviously both advantages and disadvantages to both crypto and banking. As someone who lives in a country that has been through a lot of bullshit, I highly value the fact that the bank can't just take away my money.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#116

Post by jackflintermann »

codegeek wrote: post #101
darraghbuckley wrote: post #19

Thanks @op! Increase employee here: We're early days and not quite ready for open sign-ups yet (sorry, known bug). We'll be more public over the coming weeks and months. We're banking for developers; you can programatically create accounts, cards, and move money. Our users are primarily financial technology companies. We're a small team from Stripe, Robinhood, and Visa building the bank we always wanted. If this soun…

Did you guys acquire the domain or did the founders always have it ?

(Increase employee)

We took the approach of starting with an intentionally bad name (in our case, bnk.dev) and using it until a good domain became available to purchase for a reasonable price.

Related: http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html

Re: Increase: Banking API

#117

Post by me_bx »

Is there any information on the website about the company providing the service, and/or its founder(s)? I found the official name "Increase, Inc" in the privacy policy page, but nothing more.

Aren't these fundamentals to build trust, especially for a B2B banking product?

Re: Increase: Banking API

#118

Post by mousetree »

rthomas6 wrote: post #60
Shindi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're an enterprising individuals you can "kinda" do this but it's not easy and definitely 100% a headache. Neobanks sometimes use this notion of a virtual bank account. My understanding is that it's a single FDIC insured account that they subdivide using their own ledger. For cards, you can use Stripe Treasury or Lithic to issue your own virtual cards and their dev limits are pretty friendly. I think privacy.com…

> I can't think of a reason why you'd want to for your own purposes. It's quite simple. For argument's sake let's say I am an individual with limited willpower. Say I budget $200 per month on restaurants, and I need to stick to this to meet some other financial goal. How, as someone with limited willpower, do I enforce this? Option 1 is to keep track of and categorize all bank transactions, either manually or via a t…

Try privacy.com. Seems to be built for exactly this use case (disclosure: have not used it).

(On a related note, to GP comment, Lithic was actually spun out of Privacy.com)

Re: Increase: Banking API

#119

Post by londons_explore »

Seattle3503 wrote: post #99
londons_explore wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry... I do... The guy assigned to my case retired. As did the next guy. And now there is a lady assigned to the case, but she has been out of the office for all of the last 3 years... Every time I call, I get told they can't discuss cases over the phone, but that they will send me a paper letter as an update... And it isn't a template letter either... But it always just says I need to keep waiting and there…

What would happen if you took them to small claims court?

Not really worth the 2 days off work it would take (1 to learn the necessary law/rules/procedures, and one to actually attend court).... Although if I'm bored in the future I might.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#120

Post by mousetree »

ako wrote: post #17

Seems like bbaas, banking backend as a service, solves a significant need in the world, considering existing alternatives. For example in Europe there’s Mambu that seems to do something similar. Not sure what the exact customer pain is here, could be that banks were the first to adopt IT and now have a large legacy where there is little value in rebuilding it with modern stacks, as it offers little competitive differ…

There are lots of companies that are providing these BaaS in the US. Stripe, Modern Treasury, Treasury Prime, Lithic, SynapseFi, Gallileo, I2C come to mind. Probably another 20 more.

Then there's of course many CBS providers including the more modern ones like Mambu.

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