Increase: Banking API • Hacker News Board

Re: Increase: Banking API

#81

Post by chocolatkey » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:27 PM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #72

toomuchtodo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen https://www.deel.com ? Might be a solution for this problem.

That, Payoneer (which has a sufficiently extensive API), and I think Stripe can also handle payouts: https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces (possibly I'm misreading Stripe marketplaces' offerings, please correct me if I am)

Payoneer is one of the options we use to pay freelancers, in fact many of them quite like it, but for the freelancers' sake, I prefer 100% free methods like Zelle or ACH where possible because you have to pay a fee to take money out of payoneer you receive. At least it's better than paypal

Re: Increase: Banking API

#82

Post by lisper » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:27 PM UTC

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…

Heh, you got off easy. I spent six years of actual work learning this lesson the hard way back in 2006-2012.

In retrospect, I should have paid a lot more attention when Patric Collison told me he was spending his days reading up banking regulations. Eh, too boring, I thought, what could possibly be in there that a little code couldn't paper over? That mistake cost me the opportunity to be an early hire at Stripe.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#83

Post by londons_explore » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:28 PM UTC

It's notable that Monzo (UK fintech bank, but now in many countries) has a fairly complete but not really advertised API. Their mobile app uses the same API.

If you need to know which emoji is most representative of the shop where you used your card 7 seconds ago, you can get sent that (and a lot of other data) in a webhook...

Re: Increase: Banking API

#84

Post by c7b » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:28 PM UTC

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…

Contact the FDIC rather than the bank next time, I've heard of cases where that helped.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#85

Post by darraghbuckley » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:28 PM UTC

mekoka wrote: post #49

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…

> Our users are primarily financial technology companies. As a developer, I'd love to have some more information about the typical problems that inspired Increase's value proposition. If I was meeting with a financial tech CEO tomorrow, should I assume that they probably have these problems or need this service? Are there resources that I could peruse to learn more about these common problems?

Our users are financial technology companies. They build things like payroll, loan servicing, business payments, consumer payments, investment platforms, and neo-banks.

When we built Stripe, one of the largest points of friction was getting a banking partner. It took months and only after signing were we even able to start assessing the technology. There are so many potential companies that simply don't make it past the partnership step. We want to fix that.

The US needs a bank (holding a bank charter) that's also a technology company. Increase certainly isn't there yet (patches welcome: jobs@increase.com) but we already have integrations with the Federal Reserve, Visa, and The Clearing House. Our API already serves businesses you know and love.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#86

Post by pen2l » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:29 PM UTC

chocolatkey wrote: post #81

pen2l wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, Payoneer (which has a sufficiently extensive API), and I think Stripe can also handle payouts: https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces (possibly I'm misreading Stripe marketplaces' offerings, please correct me if I am)

Payoneer is one of the options we use to pay freelancers, in fact many of them quite like it, but for the freelancers' sake, I prefer 100% free methods like Zelle or ACH where possible because you have to pay a fee to take money out of payoneer you receive. At least it's better than paypal

Zelle takes a considerable percentage cut for non-personal transactions.

Do you make use of Payoneer API for payouts? How do you find it?

Re: Increase: Banking API

#87

Post by jjcm » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:29 PM UTC

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…

A part of me really wants you to check in with them every year, to see how long they can claim they're "still investigating" for.

This is great insight though re: money laundering. Something I'd have never expected would be the result of an API.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#88

Post by vinay_ys » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:31 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #73

swyx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

heya! i'm casually interested in the space, and also have been tracking Column ( https://column.com/ ) to a distant observer, you look similar, but i'm sure there are real differences between you, so I'd love something like a "top 3 things to note" about Increase vs Column, in a least-getting-you-in-trouble way as possible - its hard to compare because i dont know what I don't know.

For one, Column is a bank.

This is super important – if you are a chartered/regulated bank that's functioning currently then whatever you claim has merit. Otherwise it is just another software project that's going to struggle to get adoption because they won't have thought through all the regulatory and compliance issues.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#89

Post by pen2l » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #76

pen2l wrote: post #25

Their lead UI guy was previously the UI lead at Stripe. I think of him as someone who appreciates and understands the importance of well-thought-out UI so I'm looking forward to how Increase pans out for that reason in particular.

I wonder who else is behind this? https://www.linkedin.com/company/increasebank/people/

There appear to be some ex-Stripe people, some from Visa and some from other fintech places.

Re: Increase: Banking API

#90

Post by yboris » Tue, Sep 13, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #79

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…

No good deed does unpunished.

I think this is one of the most unfortunate memes that people for some reason still continue to share.

Think about what it teaches children when they hear it? What kind of a world view does it instill? By saying the phrase you are explicitly communicating the idea that it is (at least is some sense) better to not do good deeds.