Banks moving away from Direct Connect API

[Stefano Mihai Canta]

Hello,

Does anyone have a solution for downloading OFX files from banks that are moving away from Direct Connect? For example, using ofxtools to access my Chase transactions does not work anymore.

https://www.banktivity.com/support/articles/banktivity-7/ofx-direct-connect-will-no-longer-be-supported-by-chase-as-of-october-6th-2022/

Thanks!

Stefano

[Ben Blount]

The only options I know of:

- Use mint.com and get their low fidelity CSVs via mintapi project

- Use plaid or yodlee, though many banks require prod path flow which I couldn't do on a dev account.

- Scrape statements or the web interface manually.

- Gaze longingly towards Europe and their data portability regulations.

Would love to know if you come up with something better.

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[Red S]

I'm guessing the OP was asking specifically about the downloading part, not ofx itself. Chase continues to provide ofx files, but you have to login to their website and hit the download button now (supremely annoying IMHO) , where in the past, you could download from the command line. I use ofxget + bean-download, seen here.

This is likely to happen more and more as banks move on to Open Banking / (US: Financial Data Exchange). In theory, these are a huge upgrade, but so far, it's been disappointing for FOSS and Beancount users as only commercial players seem to have access to this system, leaving no option for the end user.

I imagine most banks would not remove ofx support though, even if they remove direct downloads for security reasons. Schwab has been an exception, and I hope they remain the exception. For the latter, I might reluctantly start looking into Selenium and the likes at some point. If anyone here uses it, please do share your experience.

[Mark Scannell]

I was looking into this over the weekend and started working with the Nordigen API:

https://nordigen.com/en/

The code I wrote is in goledger and in Go (Starling and Monzo you can see here) and will look to publish it.

Nordigen looks like they're focused only on open banking APIs (no password stuff) and keeping their infrastructure lean and simple. And they're being generous with you using it for personal stuff right now.

Mark

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[Patrick Ruckstuhl]

Hi,

I already created an integration with nordigen and have been using it for a while and it works very nicely.

https://github.com/tarioch/beancounttools

Regards,

Patrick

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[eug...@plamadeala.com]

The reason why many of us chose not to use Plaid is presumably privacy, or not wanting to entrust our data to other parties even in transit.

My impression is that Nordigen does not sidestep these issues. Is that correct? I would love to be wrong here.

This is perhaps a moment when the FOSS community needs to recognize that the problem demands a solution that involves more than technology. I am suggesting that we make a legal entity and a codebase that will apply for Open Banking access to FIs individually. The FIs could be made happy with the quality of the integration and security of the code, but in the end the vision is for individuals to run the code containing the API key of each FI and connect directly. FIs may not be happy with the "individual connections" aspect, and we could then set up a service that makes all the connections, but at least it would be open source. Although I'm not sure how much better than relying on Nordigen that is.

I have personally repeatedly tried to convince Schwab to give me developer access to their APIs and I explained to them that I do not represent a commercial entity but that I roll my own software. They were not receptive. It is likely that we will have to advocate for this as a group.

That's all a bunch of speculation. For the moment I invite others to share their findings about the requirements FIs have around Open Banking integration. Will they charge for it? Are they open to a non-profit doing this? Does it have to be a legal entity? Will they allow endusers to directly access the API? What are the risks that the FIs see in letting individuals onboard directly?

[Mark Scannell]

Good questions.

From a UK and Europe perspective, the providers who access the data are strictly regulated. That's part of getting access to the APIs. So I have trust for them. I don't have trust when it comes to entering and saving passwords (where the bank itself has not implemented APIs).

Starling Bank, a UK Fintech (but a fully licensed bank), uses the same API for open banking as for end users. They let you access your own accounts through the same API and is straightforward to use. (See here) They are also very rich.

I just wish more -- or all banks -- did the same kind of approach.

Mark

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