Plaid Launches in the UK

https://blog.plaid.com/plaid-in-the-uk/

by jessedhillon • 7 years ago

163 75 7 years ago

blog.plaid.com

jeandenis2• 7 years ago

Would love to hear from HNers in Europe (and elsewhere) which countries Plaid should go to next!

And also what the biggest pain points are to building fintechs in other markets.

JAlexoid• 7 years ago

Places where banking APIs are not mandated by regulation authorities.

EU is an easy target.

Nursie7• 7 years ago

Presuming you are from Plaid - can you tell me what your position is on what I think I'm seeing - OpenBanking APIs opened up to non-accredited organisations using yourselves as a gateway - and whether that's in keeping with your accreditation?

I.E. The APIs available in the UK are designed to open data up to competition, but only within the limits of those orgs that are FCA accredited for PSD2 Roles of various sorts. Are you allowed to let others piggyback on those?

sschueller• 7 years ago

Use at own risk* [1]

[1] https://github.com/plaid/link/issues/68

fortytw22• 7 years ago

There's legitimately no alternative, "secure" way to access someone's banking data other than by asking for a username/password and then 'impersonating' them / asking for 2FA codes etc etc. As a commenter on the issue says, there is no oauth-esque mechanism implemented by banks.

I think plaid is the lesser evil when compared to rolling all of that on your own for N different banking institutions.

ChrisSD4• 7 years ago

Have you read about https://www.openbanking.org.uk/

The nine largest banks and building societies are required to participate. Many others do so voluntarily.

anfractuosity• 7 years ago

I think soon banks may be forced to provide an API - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_banking, not sure how long that'll take though.

dbbk• 7 years ago

That’s ‘legitimately’ not true.

jeandenis2• 7 years ago

Not sure why the downvotes. What he says is true in the US and in Europe Plaid is relying on psd2/open banking.

Nursie7• 7 years ago

> There's legitimately no alternative, "secure" way to access someone's banking data other than by asking for a username/password

Not so true under Open Banking and other systems. Open Banking uses OAUTH2 style stuff, and a variety of certificate schemes (Open Banking's own, and EU ETSI qualified certificates) to allow participants to be delegated various forms of access and roles, in a much more granular way.

> As a commenter on the issue says, there is no oauth-esque mechanism implemented by banks.

There is in the UK, and PSD2 solutions are rolling out all across the EU. Australia is also getting in on the action.

Eldt• 7 years ago

I feel that until there is a secure way to do it, it shouldn't be done at all

ChrisSD4• 7 years ago

https://blog.plaid.com/aisp/

They are PSD2 compliant which means they're using the Open Banking API I linked to in my other comment.

leoc2• 7 years ago

In the UK, 'Plaid', capitalised and in writing, usually refers to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid_Cymru . It's not pronounced the same as 'plaid' though.

ChrisSD4• 7 years ago

Yes this link was not what I initially expected. My first thought was that Plaid Cymru was expanding to the whole of the UK, not just Wales.

sgt1013• 7 years ago

Interesting to understand what you imagined the objectives of such an expansion would be?

hnzix• 7 years ago

My first thought was that Plaid launched in the UK a long long time ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid_(band)

Graham24• 7 years ago

I thought it was about a remake of Dead Men Don't Need Plaid.

jsty• 7 years ago

I think the Scots might object to assuming the entirety of the UK makes precisely that association:

http://www.tartansauthority.com/highland-dress/modern/flypla...

vidarh2• 7 years ago

Capitalised? I'd be surprised.

arethuza• 7 years ago

Well I'm Scots and when I hear 'plaid' I think of the colour from 'A Deepness In the Sky'. ;-)

benj1112• 7 years ago

I thought they were both pronounced 'plad'?

Is Plaid Cymru pronounced 'Pllad' ;)

Nursie7• 7 years ago

'Plyed' AFAICT. At least that's how they always say it on the TV.

pbhjpbhj• 7 years ago

I'm en-gb native and I pronounce both of those pretty close to "played" though in the case of the political party it's quite near to "plied" too, think "played" but in a Brum accent.

"Plad" [ie tartan-y cloth] is USA pronounciation to me; which I assume is what you mean in your second sentence?

"Played" of course also means "to be conned".

DonaldFisk• 7 years ago

It's from the Gaelic word "plaide" which rhymes approximately with "badger" in most English accents, and means blanket. "plad" is the preferred pronunciation of the English loan word. English spelling is a mess, so mistakes are understandable.

"Plaid" in "Plaid Cymru" is pronounced like "plied" in English.

dmix• 7 years ago

I don't have anything to say about the product/launch but that homepage is one of the better designs for a marketing website I've design in a while.

The typography on the docs page is excellent: https://plaid.com/docs/quickstart/

orliesaurus2• 7 years ago

What makes you say that?

dingaling• 7 years ago

I found that sans-serif body face to be quite difficult to read; the letters seem too 'fat' or the kerning is slightly too wide, I cannot decide which.

Silhouette• 7 years ago

It looks OK if you have your browser set to the default 16px font size. If not, that page might not look good at all, because unfortunately it uses a fixed line-height but keeps the browser-configured font-size.

fyfy18• 7 years ago

Anyone know how this compares to Teller (https://teller.io/)?

orliesaurus2• 7 years ago

Would also like to know! Teller is dope, not sure how Plaid works in NA?!

Nursie7• 7 years ago

Teller is a system which relies on screen scraping and taking your passwords (AFAICT, though the comment below says they use the mobile APIs, it's much the same regardless).

In the UK this is no longer necessary and FCA accredited organisations (Or qualified organisations from across the EU) can gain access to Bank APIS which allow much easier, programmatic access with much more granular access and far fewer security implications.

IIRC teller have also been subject to blocking and possible lawsuits from various banks for their scraping activities and are not well liked in the industry.

(--edit-- I am rate limited here so cannot respond below, just to say that if OB APIs are not performant, that'll likely be down to the participating banks. I would expect them to improve over time.

I'm not trying to say teller is illegal - I doubt very much that it would have survived this long if it were illegal - simply that the security model is not so great and the banks don't like it and continue to try to block it. 'Stevie' would probably do well to get himself accredited before the banks find a way to keep him out permanently.)

knotty66• 7 years ago

Teller does not use screen scraping. They reverse engineer each banks mobile APIs.

lol768• 7 years ago

Stevie does address some of the legal side in a comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14606475

In the UK this is no longer necessary and FCA accredited organisations (Or qualified organisations from across the EU) can gain access to Bank APIs which allow much easier, programmatic access with much more granular access and far fewer security implications.

I don't have a horse in this race, but in my experience the Open Banking APIs are:

* Not performant

* Poor at handling and reporting errors

* Limited in their functionality

chrisseaton• 7 years ago

Plaid is how most people refer to Plaid Cymru, a Welsh nationalist political party, in the UK.

subhero• 7 years ago

And to me as a continental european, Plaid always triggers https://youtu.be/LU8seZlfhw4

;)

fauigerzigerk2• 7 years ago

Doesn't Open Banking (https://www.openbanking.org.uk) make this sort of middleman unnecessary in the UK?

Brakenshire• 7 years ago

It could provide a useful shared API for all the countries it covers. I also think there's a non-trivial certification process which would be onerous for a small startup.

djhworld• 7 years ago

Normal people can't just hit their bank for an APi key, it's designed for regulated third party services and banks to have a common API to talk to each other that has to comply with the spec (I think, at least this is my understanding of it anyway)

note: I'm aware some of the challenger banks here (Starling etc) have a developer API, but that's their own offering

celticninja• 7 years ago

Open Banking means you can access your own banks API, however if you have a lot of customers and you need to access lots of different APIs from different banks then you use an intermediary 3rd party, e.g TrueLayer and you use their API to access the open banking API of the customers bank.

fauigerzigerk2• 7 years ago

I don't think that's entirely correct. Open Banking means that all participating banks allow access via the same API, which is documented here:

https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/pages/16320...

The biggest UK banks have a legal obligation to participate and many smaller ones are participating as well.

I can see why a third party API gateway would still be useful internationally though.

unfunco• 7 years ago

Da iawn! bendigedig!

lapusta3• 7 years ago

Open Banking is a big buzzword at the moment. It is good to distinguish different aspects of it:

1) Regulation. What you heard as "PSD2" - is essentially a directive by European Commission and EBA demanding banks to open up access to accounts data and payment initiation. Neither it defines by what means this access should be provided, nor when it should be available - each European country Central Bank can decide on its own.

2) Technical Specification. Examples are OpenBanking UK specification or The Berlin Group - would be groups of banks or local regulators trying to define common standards. Think of interface definition that describes both APIs as well as journeys/workflows.

3) Compliance. In the EU some of the banks (mostly large ones) are now required to be PSD2 compliant, which means they would need to expose their APIs through the standards described above. In the US, where there is no such requirement - the only way to access the bank account is to emulate a browser.

4) Third-Party Providers or Aggregators (Plaid, Teller, Tink, SaltEdge, Bud...) - would essentially provide access to the accounts of multiple banks via APIs. If you look at Plaid in the US - their codebase is probably 50%+ screenscraping/user emulation scripts in order to retrieve your accounts from e.g. Bank of America. For the EU fin-techs its a bit better, but still depends per country (remember Berlin Group vs UK OpenBanking?).

Nursie7• 7 years ago

would be groups of banks or local regulators trying to define common standards

Why 'would be' just out of interest?

AFAICT Open Banking is an organisation that has been given a mandate by the UK government, through the competition and marketing authority, and is funded by the nine largest retail banks. In the UK it is the defacto standard, and compliance of the CMA 9 is mandatory.

While there is so far no consistent standard across the EU, at least within the UK this one is set and pretty much non-negotiable.

(Disclaimer - I have consulted with Open Banking and continue to do so, but of course I do not speak on their behalf)

-- edit --

I'm particularly interested in this -

Third-Party Providers or Aggregators (Plaid, Teller, Tink, SaltEdge, Bud...) - would essentially provide access to the accounts of multiple banks via APIs.

As AFAICT this would be explicitly disallowed unless all the users of said APIs are themselves accredited. You can't just get accredited for PSD2/OB API use, then expose that information to non-accredited entities. If this is what Plaid are doing then I wouldn't expect their accreditation to last all that long.

lapusta3• 7 years ago

Why 'would be' just out of interest?

The scenario is typically the following. After the EU Commission approves the directive, each country has to transform it into the national law and define the authority/approach/timelines. In the case of the UK, it's indeed the way you've described.

As AFAICT this would be explicitly disallowed unless all the users of said APIs are themselves accredited.

In UK Plaid would have to follow the OpenBanking regulation indeed and provide access according to the consent of the account owner. In the US they are just storing your password and using it according to their privacy policy.

wayzel• 7 years ago

"In the US, where there is no such requirement - the only way to access the bank account is to emulate a browser."

Not entirely correct. In the US, JPMorganChase, Intuit, and others have adopted the OFX standard (consortium-based, which provides #2) as a more secure, controlled API alternative to browser emulation.

lapusta3• 7 years ago

You are right, although Plaid has quite a critical view on OFX https://plaid.com/documents/Plaid-Financial-Data-Access-Meth...

mariushn• 7 years ago

nor when it should be available

PSD2 deadline is set to September 2019: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-4961_en.htm

SifJar• 7 years ago

Is there a list of supported UK banks anywhere?

gertrunde• 7 years ago

They are leveraging the Open Banking API, which the nine biggest banks are legally required to support.

The Open Banking website lists 34 banks that currently support it.

bad_name_throw2• 7 years ago

Same name as a nationalism party in Britain - not going to be popular with a lot of people...

sgt1013• 7 years ago

Plaid Cymru are unlikely to stir negative associations with anyone in Britain. They are no menace to democracy!

bad_name_throw2• 7 years ago

Nationalism doesn't have a great track record...

dan1234• 7 years ago

Looks interesting but there doesn’t seem to be al list of supported banks?

Pretty happy with Truelayer (https://truelayer.com) but more competition is always better.

dx7tnt• 7 years ago

You should launch in Wales: Plaid Cymru!

segah• 7 years ago

Am I missing something or have Yodlee and Intuit account aggregation have provided this service now for more than a decade?

rahimnathwani• 7 years ago

Plaid has registered as an AISP ('Account Information Service Provider'), which means that they can register for and use the Open Banking APIs provided by UK banks.

These APIs use an authorisation flow similar to what you see when you 'Login with Google' or 'Login with Facebook'. At some point in that flow, you are redirected to your bank's web site to allow access, and to select the account(s) for which you are allowing access. At this point, you are on your bank's web site, you can check the URL to make sure you're not being phished.

On the face of it, it seems like any company that's building on top of bank transaction data should just register as an AISP themselves, as the integration with Open Banking APIs doesn't look that complicated. But Plaid is one of a number of third parties that insert themselves in between.

In general these services suggest some combination of (i) easier integration, i.e. less development and maintenance, (ii) additional intelligence on top of the raw data, e.g. categorisation of transactions, (iii) no need for maintenance.

There's one obvious con: the AISP's logo has to be shown in the authorisation flow. So, even if your users know you, they might not be willing to share their information with 'Plaid' or whichever third party AISP you've chosen.

I don't know how real the development/maintenance/integration issues are. I could imagine that registering with 30+ banks and testing your code against all of them might be a hassle. But if their API backends all behave in the same way, then maybe you just need configuration parameters for the endpoint and token(s). If their backends have slightly different behaviour, though, then perhaps you need to branch your code based on the bank.

One thing that's encouraging about Plaid entering this space: their free tier appears to support up to 100 bank accounts for free. This should be enough for anyone who wants to set up their own self-hosted Mint equivalent. And, if all the accounts are in the UK, then you're giving Plaid just read-only access to your accounts, which is much less of an issue than providing your login credentials to them or another party.

In case you're curious to see which other companies have registered as AISPs or PSPs (payment service providers), the full list of third party providers is available here: https://www.openbanking.org.uk/provider-categories/third-par...

Plaid Launches in the UK

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