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How Intuit's new Identification API is going to help the Fintech industry be better, stronger, faster

I’ll be honest — when I refinanced my home a few years ago, I did it the old-fashioned way. Filled out an online form and then had to print my W2s, pay stubs, bank statements and countless IDs to prove I am who I say I am. Upload them, wait for the mortgage rep to complain about my printed image of a bank statement not being a valid document and then upload them again… Wait for them to be reviewed and finally someone approves it. In other words, in “Internet time” …an eternity. Luckily, this process can be smarter and more efficient with Intuit’s Financial Data APIs.

With Intuit’s Transaction and Identification APIs we have the data, we can make the process better…stronger…faster. Like Lee Majors, but cheaper.

Financial Data APIs

 

Fast forward to today. I login, I request a loan (for the sake of argument, let’s say $10K for home improvement). I enter my Financial Institution Credentials and a couple minutes later I am approved. And, oh, and I am also setup to pay my bill every month via ACH, which gives me a discount on my monthly payment. What’s the difference? The data, or more specifically, the access to the data.

How does it work?

Intuit’s Financial Data services has two different APIs; the first is the Transactions API. It allows read-only access to 3 months (or so) of transactional data in my account.

Use the Transactions API

  • Verify my bi-weekly direct deposit from my employer instead of uploading a screen shot of my pay stub.
  • Verify my savings, 401K nest egg, current mortgage, and any other investments or assets I disclose.
  • Verify if I have bounced checks, late fees, or other penalties (I don’t, BTW).

Next is Intuit’s Identification API, Now that we have that information and verified my super-stellar banking habits, let’s verify my identity, setup ACH, and approve my loan.

Use the Identification API

  • Verify my identity (using the same credentials I provided previously) and that my name and contact details are the same name on the attached account. This time we can verify my Account Type, Account Number, Routing Number, Account Nickname, contact information, physical address, DOB and anything else associated with that account.
  • //Sample of personal information about the account owner (portion)

“personalData”: {

“providerProfiles”: [

{

“prefix”: “Mr.”,

“first”: “FirstNameA”,

“last”: “LastNameB”,

“middle”: “MiddleNameC”,

“suffix”: “Jr”,

“businessName”: “ABC Inc”,

“dateOfBirth”: “1976-11-10T00:00:00Z”,

“emails”: [

{

“type”: “HOME”,

“email”: barney50000bc@hotmail.com

}

],

“telephones”: [

{

“type”: “HOME”,

“country”: “+1”,

“number”: “1234567890”

//Sample of account identity information

“accounts”: [

{

“accountType”: “CHECKING”,

“displayName”: “Golden Checking”,

“status”: “OPEN”,

“description”: “Goldens Premium Account “,

“accountNumberMasked”: “XXXX-XXXX-3456”,

“accountNumberTokenized”: “9956-2222-3456”,

“nickname”: “Jarreds Pocket Change”,

“bankTransferRoutingInfos”: [

{

“idType”: “ABA_RTN”,

“id”: “123456789”

},

{

],

“ownership”: “INDIVIDUAL”,

“balanceAsOf”: “2014-11-10T00:00:00Z”,

“lastActivityDate”: “2014-11-10T00:00:00Z”,

“transferIn”: true,

“transferOut”: true,

“balanceType”: “ASSET”,

“transactionsIncluded”: false,

“availableBalance”: 9930,

“currentBalance”: 2275.58,

“currencyCode”: “USD”

… … …

  • Because my account and routing number are returned, I can setup loan repayment via ACH on the spot just by knowing my credentials. This is great for me because lenders are generally happy to offer a discount when you are paying via direct deposit. Everyone loves a reduction in delinquency.

Using Intuits large breadth of data to power the Financial Data APIs you can easily add this API to your application. Sign up today for immediate access to the API at developer.intuit.com.

Interested? Contact Us!

Questions or comments? Please share them on our developer forums.

Happy coding,

Jarred

 


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