Akoya utilizes U.S. Bank APIs, Developer Portal and strong collaboration for easy integration

What was the problem?

Akoya and U.S. Bank wanted to offer fintechs and data aggregators the ability to access customer-permissioned U.S. Bank account data through a secure Application Programming Interface (API) and reliable data aggregation process that does not require a person to share their username and password with a third party. To quickly integrate U.S. Bank on their network, Akoya needed well-documented APIs and a test suite that provided a robust environment to develop and test against.

How was the challenge resolved?

U.S. Bank easily connected with Akoya by providing its Data Toolbox APIs. This suite of APIs is based on the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) specification, which serves as an industry standard for exchanging consumer financial data. This made it simpler and faster for U.S. Bank to connect to the Akoya Data Access Network.

Since the APIs are based on the FDX standard, Akoya was able to move faster in terms of implementation. Additionally, the U.S Bank Developer Portal and documentation substantially reduced integration time, accelerated the launch time and saved resources in development.

For Akoya, "this has been one of the best experiences in terms of getting API connections up and running with a partner," stated Wilson D'Souza, chief technology officer at Akoya.

How does the connection work?

Akoya leverages the U.S. Bank oAuth protocol to generate a secure digital token representing the customer. For example, a customer logs into their fintech app, and is redirected to U.S. Bank in order to securely log in – removing the need for login credentials to be seen or held by Akoya. Akoya does not handle the login credentials, rather Akoya utilizes a token for secure data access. This provides transparency and control to customers, enabling them to edit or revoke data sharing at any point in time.

After consenting to share their data, a U.S. Bank customer selects the accounts that they want to share with their fintech app or any other partner in the Akoya Data Access Network. Going forward, the customer can leverage the U.S. Bank My controls application to manage their permissions, including stopping a fintech from receiving information from a given U.S. Bank account, adding new accounts or revoking access for that fintech altogether. Akoya and U.S. Bank remain in sync through the use of the Akoya Permission API that captures these changes without storing any customer data and integrates seamlessly with the My controls application.

What was the integration process like?

Akoya received self-service sandbox access for the Data Toolbox APIs which are complete with thorough documentation, data dictionaries and detailed mapping of fields. As the Akoya team began the process of moving into production, Akoya received dedicated support from U.S. Bank.

"U.S. Bank's teams are extremely supportive and make the integration process iterative and agile, which helped when dealing with challenges related to HTTPS certificates, whitelisting, and single sign-on," said Antonio Reyes, solution architect at Akoya.

The U.S. Bank team helped Akoya maintain a seamless customer experience and was highly responsive in their support channels, providing proactive notifications on maintenance schedules, updates and enhancements to the portal. Akoya worked directly with U.S. Bank platform engineering teams for certification, with senior developers for data issues, and also with designers and legal to ensure a consistent and beneficial customer experience.

What kind of U.S. Bank customer data can be accessed through Akoya?

U.S. Bank Data Toolbox APIs provide a complete suite of data resources available to developers that enable safe and seamless consumer data access. Data Toolbox APIs also offer insights into a wide array of account types including checking, savings, credit card, mortgage and brokerage. Details such as transaction amounts and dates, account statements and tax documents are also available.

Interested in learning more about Akoya?

Akoya is transforming the way consumers provide access to their data with increased security, privacy and control over their information. Data aggregators, fintechs and financial institutions need to integrate only once with the Akoya Data Access Network to securely exchange consumer-permissioned financial data. Akoya manages these relationships and serves as an interoperable solution available to the entire financial services industry. The Akoya Data Access Network is backed by 12 major North American financial institutions, including U.S. Bank. To learn more, please visit www.akoya.com or follow Akoya on LinkedIn and Twitter.