MX and U.S. Bank work together to make it easier for customers to connect their account information

The challenge

U.S. Bank wanted its customers to be able to provide permission to share their bank information securely and easily with the 2,000+ financial providers and services connected to MX. Getting to market smoothly and quickly with minimal resources required close collaboration.

To solve this challenge U.S. Bank:

1. Leveraged its Data Toolbox APIs to connect to MX, creating a simple, seamless process.

2. Provided MX access to complete API specifications and documentation.

3. Delivered sandbox and UAT environments to accelerate the connection and launch.

4. Worked closely with MX to quickly and transparently expedite any issues that arose.

Building a quicker, more reliable connection

MX, the leader in modern connectivity and data enhancement for financial institutions and FinTechs, joined with U.S. Bank to provide token-based access to millions of account holders.

The new API connection offers secure, reliable, and transparent connectivity between MX and U.S. Bank while significantly reducing connection times. An average transaction took 38 seconds with a legacy connection. Now, with U.S. Bank Data Toolbox APIs, it takes just four (4) seconds – a 90% decrease in wait time.

"Using third parties to access accounts can cause long connection times increasing the likelihood that users cancel the connection," MX product development manager Brady Stanger said. "In addition, we can run into ongoing issues with connection reliability. Working with U.S. Bank on an API connection allows us to improve those aspects for our customers and improve security by exchanging tokens rather than credentials."

The Data Toolbox API makes it possible to get the information users seek without making multiple calls, typically some combination of accounts, balances, transactions, account and routing numbers, and investment data. "If I had to grade them, I'd give them an A," Stanger said. "It's one of the most robust APIs we've worked with."

Another unique feature U.S. Bank offers is a credential-exchange endpoint. This enables MX to take their stored credentials and exchange them for an OAuth token allowing the user to stay connected without re-entering their credentials. U.S. Bank alerts customers their data is being shared allowing them to consent or decline. "There's nothing to hide," MX Connectivity Project Manager Jordan Tolley said. "They're making it easier on the consumer which shows that they're focused on putting the user experience first."

Easy collaboration

MX's priority is finding the best connectivity possible. Building out this connection took months of collaboration between teams.

"Their culture is very collaborative," MX Backend Engineer Jeff Johnson said. "Whenever we presented issues, there was never any finger-pointing or pushback that we were doing things wrong. They were always very deliberate and patient in working toward a solution. It felt like we were one team, not two separate teams."

The developer portal is uncluttered, the documentation is clear and U.S. Bank was always quick to answer any questions MX's team had. "It was a quick implementation thanks to the streamlined process," Johnson said. "Because they followed the FDX standards, it was easy to code up to that API."