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The Dutch Bunq bank has described itself as a bunch of nerds with a banking license. Their plans include a large number of accounts, physical cards that can be

The Dutch Bunq bank has described itself as a bunch of nerds with a banking license. Their plans include a large number of accounts, physical cards that can be dynamically coupled to any of them, an API, zapier integration, among many other non-traditional features. https://www.bunq.com/benefits https://www.bunq.com/benefits

TeMPOraL 5y ago
Their feature list certainly looks impressive, it might just be the bank I was looking for. One thing I can't quickly glean from their pages is: can I get proper API access to my account if I'm just an individual user, with no exorbitant price hike, requirements to be a large business, or to enter into an additional business relationship with the bank? The litmus test I have for the dream bank I'm looking for: can I have a normal account and get an API endpoint, to which I could point a script and fetch my balance and transaction history? Without being forced to go through a browser to authenticate on each request, or any other kind of interactivity?
- vanviegen 5y ago
  I think that your litmus scenario should be doable with all EU banks, for PSD2 compliance. The Bunq API allows you to do a lot more than that though. https://www.bunq.com/api https://www.bunq.com/api
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    > I think that your litmus scenario should be doable with all EU banks, for PSD2 compliance. It isn't, though. This is my big disappointment with PSD2: it's an interoperability law for businesses, focused on enabling service providers. It doesn't help individuals directly. PSD2 is why I can view all my accounts from different banks any one of the bank's webapp. PSD2 is why I can pay some third-party service to give me a fancy budgeting dashboard[0]. Why, were I running a nontrivial business, I could do some banking using invoicing software. But I don't want that. They all do a shit job at this[1]. I can do better - I just need an API endpoint, preferably one that can do read-only operations and internal transfers with preauthenticated token, so I can automate most of my banking away. So my problem with PSD2 is that it didn't compel banks to give such APIs to individuals. And since it didn't, they mostly don't. -- [0] - I could do that before PSD2, but back then, it usually involved giving them access in violation of the bank's TOS, and trusting the service won't just steal all my money. [1] - That's not because they're bad technically, but because we have conflicting interest. The banks want me to do everything through their webapp and mobile app, because they want to upsell me more financial products. Budgeting services want me to use their UI, because this justifies subscription costs and also gives them further opportunities to surveil and monetize me. Meanwhile, all I want is to never see their inconvenient and bloated UIs. I want to run my own reports, my own analyses, my own stupid "account balance" widget, that requires no login, zero clicks, combines all accounts from all banks, and shows no advertising. [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...

TeMPOraL 5y ago

Their feature list certainly looks impressive, it might just be the bank I was looking for. One thing I can't quickly glean from their pages is: can I get proper API access to my account if I'm just an individual user, with no exorbitant price hike, requirements to be a large business, or to enter into an additional business relationship with the bank? The litmus test I have for the dream bank I'm looking for: can I have a normal account and get an API endpoint, to which I could point a script and fetch my balance and transaction history? Without being forced to go through a browser to authenticate on each request, or any other kind of interactivity?

vanviegen 5y ago
I think that your litmus scenario should be doable with all EU banks, for PSD2 compliance. The Bunq API allows you to do a lot more than that though. https://www.bunq.com/api https://www.bunq.com/api
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  > I think that your litmus scenario should be doable with all EU banks, for PSD2 compliance. It isn't, though. This is my big disappointment with PSD2: it's an interoperability law for businesses, focused on enabling service providers. It doesn't help individuals directly. PSD2 is why I can view all my accounts from different banks any one of the bank's webapp. PSD2 is why I can pay some third-party service to give me a fancy budgeting dashboard[0]. Why, were I running a nontrivial business, I could do some banking using invoicing software. But I don't want that. They all do a shit job at this[1]. I can do better - I just need an API endpoint, preferably one that can do read-only operations and internal transfers with preauthenticated token, so I can automate most of my banking away. So my problem with PSD2 is that it didn't compel banks to give such APIs to individuals. And since it didn't, they mostly don't. -- [0] - I could do that before PSD2, but back then, it usually involved giving them access in violation of the bank's TOS, and trusting the service won't just steal all my money. [1] - That's not because they're bad technically, but because we have conflicting interest. The banks want me to do everything through their webapp and mobile app, because they want to upsell me more financial products. Budgeting services want me to use their UI, because this justifies subscription costs and also gives them further opportunities to surveil and monetize me. Meanwhile, all I want is to never see their inconvenient and bloated UIs. I want to run my own reports, my own analyses, my own stupid "account balance" widget, that requires no login, zero clicks, combines all accounts from all banks, and shows no advertising. [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...