What is Finicity?
Finicity is a financial data aggregation platform owned by Mastercard. Founded in 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Finicity was one of the pioneers in the open banking space, building connections to financial institutions long before "open banking" became a mainstream term.
In November 2020, Mastercard acquired Finicity for approximately $825 million, making it a cornerstone of Mastercard's open banking strategy. The acquisition combined Finicity's data aggregation capabilities with Mastercard's global payments network.
What Finicity Powers
Finicity's APIs enable a wide range of financial services:
- Mortgage Lending: Verification of assets, income, and employment (VOA/VOI/VOE)
- Personal Finance Apps: Account aggregation and transaction data
- Credit Decisioning: Alternative data for credit risk assessment
- Payment Initiation: ACH payment verification and setup
With connections to over 16,000 financial institutions in the US, Canada, and UK, Finicity is one of the largest data aggregators in North America. The platform processes billions of financial data requests annually.
Is Finicity Safe?
Yes, Finicity is safe and operates under Mastercard's enterprise security framework. As part of Mastercard, Finicity adheres to some of the strictest security standards in the financial industry.
Security & Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II certified
- PCI DSS compliant
- Regular third-party security audits
- Bank-grade encryption (AES-256 for data at rest, TLS for data in transit)
Mastercard Ownership
Since the 2020 acquisition, Finicity operates within Mastercard's global security infrastructure. Mastercard processes over 100 billion transactions annually and is trusted by banks worldwide.
Consumer Data Rights
Finicity was an early advocate for consumer data rights and helped shape the FDX (Financial Data Exchange) standards. The company supports:
- Consumer-permissioned data access only
- User control over connected accounts
- Transparent data usage policies
- Direct API connections with banks (reducing screen scraping)
Data Access Agreements
Finicity has direct data access agreements with major US banks including Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and many others. These agreements ensure secure, reliable, and compliant data sharing.
How Finicity Works
Finicity provides APIs that let businesses access financial data with consumer permission. Here's how the process works:
1. Finicity Connect
Users authenticate through Finicity Connect, a secure interface that handles bank selection and login. Connect supports:
- OAuth connections (direct bank authentication)
- Credential-based connections (for banks without OAuth)
- Multi-factor authentication
2. Data Retrieval
Once authenticated, Finicity retrieves financial data including:
- Account balances and details
- Transaction history
- Asset and investment information
- Income and employment data
3. Data Processing
Finicity enriches raw data with:
- Transaction categorization
- Income verification
- Asset verification
- Employment verification
Key Products
- Finicity Connect: User authentication and account linking
- Aggregation: Account and transaction data
- Verification of Assets (VOA): Mortgage and lending verification
- Verification of Income (VOI): Payroll and income verification
- Cash Flow: Real-time cash flow analysis
- Payments: ACH payment initiation and verification
Integration
Developers integrate Finicity through REST APIs, with client libraries available for major programming languages. Finicity also provides a sandbox environment for testing.
Finicity vs Plaid: Key Differences
Finicity and Plaid are the two largest financial data aggregators in North America. Here's how they compare:
Ownership
- Finicity: Owned by Mastercard (acquired 2020 for $825M)
- Plaid: Independent (Visa acquisition blocked in 2021)
Market Focus
- Finicity: Strong in mortgage/lending, enterprise-focused
- Plaid: Strong in consumer fintech, startup-friendly
Coverage
- Finicity: 16,000+ US/CA/UK institutions
- Plaid: 12,000+ US/CA/UK/EU institutions
Core Strengths
- Finicity: VOA/VOI/VOE for lending, Mastercard network integration
- Plaid: Consumer app connectivity, broad startup ecosystem
Pricing Model
- Finicity: Enterprise-focused, typically larger contracts
- Plaid: Usage-based, free tier for small developers
Bank Relationships
Both have direct data access agreements with major banks, but Finicity's Mastercard ownership can provide advantages in enterprise bank relationships.
When to Choose Finicity
- Mortgage and lending applications
- Enterprise-scale deployments
- Need for Mastercard ecosystem integration
- Verification of assets/income/employment
When to Choose Plaid
- Consumer-facing fintech apps
- Smaller development teams/startups
- European market expansion
- Lower-cost experimentation