How it works
Banks expose account information, such as balances and transactions, and sometimes payment initiation through APIs. Customers authorize a third party, directly or through an aggregator such as Plaid, MX or Mastercard Open Finance. Rules differ by region: the UK and EU mandate it by regulation, while US access has largely run through aggregators and bank agreements, with regulation still evolving.
Example
A lender asks a small business to connect its bank account during an application. The aggregator returns twelve months of transactions, which the lender uses to verify revenue.
In integrations
Unify Int reads bank account data from data providers such as Plaid, Mastercard Open Finance, MX and Teller, and the Bank Feeds API pushes transactions the other way, into ledgers. Bank providers are partners in that flow rather than something Unify Int replaces. Bank data and ledger data answer different questions. Bank data shows what cash moved; the ledger shows what it was for. Lenders and finance tools often need both, joined.