# Best Financial Data APIs - Page 9 *By [Nathan Calabrese](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/nathan-calabrese)* Financial data APIs (application programming interfaces) are pieces of software that interact with financial applications to facilitate information access, transactions, and payments. Financial institutions leverage these APIs to improve the ease of integration, facilitate collaboration between financial partners, and improve the customer experience. The goal of a financial data API is to allow a user to retrieve financial information exactly when they want it. Financial data APIs bridge the gaps between disparate applications and facilitate straightforward data sharing between those applications for consumers, third-party vendors, business partners, and company employees. Businesses also use these APIs to sync data across multiple applications. These APIs connect to, and collect data from, legacy financial applications by receiving inbound requests, processing them, accessing the requested information, and sending a response. Users leverage financial data APIs to link and access information held in larger applications and financial databases. To qualify for inclusion in the Financial Data APIs category, a product must: - Access financial data - Connect multiple financial applications - Sync data across multiple applications - Be designed specifically for use in the financial sector ## How Many Financial Data APIs Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 225 ### Category Stats (Jul 2026) - **Average Rating**: 4.42/5 The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings - **Top Trending Product**: Plaid (+0.43%) - Among all products in this category, Plaid recorded the largest rating increase compared to last month *Last updated: July 06, 2026* ## How Does G2 Rank Financial Data APIs Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 1,400+ Authentic Reviews - 225+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. ## Which Financial Data APIs Is Best for Your Use Case? - **Leader:** [Plaid](https://www.g2.com/products/plaid/reviews) - **Highest Performer:** [RESTful JSON API](https://www.g2.com/products/restful-json-api/reviews) - **Easiest to Use:** [Stripe Connect](https://www.g2.com/products/stripe-connect/reviews) - **Top Trending:** [Finch](https://www.g2.com/products/finch-finch/reviews) - **Best Free Software:** [Merge Unified](https://www.g2.com/products/merge-unified/reviews) --- **Sponsored** ### Flinks Flinks is the creator of a powerful no-code platform and financial data APIs that make it easy and efficient for your team to build with financial data. Trusted by millions of individuals accessing financial services at world-class companies, our purpose is to make the struggles of open banking a thing of the past. Flinks at-a-glance: ● Enrichment — Upgrade your data stack to power data-driven use cases with actionable insights Flinks Enrichment is the smart analytics layer on top of your raw retail and business banking data. Whether your data pipeline is coming from Flinks, or you’re BYOD (bringing-your-own-data) from your existing integrations or open-banking providers—extracting actionable, model-ready insights for credit risk analysis, income verification, life event detection or fraud prevention couldn’t be easier. “Flinks Enrichment provides us with the capability to easily aggregate consumer employment and debt servicing data, allowing our team to fully automate the underwriting process.” —Alex Yi, Fincentify ● Connectivity — Power your solutions with the most performing financial data API Consumers want to use your services—let them easily and securely connect their financial accounts and share the data you need. From KYC to transactional data and assets, Flinks Connectivity is the backbone that will power your business and put you ahead of the competition. “With Flinks we’re able to onboard thousands of clients daily in a matter of minutes, making a complex process as simple and frictionless as possible.” —Laura Lampe, Wealthsimple [Visit website](https://www.g2.com/external_clickthroughs/record?secure%5Bad_program%5D=ppc&secure%5Bad_slot%5D=category_product_list&secure%5Bcategory_id%5D=1336&secure%5Bchosen_at%5D=2026-07-06T18%3A17%3A37Z&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_id%5D=1336&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bmedium%5D=sponsored&secure%5Bplacement_reason%5D=page_category&secure%5Bplacement_resource_ids%5D%5B%5D=1336&secure%5Bprioritized%5D=false&secure%5Bproduct_id%5D=43004&secure%5Bresource_id%5D=1336&secure%5Bresource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bsource_type%5D=category_page&secure%5Bsource_url%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fcategories%2Ffinancial-data-apis%3Fpage%3D9&secure%5Btoken%5D=fbbba0ded21d5fa06a7e832fe42c3823f8ba7c0eb07ba8b5b153b1e85835e9c9&secure%5Burl%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flinks.com%2F%3Futm_campaign%3Dg2-clicks-financial-data-api%26utm_source%3Dg2%26utm_medium%3Dcpc&secure%5Burl_type%5D=custom_url) --- ## What Are the Top-Rated Financial Data APIs Products in 2026? ### 1. [SmoothIntegration](https://www.g2.com/products/smoothintegration/reviews) SmoothIntegration simplifies financial data integration by providing a unified API that standardizes data across various business platforms, including Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, MYOB, FreshBooks, and FreeAgent. Our platform ensures seamless synchronisation of financial data, allowing businesses to focus on growth without the complexities of managing multiple integrations. We prioritize data security by adhering to ISO27001, SOC2, and GDPR standards, with data securely hosted in Europe. Our scalable solutions cater to startups, hobbyists, enterprises, and in-house projects, offering flexible pricing plans to suit diverse needs. By handling authentication flows, rate limiting, data normalisation, and consistent change detection, SmoothIntegration delivers a reliable and efficient integration experience for businesses of all sizes. **Who Is the Company Behind SmoothIntegration?** - **Seller:** [Smooth Integration](https://www.g2.com/sellers/smooth-integration) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 2. [Spade](https://www.g2.com/products/spade-spade/reviews) Spade helps the largest banks and fintechs in the US & Canada, including Citizens, PayPal, FIS, Sardine, and Mercury, win more of their customers' everyday spend, make smarter decisions on every transaction in real time, and turn the transaction data they own into new revenue and AI. With Spade, every transaction is matched against a verified database covering 99.9% of businesses in the U.S. and Canada: a lookup, not a guess. We append the real merchant, exact location, brand, category, and more in under 40ms at over 99% accuracy, across card, ACH, and transfers. As a result, leading fintechs and banks like Stripe, Bilt, Cash App, and Citizens use Spade to cut disputes by showing customers transactions they recognize, power precise rewards, lock cards to exactly what they intend, and build AI products on their own data. Here's what you get with Spade: VERIFIED MERCHANT IDENTITY ON EVERY TRANSACTION A lookup against a database covering 99.9% of U.S. and Canadian businesses, not a guess. Spade returns the real merchant, exact location, brand affiliation, category, and a persistent identifier that ties the same merchant together across card, ACH, wire, and transfers, in under 40ms at p99. FEWER DISPUTES AND SUPPORT CALLS When the cardholder sees the real merchant name and logo, recognition disputes and "what is this charge?" calls drop, including on the long-tail, local, and aggregator-routed charges (DoorDash to the actual restaurant) where confusion starts. REWARDS AND CONTROLS PRECISE ENOUGH TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR Brand-level and hyper-local rewards that land on the right merchant, and cards locked to exactly what you intend, down to the specific merchant or category. REAL-TIME DECISIONS IN THE AUTHORIZATION WINDOW Identity and decision come back in one sub-40ms response, so you approve good transactions you would have falsely declined and run spend controls inline. AI ON YOUR OWN DATA Ask your transaction stream questions in plain language, and train models on it inside a no-PII walled garden, to sharpen partnership decisions, cross-sell, and the AI products your roadmap depends on. SOC 2 Type 2 certified. **Who Is the Company Behind Spade?** - **Seller:** [Spade Data](https://www.g2.com/sellers/spade-data) - **Year Founded:** 2021 - **HQ Location:** New York , New York - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/spadedata/ (44 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 3. [stock-api](https://www.g2.com/products/stock-api/reviews) "Intelligent Stock, & Financial News API. This API allows users to get access to latest Financial Data on Stocks, Company Fundamentals and also gives you Financial News Behind each company while also giving you data on which stocks are trending on social media, and by leveraging social media, you can easily get a summary of the financial news by company stock ticker, and also recent social media trends and their Sentiment." **Who Is the Company Behind stock-api?** - **Seller:** [RapidAPI](https://www.g2.com/sellers/rapidapi) - **Year Founded:** 2015 - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, California - **Twitter:** @rapid_api (111,927 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/10649600 (340 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 4. [Structured Finance APIs](https://www.g2.com/products/structured-finance-apis/reviews) The Structured Finance API has been integrated with many specialized ALM, trading, valuation and risk analytics providers in the fixed-income space. **Who Is the Company Behind Structured Finance APIs?** - **Seller:** [Moody's](https://www.g2.com/sellers/moody-s) - **HQ Location:** New York, NY - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/moodysanalytics (11,584 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 5. [Subledger](https://www.g2.com/products/subledger/reviews) Subledger is a set of APIs that enables app developers to develop accounting functions in their apps. **Who Is the Company Behind Subledger?** - **Seller:** [Subledger](https://www.g2.com/sellers/subledger) - **Year Founded:** 2012 - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** http://www.linkedin.com/company/boocx-inc- (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 6. [Sync by Paybook](https://www.g2.com/products/sync-by-paybook/reviews) Sync is a RESTful API that transforms raw financial data into an organized, easy-to-use, JSON format. **Who Is the Company Behind Sync by Paybook?** - **Seller:** [Paybook](https://www.g2.com/sellers/paybook) - **Year Founded:** 2011 - **HQ Location:** Austin, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/paybook (31 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 7. [Taiki](https://www.g2.com/products/taiki/reviews) Universal API for Tax Documents Auto-extract tax forms and data from payroll and financial providers. Help your users skip manual document uploads. **Who Is the Company Behind Taiki?** - **Seller:** [Taiki](https://www.g2.com/sellers/taiki) - **Year Founded:** 2024 - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/taikiai/ (3 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 8. [TapiX](https://www.g2.com/products/tapix/reviews) Meet TapiX, Dateio’s API-based service that enriches payment data in real-time and returns precise information about transaction identification. TapiX REST API enriches payments data with the company logo, accurate company name, GPS, business category, google place ID, company URL, and detects subscriptions. We are also recently piloting income detection and transfer enrichment. The enriched data provides a thorough source to make real-life business decisions based on a true understanding of their clients. **Who Is the Company Behind TapiX?** - **Seller:** [Dateio](https://www.g2.com/sellers/dateio) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 9. [Tax ID Check](https://www.g2.com/products/tax-id-check/reviews) Tax ID Pro is the best solution for any form with a tax ID input. Intelligent real-time messages provides guidance for invalid numbers. The API can be implemented in minutes and validate over 200 tax ID formats for over 100 countries. Intelligent real-time feedback provides guidance for invalid numbers. The response includes helpful information like the name of the format, and a compact and standard representation of the tax ID number. **Who Is the Company Behind Tax ID Check?** - **Seller:** [Tax ID Pro](https://www.g2.com/sellers/tax-id-pro) - **HQ Location:** Atlanta, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/tax-id-pro (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 10. [Technology Service Provider (TSP) for Account Aggregators](https://www.g2.com/products/technology-service-provider-tsp-for-account-aggregators/reviews) Digitap is a certified TSP (Technology Service Provider) which develops modules to obtain Financial information of a customer (including the bank statement information) directly from the banks (through APIs) using Account Aggregator framework. **Who Is the Company Behind Technology Service Provider (TSP) for Account Aggregators?** - **Seller:** [Digitap.AI](https://www.g2.com/sellers/digitap-ai) - **Year Founded:** 2019 - **HQ Location:** Bengaluru, IN - **Twitter:** @DigitapAI (16 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** http://www.linkedin.com/company/digitap-ai (128 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 11. [Tetrium](https://www.g2.com/products/tetrium/reviews) Tetrium is building the next generation of global payments infrastructure. We connect traditional finance with digital assets—powering seamless pay-by-bank, stablecoin, and cross-border settlement solutions for financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises. Our mission is simple: make money movement faster, cheaper, and borderless. With a focus on emerging and developed markets alike, Tetrium aggregates rails across banks, payment providers, and blockchain networks into a single platform—helping our partners unlock new revenue streams and deliver better experiences for their customers. From yield-generating treasury solutions to real-time settlement, Tetrium provides the infrastructure for a more open and efficient financial system. **Who Is the Company Behind Tetrium?** - **Seller:** [Tetrium](https://www.g2.com/sellers/tetrium) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/tetrium-xyz/ (2 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 12. [The Ninth Wave Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/the-ninth-wave-platform/reviews) Ninth Wave enables financial institutions of all sizes to embrace open banking and open finance strategies, while protecting customers’ privacy and minimizing security and compliance risks. Our platform provides turnkey API connectivity controlled by the FI through a single, secure point of integration for apps, aggregators, and other software tools. It empowers financial institutions to seamlessly share permissioned data with the apps and solutions their customers’ prefer – personal financial management and wellness tools, ERP and accounting applications, wealth management and investment portals, tax prep software, and more. This eliminates the time and cost required for internal IT teams to build and maintain connections, while providing a clear path to eliminate screen scraping and its inherent risks. **Who Is the Company Behind The Ninth Wave Platform?** - **Seller:** [Ninth Wave](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ninth-wave) - **Year Founded:** 2018 - **HQ Location:** New York, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/ninth-wave-nyc/ (50 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 13. [Tink](https://www.g2.com/products/visa-tink/reviews) Allow your customers to safely make payments and transfers from anywhere, to anywhere, entirely within your app or website. Increase engagement and retention, while optimising digital sales. **Who Is the Company Behind Tink?** - **Seller:** [Visa](https://www.g2.com/sellers/visa) - **HQ Location:** Foster City, California, United States - **Twitter:** @visa (416,239 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/visa (28,914 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** NYSE: V - **Total Revenue (USD mm):** $15,082 ### 14. [Tradefeeds API & Database](https://www.g2.com/products/tradefeeds-api-database/reviews) Tradefeeds API & Database offers customers a wide variety of data products available through API seamless integrations and downloadable databases in CSV and Excel format. The product portfolio contains the following data products: company information, SEC filings, financial statements data, financial ratios, analyst ratings, technical indicators, mutual funds and ETFs, stock and company identifiers, stock search trends and macro trends. The data covers publicly traded companies from different geographical locations. **Who Is the Company Behind Tradefeeds API & Database?** - **Seller:** [Tradefeeds](https://www.g2.com/sellers/tradefeeds) - **HQ Location:** Vienna , AT - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradefeeds/ (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 15. [Traders Union Widgets](https://www.g2.com/products/traders-union-widgets/reviews) Traders Union Widgets: Professional Analytics for Your Website Enhance your platform with free, high-quality analytical tools. Traders Union widgets https://tradersunion.com/widgets/ provide real-time quotes, interactive charts, and comprehensive market data without complex API integrations or custom coding. Unlike restrictive solutions that redirect traffic to external resources, these tools keep users engaged on your page. Seamlessly integrate reliable financial instruments in minutes, delivering professional-grade market analysis directly within your environment. **Who Is the Company Behind Traders Union Widgets?** - **Seller:** [Traders Union](https://www.g2.com/sellers/traders-union) - **HQ Location:** Limassol, CY - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/traders-union-com/ (99 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 16. [Traive](https://www.g2.com/products/traive/reviews) Traive is a fintech company dedicated to revolutionizing agricultural finance by connecting the entire credit chain—from farmers to capital markets—through advanced technology. By leveraging artificial intelligence and automation, Traive streamlines credit processes, reduces costs, minimizes risks, and enhances governance within the agricultural sector. **Who Is the Company Behind Traive?** - **Seller:** [Traive](https://www.g2.com/sellers/traive) - **Year Founded:** 2018 - **HQ Location:** São Paulo, BR - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/traivebrasil (76 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 17. [Treasury Prime](https://www.g2.com/products/treasury-prime/reviews) We build APIs that let both banks, and their corporate customers, automate their banking operations. Opening accounts, managing money, everything you need to do with your bank—automated. **Who Is the Company Behind Treasury Prime?** - **Seller:** [Treasury Prime](https://www.g2.com/sellers/treasury-prime) - **Year Founded:** 2017 - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, US - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/treasuryprime (56 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 18. [Unify](https://www.g2.com/products/alogent-unify/reviews) Unify is a patent-pending open banking platform that offers a single API and common set of code that can be leveraged across all image acquisition channels. Its cloud-based architecture, and browser and OS agnostic approach, deliver flexibility to financial institutions, tighter integrations to third parties, real-time image and data validations, and a consistent UX across all points of p. **Who Is the Company Behind Unify?** - **Seller:** [Alogent](https://www.g2.com/sellers/alogent) - **Year Founded:** 1995 - **HQ Location:** Peachtree Corners, GA - **Twitter:** @alogentcorp (3,445 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/alogent-corp (197 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 19. [Universal Online Banker](https://www.g2.com/products/universal-online-banker/reviews) Universal Online Banker provides your customers with the depth and breadth of functionality they'd find from any large financial institution. **Who Is the Company Behind Universal Online Banker?** - **Seller:** [ACI Worldwide](https://www.g2.com/sellers/aci-worldwide) - **Year Founded:** 1975 - **HQ Location:** Coral Gables, US - **Twitter:** @ACI_Worldwide (8,621 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/5063 (4,944 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** NASDAQ: ACIW ### 20. [@Value 2016](https://www.g2.com/products/value-2016/reviews) @Value: The only fully automated transactional based position keeping dedicated to Bloomberg Professional users. **Who Is the Company Behind @Value 2016?** - **Seller:** [Gearsoft](https://www.g2.com/sellers/gearsoft) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 21. [Velexa](https://www.g2.com/products/velexa/reviews) Velexa offers B2B investing and trading technology solutions that empower companies to launch investment services, digitise the end-user experience, broaden access to different asset classes, and overcome the constraints of in-house legacy systems – all in a matter of weeks. **Who Is the Company Behind Velexa?** - **Seller:** [Velexa](https://www.g2.com/sellers/velexa) - **HQ Location:** London, GB - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/velexa (36 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 22. [WealthObjects](https://www.g2.com/products/wealthobjects/reviews) From an extensive suite of APIs to a customised end to end platform, WealthObjects has products to meet the needs of every type of financial institution. All of our products are created to be asset class, geography, currency and back-end system agnostic to provide maximum flexibility. **Who Is the Company Behind WealthObjects?** - **Seller:** [WealthObjects](https://www.g2.com/sellers/wealthobjects) - **Year Founded:** 2015 - **HQ Location:** London, GB - **Twitter:** @WealthObjects (470 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/wealthobjects/ (13 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 23. [Wealth Reader API](https://www.g2.com/products/wealth-reader-api/reviews) The Wealth Reader API extends the information offered by the PSD2 APIs by providing real-time access to additional sources of wealth for any entity. With this additional information, financial institutions can have a more complete and accurate view of their clients' assets, and their clients can benefit in the same way. **Who Is the Company Behind Wealth Reader API?** - **Seller:** [Wealth Reader](https://www.g2.com/sellers/wealth-reader) - **Year Founded:** 2022 - **HQ Location:** Madrid, ES - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/wealthreader (21 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 24. [Whizzapi](https://www.g2.com/products/whizzapi/reviews) The Banking API aggregator allows quick integration with all banking APIs in Europe using a single interface. Fast and optimal connection to banking APIs without the need to take care of implementation differences between banks. **Who Is the Company Behind Whizzapi?** - **Seller:** [IT system integration](https://www.g2.com/sellers/it-system-integration) - **Year Founded:** 2004 - **HQ Location:** Warszawa, PL - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/savangard (89 employees on LinkedIn®) ### 25. [XAI Validate](https://www.g2.com/products/xai-validate/reviews) We help lenders, brokers and FinTechs grow sales faster by delivering an instant picture of a customers’ financial position, so you can process loans in minutes - not weeks, without comprising on credit quality. XAI was built by lenders for lenders, so you can move as fast as a fintech, with the experience of a bank **Who Is the Company Behind XAI Validate?** - **Seller:** [Tic:Toc Enterprise](https://www.g2.com/sellers/tic-toc-enterprise) - **HQ Location:** N/A - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/No-Linkedin-Presence-Added-Intentionally-By-DataOps (1 employees on LinkedIn®) ## What Is Financial Data APIs? [Financial Services Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/financial-services) ## What Software Categories Are Similar to Financial Data APIs? - [Unified APIs Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/unified-apis) --- ## How Do You Choose the Right Financial Data APIs? ### What You Should Know About Financial Data APIs ### What is Financial Data APIs? Financial data APIs have become an important part of the financial technology landscape. They link internal data sources and external access to financial data, depending on the type of API and the use case stipulations governing its use. Financial data APIs are helping to fuel the development of financial products as well as streamline operational data-involved processes internally. Key Benefits of Financial Data APIs - Improve internal data access - Catalyze external fintech product development - Fuel internal product development ### Why Use Financial Data APIs? Financial data APIs are useful for a variety of reasons. They can improve internal data sharing and operational efficiency, provide an additional source of revenue by charging for external use by partners, and fuel fintech development. Depending on the parameters set regarding developer use of the API in question, the financial institution may benefit handsomely from allowing API access to external developers. Internal developers with API access can provide the institution with new product offerings as well as insights that may inform product development and organizational strategy. **Internal Data Sharing —** One of the primary reasons to use financial data APIs is for internal sharing of financial data. In a large financial institution, data can become very siloed and difficult to access for those not working directly with it on a daily basis. Financial APIs open up access to those data sources, helping to improve transparency and allow easier internal data sharing. **Partner Integrations —** Another reason to use financial data APIs is to strengthen partner integrations with a financial institution. Giving partners access to valuable data sources strengthens the connection between products. **Internal Product Development —** Financial data APIs can help fuel internal product teams’ development processes. They can leverage the data accessed via the API to drive the creation of new products. ### Who Uses Financial Data APIs? Financial services institutions of all shapes and sizes use financial data APIs. **Fintech Companies —** Fintechs make good use of financial data APIs. They are increasingly leveraging access to these valuable data sets to inform product decisions. **Financial Institutions —** Traditional financial companies are using financial data APIs to create products, share data internally, and fuel partner integrations. As the institutions with the largest financial datasets, the opening of those datasets to the world at large (with obvious privacy and data sharing restrictions in place) is key to enhancing the fintech product landscape. ### Kinds of Financial Data APIs There are three types of APIs in the finance industry: internal APIs, private APIs, and open APIs. **Internal APIs —** Internal APIs are used by individuals, usually developers, within an organization. These APIs are designed to share various internal data sources across the organization. The goal of leveraging these APIs is to increase operational efficiency and improve processes by streamlining internal data access. **Private APIs —** Private APIs are limited-use APIs for financial institutions’ business partners to tighten up partner integrations. Financial institutions can monetize the use of these APIs and often leverage their use to enhance security across partnerships. **Open APIs —** Open APIs are used to share financial data with a wide range of potential users. These APIs often limit the amount and type of information that is accessible, and the API creator often vets users prior to granting them access. However, these APIs drive product and application creation by developers who use the data accessed by the API to shape their product. ### Financial Data APIs Features Financial data APIs often include, but are not limited to, the following features: **Data Syncing —** Syncs data across multiple applications. **Live Feed —** Provides live data input from source to application. **Open Interface —** Allows external connections once properly vetted. ### Trends Related to Financial Data APIs The concept of open banking has given way to more discussion of financial data APIs and potential use cases in the financial services world. **Open Banking —** Open banking is the concept of increasing data sharing between financial institutions and fintech companies. This concept, European in origin, has been codified by the Payment Services Directive 2.0 (PSD2) and is designed to increase competition, lower prices, and increase the amount of financial products on the market. Open banking necessitates the creation of public APIs and is fueling their increased use throughout the finance world. **Rise of Fintech —** The rise of technology in financial services has spurred numerous fintech companies to seek out new opportunities to offer financial products for both consumers and businesses. Fintechs are leveraging public APIs to access the data sets of traditional financial institutions and either create new products or connect their products to the fintechs’ own. ### Potential Issues with Financial Data APIs **Security —** Data security is paramount these days. API creators have to ensure there are strong security features built in and that the right data is only accessible to the right people. **Data Sharing Policy —** APIs must navigate the constantly shifting regulatory landscape that governs data sharing. As more personal data than ever before is housed by the various companies we provide with that data, developers have to ensure that the data they are sharing is legally and properly shared. Privacy is a large concern, so financial data APIs must be designed with that in mind. ### Software and Services Related to Financial Data APIs Financial services software is the general umbrella under which financial data APIs fall, and if used properly, they have the capability to impact nearly every subcategory of software that falls within the financial services vertical. [**Investment Portfolio Management Software**](https://www.g2.com/categories/investment-portfolio-management) **—** Investment portfolio management software can leverage APIs to connect to financial data sources for real-time trading-related information. [**Digital Banking Platforms**](https://www.g2.com/categories/digital-banking-platforms) **—** Digital banking platforms can use financial data APIs to strengthen their ability to provide robust product offerings. [**Financial Risk Management Software**](https://www.g2.com/categories/financial-risk-management) **—** Financial risk management software can use financial data APIs to inform risk analysis models.