Best Financial Data APIs
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:
Featured Financial Data APIs At A Glance
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Merge Unified is the leading Unified API for thousands of organizations, including frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and other B2B SaaS companies. Merge Unified allows businesses to add hun
2,379 Twitter followers
What is Plaid? Plaid is a global fintech infrastructure platform that enables businesses and consumers to securely connect to financial data and services. Through APIs that connect to more than 12,00
Plaid is a service that allows users to connect their bank accounts to various apps for managing finances, investing, or making payments without providing their login credentials directly to the app. Users frequently mention the ease of connecting their bank accounts, the high level of security, and the convenience of not having to remember numerous passwords due to the utilization of biometric authentication. Users reported issues with some banks randomly disconnecting, the lack of support for some third-party banks, and difficulties in disconnecting accounts, as well as frequent failures with Plaid's APIs, especially with certain banks.
36,773 Twitter followers
The world’s most successful platforms and marketplaces, including Shopify and DoorDash, use Stripe Connect to embed payments into their products. Connect offers instant onboarding, embedded components
274,310 Twitter followers
Mastercard API is an Application Programming Interface of mastercard with the objetive of open up, standardize and simplify access to its services.
487,067 Twitter followers
RapidRatings® is a specialized performance network designed to assist enterprises in managing third-party and supply chain risk effectively. By leveraging verified financial health intelligence, Rapid
Finch is a unified API and connectivity platform that connects HR, benefits, and financial applications to 250+ HRIS and payroll providers. By serving as the intermediary, Finch helps B2B companies on
744 Twitter followers
Integrations & Agents to ship financial products in days, not months. Leverage one API to add integrations across many accounting, commerce, ads, payment platforms and more. Purpose-built to suppo
The Open Banking APIx solution simplifies and accelerates the process of delivering open banking as required by PSD2 by enabling speedy and secure delivery of PSD2-compliant APIs.
31,775,247 Twitter followers
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
807 Twitter followers
Apideck eliminates the complexity of integrations with a single real-time API that connects to 200+ platforms across Accounting, CRM, HRIS, File Storage, and eCommerce without the technical overhead.
872 Twitter followers
TrueLayer is Europe’s leading open banking payments network. We power smarter, safer and faster online payments by combining real-time bank payments with financial and identity data. Businesses big an
3,699 Twitter followers
Codat helps banks build deeper connections with business customers. We offer products that make it easy to access, synchronize and interpret data from customers’ financial software for specific use c
The Open Bank Project's RESTful JSON API is a comprehensive open-source solution designed to facilitate secure and standardized access to banking data and services. By providing over 300 RESTful APIs,
3,854 Twitter followers
Fidel API is a global financial infrastructure platform that enables developers to build programmable experiences at the moment a transaction occurs on any payment card. Startups through global enterp
910 Twitter followers
Array fuels financial progress by building private label consumer products for many of the world’s leading fintechs, financial institutions, and digital brands. Our suite of credit, financial manageme
74 Twitter followers
Learn More 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.
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.
