Consumer Permissioned Access to Fidelity

Overview

Fidelity Investments, and other financial giants, have recently updated their data-sharing policies, emphasizing the use of secure, integrated connections or standardized APIs for third-party apps and data aggregators - here’s the official statement. Some institutions, like Fidelity, aim to phase out screen scraping in favor of direct API connections. As of October 1, Fidelity will restrict access to customer data for third parties that haven't transitioned to secure connections they have sanctioned.

Implications

This change has significant implications for financial institutions and fintech developers. If a large number of your users have Fidelity accounts, you'll need to ensure that your data aggregation methods are compliant with Fidelity's new policies. Failure to do so could result in interrupted services and a less-than-stellar user experience.

Backup and Redundancy

Given these new requirements, having backup or redundancy options is more crucial than ever. If your primary data aggregator doesn't meet Fidelity's criteria, you'll need an alternative that does. This ensures that your services remain uninterrupted and that you continue to provide value to your customers. That’s where Meld comes in.

Solution

Meld’s Bank Linking Stack empowers developers to build a Multi Vendor Stack and manage multiple bank linking integrations through a single API. You can actively route users to Fidelity with providers that support Fidelity, and ensure permissioned access to your users financial information remains unaffected. By leveraging Meld's Bank Linking Stack developers get a quick, efficient, and reliable solution for navigating the changing landscape of financial data-sharing.

Learn how you can build redundancy and expand you institution coverage with Meld here

Final Thoughts

Fidelity's new data-sharing policies are a step toward financial institutions exerting more control over their data. While this may pose challenges in the short term, it also presents an opportunity to improve your services by adding redundancy and reliability.