[markbnj]

As an American who founded a software company in the online banking sector 20 years ago I can tell you that my experience at that time was that banks here had no interest in making it easier for 3rd parties to get between their customers and their own branded offerings. Microsoft and Intuit tried to promote a standard "API" for banking back then (OFC/OFX) that got very little support from institutions at the time and since. I think basically the only way this would come to pass in the U.S. is through regulatory action, which seems unlikely in the current political environment.

[maxxxxx]

I used to use MS Money and it was really great while it worked. Then slowly banks dropped their support and at the moment there is really no easy way to get all your accounts into one database (especially one that you own yourself) other than giving all your password to something like Mint.

There definitely seems to be a trend for more and more proprietary protocols instead of standards.

And we all know that any kind of regulatory action is anti-freedom and job-killing so I wouldn't expect any regulation to happen.

[r00fus]

Some banks (Cap One 360 formerly ING Direct) allow you to generate a site-specific passphrase, so you would limit your exposure if Mint got hacked.

However, the whole concept of something like Mint is really read-only access, and I wish that site-specific passphrase had that as well.

[ghthor]

Mint is readonly, but the possibilities explode when you are given RW and event processing access to your money. You could already do some cool things of you buffer your accounts between 2 cards. But you can't straight up sent transactions with code, or you're own "automated" savings plans, or social graph triggers/input based on transactions. So many cool possibilities, banks need to step up or collaborate on an engineering effort to produce a secure ApI system and infrastructure.

[r00fus]

Mint is read only but it's not clear the site-specific password is likewise readonly.

[dnm]

Concur. My credit union recently switched the backend processor for their credit card. Now, the only option for transaction download is csv or xls. Welcome back to the 90s.