[manacit]

It might be a few simple features, but it's a few simple features for every single bank in the USA (or in the EU), which is an absolutely huge number of them.

It's a marginal amount of work to link against a few big banks that have solid APIs, but once you get to the BECUs and the SESLOCs of the world, this gets much more difficult. Imagine doing this globally, and I think it's an even taller task.

The EU has been working on PSD2, which might make this less valuable, but there's still a long run way (IMO) where Plaid can quickly become the default choice for anyone who wants to link against banking APIs.

Beyond that, the network effect means that Plaid will likely eventually get to broker individual relationships with banks and be able to move into dictating more of the market in the long run, putting them in a position of strength.