[AdieuToLogic]

There are reasons why FI's do not provide API's for accessing transaction data:

* They are on the hook for PCI compliance (which providing access to entities other than ISO's would clearly violate).

* There is little to no business incentive to entertain integration of this sort.

* Transaction data is very much considered "proprietary information" owned by the FI (in the minds of institutions I have worked with) and is not shared.

* FI's view their clients in the transactional world as being either the Merchant (which is already provided transaction information through settlement and reporting processes), ISO's/VAR's (also already provided with their operational data), or Account Holders. The latter is allowed access to their transaction history via a browser due to market demands and cost saving concerns.

In short, there is no way in the foreseeable future that financial institutions will implement API's which imply consent to use Account Holder transaction data without onerous vetting of the service consuming this information.

EDIT: made the bullet point list more legible.