[phlo]

SOFORT(.com) has built a strong market presence in Germany and is expanding throughout Europe. They basically do the same thing you are talking about: provide an easy "check-out" experience using customers' banking credentials and custom crawlers.

The solution is well-liked by merchants. Banks generally don't like it (for obvious security/privacy reasons), but are cautious in actually preventing it. SOFORT actually used to be the only payment method to buy german train tickets online without a surcharge. In a recent ruling, a court deemed this to be an inacceptable intrusion to privacy, forcing the train operator to offer another free means of payment.

Pending EU legislation (PSD II) will force banks to offer some sort of limited API access that'll allow users to sensibly share access with services like Mint or SOFORT.

[captainmuon]

SOFORTÜBERWEISUNG looked sketchy as hell the first time I tried it. Imagine IMMEDIATEWIRETRANSFER.COM (in capital letters) asking you to enter not only your bank account number, but also your password, and then a PIN from your secret list. The latter is something that the bank tells you to never, under no circumstances, give out, because you can use it to transfer money.

I find it really hard to believe that SOFORT does this without support or even consent of the banks. Scraping bank websites seems like something that could get you ruined or even jailed (I don't know, for dealing with bank customer's data in an improper way or something - at least I'd assume the banks could sue you for violation of their TOS). I only started using Sofortüberweisung at all when some trustworthy looking sites adopted it, and when it appeared to me as if it was a joint venture between SOFORT and the banks.

I guess if you want to build a successful business today, you can't ask nicely and wait for permission to do things (see also Uber et al).

[germanier]

The federal antitrust commission intervened after banks filed a lawsuit to stop Sofort from using their websites. The passages of their TOS that forbid using such services are most likely void as they obstruct a free market of payment providers (as seen by the federal antitrust commission).

Personally, I avoid that service but it has the blessing of government agencies from operating that way.

Some banks (e.g. DKB) now started to cooperate with Sofort instead and the German banks will start a similar service themselves this year.