What is Plaid?
Plaid is a financial data and payments platform that lets applications connect to users' bank accounts through one API. Its European site describes it as an open banking platform covering payments, onboarding, lending and financial data, with access to more than 12,000 financial institutions and both personal and business accounts across 20 countries.
Developers add Link, Plaid's client-side component, so that users can connect their accounts, and then call server-side API endpoints through Plaid's libraries. The products include Auth for verified account and routing numbers, Identity for bank account-holder information, Transactions with two years of categorised data, and Income for real-time income data. A free sandbox is available for testing. Plaid sells three plans: Pay as You Go, Growth with a 12-month commitment and discounted product rates, and a Custom plan with volume pricing and premium support. Typical users are fintech and lending applications, payment products and financial management tools. The platform spans payments, onboarding, lending and financial data, all through one API platform, so a team can add products over time.
Key capabilities
- Link, a client-side component that lets users connect their bank accounts.
- Auth for verified account and routing numbers.
- Identity data for bank account-holder information.
- Transactions with two years of categorised data.
- Income data that is real-time and forward-looking.
- A free sandbox for testing.
Where Plaid fits
- Payments Transfer processes bank payments through ACH, RTP and FedNow, and Signal predicts ACH return risk.
- Account verification Auth verifies bank account and routing numbers.
- Fraud and risk Tools to reduce fraud risk, streamline verification and strengthen compliance programs.
- Financial management Transactions gives access to up to 24 months of categorized data.
- Lending Instant income verification from real-time bank data, and cash flow data for underwriting.
- Open finance A secure, permissioned financial network for data exchange.
- Onboarding Layer captures identity, contact and bank information in a single click.
- Account linking Link connects users to 12,000+ financial institutions.
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