How Okta’s New Plaid Integration Keeps Your Banking Secure
Evolution within the financial services industry has unlocked unlimited opportunities and solutions for consumers. Open finance—a global movement—gives consumers new and exciting ways to manage finances, from budgeting and investing to paying a bill or applying for a loan. As a result, financial institutions, 3rd-party providers, and fintech apps must secure customer data. It’s this assurance that gives consumers the freedom to link their bank accounts to the apps and services needed to manage their financial lives.
With Okta Customer Identity Cloud (powered by Auth0), businesses don’t have to compromise between security and user experience. Our new integration with Plaid is helping the financial services ecosystem move toward seamless and secure APIs for exchanging consumer banking information.
Okta and Plaid’s API-based approach
OAuth 2.0 gives financial institutions fine-grained access control over what, how, and how often account data can be accessed by third parties—all while capturing consent from the consumer. Rather than storing usernames and passwords, third parties can now use an OAuth token. This token is tied to the specific application and user, no longer requiring passwords to be exchanged between parties, limiting password exposure. The token can be configured to limit and specify access—only granting access based on the user’s explicit permissions and consent.
Open finance with OAuth
Here are some ways open finance with OAuth can deliver better and more secure experiences for consumers:
- Personal finance: Today’s consumers want financial services accessible through one platform, using only one identity to access all financial information, budget, analyze spending habits, customize dashboards, and more.
- Payment Initiation: Allow customers to give a payment initiation service provider (PISP) consent to connect to banks and initiate payments. This allows consumers to centrally transact across all of their accounts without invoices, wire or e-transfers, and credit or debit cards.
- Mortgage lending / consumer lending: The pandemic forced mortgage providers to adopt new technologies and integrations to support remote lending. For this reason, online mortgage lending has never been more popular. Open finance allows lenders to build a digital process that increases application and conversion rates. It enables integrations for quick, automated income verification, identity verification, credit decisions, and more.
Security vs. user experience is a false choice
Historically, organizations were forced to choose between ease of use and security. Secure experiences required introducing friction to the user. You could build a smooth customer experience, but it would often sacrifice security. That's no longer the case. OAuth enables frictionless, secure data exchange.
Okta is the industry leader in identity and security. Plaid provides best-in-class data connectivity products like Core Exchange. Together, Okta and Plaid are partnering to standardize identity by driving ecosystem adoption of OAuth, enabling organizations to grow quickly, without compromising on security or experience.
How do I get started with Okta and Plaid?
Financial institutions and fintech partners can leverage Okta’s integration with Plaid to enable OAuth 2.0 and provide secure and seamless connectivity to their customers.
Register now with this link to gain access to Okta’s experts, who are ready to discuss your needs and support a successful implementation. Our team will help you find the right technology for your unique ecosystem.
These materials and any recommendations within are not legal, privacy, security, compliance, or business advice. These materials are intended for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current security, privacy, and legal developments nor all relevant issues. You are responsible for obtaining legal, security, privacy, compliance, or business advice from your own lawyer or other professional advisor and should not rely on the recommendations herein. Okta is not liable to you for any loss or damages that may result from your implementation of any recommendations in these materials. Okta makes no representations, warranties, or other assurances regarding the content of these materials. Information regarding Okta's contractual assurances to its customers can be found at okta.com/agreements.
