FDX API version 5.0 standardizes consent, improves security, and provides better consumer facing awareness

The Financial Data Exchange (FDX) is making a major update to its common open finance standards with the release of FDX API version 5.0, increasing market standardization of financial data sharing around consent, user control, and consumer dashboards. The update aligns with other global standards like the Open ID Foundation’s Financial-grade API (FAPI) security standard and the insurance industry’s ACORD annuity standards to promote greater interoperability and industry adoption.

“FDX API 5.0 represents FDX’s first major release since early 2020 and significantly expands the standardization of consumer data sharing in the financial industry,” said FDX Managing Director Don Cardinal. “FDX API 5.0 is not only increasing efficiency and ease of use across the open finance and open banking landscape, but we have made huge strides on global interoperablity with this release.”

Some new components of FDX API 5.0 include:

• Consumer Control Dashboard Designs – FDX’s updated User Experience Guidelines 2.0 now include design guidelines for the implementation of consumer dashboards at data providers (i.e., financial institutions), data recipients (i.e., fintech apps) and data access platforms (i.e., financial data aggregators) so that consumers will be empowered with ongoing transparency and control of their financial data sharing activity. Consumer dashboards across the financial industry will give consumers multiple avenues to view and revoke prior data sharing consent and deepen consumer awareness of their data sharing.
• Standardized Consent – FDX API 5.0 includes several mechanisms to further standardize user consent throughout the financial data sharing process. FDX’s new Consent API allows consent traceability and transparency so that user consent can be uniformly read and understood by all entities involved in user-permissioned data sharing. In addition, End User Notification of Consent Grant will provide consistent communication to consumers about their data sharing consent. Finally, FDX is enhancing consent management via previously mentioned ecosystem-wide dashboards for viewing and revoking consent.
• Alignment with Globally Interoperable Standards – The FDX API Security Profile now references, supports and recommends utilization of the Open ID Foundation’s Financial-grade API (FAPI) security standard for securing traffic to APIs and for the authentication of end users (FAPI 1.0 Advanced & CIBA protocols). In addition, FDX API 5.0 aligns annuity data definitions with the insurance industry’s Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) standards body. FDX alignment with these recognized global standards will further interoperability and adoption of the FDX API.
• Reciprocal “Two-Way” Data Sharing between Data Providers & Third Party Fintechs – Financial data sharing has traditionally been understood as a “one-way street” where users share their own financial data from a data provider like a bank or brokerage firm with a third-party data recipient like a fintech application or service, often through a data access platform. However, FDX API 5.0 is introducing a new paradigm by allowing data recipients and data access platforms like fintechs and data aggregators to share information in the other direction and with data providers when fraud is suspected in a current user session. Such reciprocal data sharing not only promotes data sharing security, but also opens an innovative pathway for future user-permissioned two-way data sharing across the financial industry.

FDX API updates originate from the work of FDX’s global financial industry membership across more than 30 different technical working groups and task forces to identify and develop enhancements and updates to FDX standards to meet market needs.

The release of FDX API 5.0 is the product of 43 different “Request for Change” (RFC) proposals by FDX members.

Additionally, FDX recently reported that 22 million consumer accounts are currently using the FDX API for financial data sharing in the U.S. and Canada. FDX releases updates to the FDX API twice a year with major updates delineated by whole version numbers.

For more information about this news, visit www.financialdataexchange.org.