The European Union has been leading the movement to break down data silos with its Payment Services Directive, with the aim of lowering the barriers to entry for financial services providers and increasing competition. The original version of the directive was issued in 2007 and a second version of the directive (PSD2) was issued more … Continue reading Open Banking is Coming

Continuing on the theme of fintech infrastructure that I began detailing last week with my post on Stripe, this week I'll cover another key component powering many financial applications, Plaid. Plaid in action Plaid acts as middleware between bank data and consumer facing applications. Since just about all consumers still have their checking account at … Continue reading Plaid: an Unsung Hero Powering the Fintech App Layer

Last July, Stripe announced Stripe Issuing, which is an API for creating physical and virtual cards. While this isn't exactly breaking news, it deserves a deeper look. For those who have not heard of this product, (which is still invite-only) it helps businesses to issue their own corporate cards for employees and customers. Here's a … Continue reading Stripe Issuing is a Big Deal