Account aggregator
A regulated intermediary that lets apps connect to your bank and investment accounts under permissions you grant on the bank's own site.
An account aggregator is the piece of infrastructure that sits between a financial app and your bank. When you connect an account, you authenticate on the bank's own site; the bank issues the aggregator a limited-scope, time-bound token; the aggregator uses that token to fetch data and pass it on to the app that requested it.
Aggregators are the reason most financial apps can show balances from many institutions in one place. They handle the plumbing so individual apps do not each need a bespoke integration with every bank. In the US, well-known aggregators include Plaid, MX, Finicity, Yodlee, and Array, among others.
The category is regulated. Aggregators are subject to GLBA safeguards for consumer financial information, and the CFPB's 2024 personal financial data rights rule (§1033) formalizes the consumer's right to authorize this kind of access. Access is revocable at any time, from either the app or the bank's security settings.
Plumb is financial education, not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.