PNC and Plaid Partner on Secure Sharing of Banking Data

PNC Financial Services Group and Plaid have partnered to allow the bank’s customers to more securely share their data with third-party financial apps and services.

With the companies’ new bilateral data access agreement, PNC customers will be able to safely and securely permission their financial data to Plaid-powered apps and services, according to a Friday (Sept. 20) press release.

PNC uses Akoya’s application programming interface (API) to provide the bank’s customers’ financial information to Plaid and other data recipients, according to the release.

“PNC’s use of its Akoya-provided API allows for all data recipients, including Plaid, to get connected fast, while also enabling customers to reliably control what financial data they are permissioning without having to share their login credentials with third parties,” Natalie Talpas, executive vice president, digital and payments at PNC, said in the release.

Christy Sunquist, head of open finance partnerships at Plaid, said in the release that the partnership will further support PNC customers’ ability to securely connect to Plaid-powered applications and services.

“Moving the industry away from credential-based access is a top priority for Plaid, and our alignment of key principles around security, access and control played a definitive role in establishing this partnership,” Sunquist said.

Open banking, which allows third-party providers to access banking data through secure APIs, has gained momentum globally as a means to enhance financial services, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and The Clearing House collaboration, “Can Open Banking Win Trust to Drive Real-Time Payments?”

In the United States, 46% of adults are interested in open banking, though the adoption of open banking lags at 11%, the report found.

Plaid partnered with TD Bank Group in December 2023 to eliminate the need for TD customers in the U.S. and Canada to share login credentials with third-party applications.

“We know our customers are looking to access new types of services that meet their unique financial needs,” Franklin Garrigues, vice president of external ecosystems at TD, said in the release. “This agreement will enable our customers who choose to access the applications and services on Plaid’s network to do so with more ease, value and security.”