Delivering A Safe And Secure Open Finance System For All

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Delivering a safe and secure open finance system for all

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently proposed its 1033 rule to jumpstart competition in financial services and accelerate the shift to open finance. This is great news for consumers and a welcomed step for our industry and the entire digital financial ecosystem. Giving consumers an easy and secure way to access and share their financial data with the services that work best for them is a core operating principle at Checke, and we’re excited to see this one step closer to being further reinforced in the law.

Checke was founded on the belief that people should retain control over their financial data, including where they share it in order to access services. Today, our secure open finance solution helps thousands of consumers safely and easily connect their financial accounts to help them instantly get approved for the things they want.

With consumers as our North Star, we have added features to help them navigate the evolving world of digital finance. Over the last several years we have: 

• Championed the adoption of APIs across our ecosystem. We are proud that connections made via Checke are facilitated by API integrations and we continue to encourage the industry to adopt secure API technologies that promote consumer access and choice.
• Built a privacy tool where consumers can securely view and manage connections they’ve made through Checke. Consumers can use the tool to view the connections all in one place, disconnect financial accounts from apps, and even delete financial data from Checke’s systems. 
• Our backend system became certified in internationally recognized security and privacy standards ISO27001 and ISO27701 as part Plaid’s Security and Privacy assurance program, which also includes annual SOC 2 Type II report. Through this program, we continue to comply with the highest levels of privacy and security standards. Security Portal, where partners and customers can see a comprehensive view of security practices, audit reports, certifications, and other related documents.

Looking Ahead

While these initiatives have gone a long way in advancing standards across the industry, we continue to seek out ways to further empower consumers with better transparency and protections across our ecosystem. As an example, we have an additional data transparency feature making it even easier for people to see what data they’re choosing to share. We believe that these types of initiatives usher in more transparency and ultimately provide consumers with more choice and control over how they share their financial information in an open finance world. 

We believe that the CFPB’s 1033 proposal is a foundational step towards providing consumers with a protected financial data right, akin to what many people already benefit from around the world. Strong protections around a consumer’s right to stay in control as they share their information with more services will be critical to driving this forward. 

Checke’s ecosystem will not be successful if we are not collectively grounded in trust and transparency. We’re committed to progressing the ways in which we protect and serve consumers as more services become available and more people choose to manage their money online. We look forward to the CFPB continuing its efforts to solidify 1033 on behalf of consumers and in support of continued innovation.