The Bank of Montreal (BMO), a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company with over 45,000 employees and a more than 850 billion CAD in assets, has created an API portal to allow small business clients to easily and securely share their data with Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting software suite.
BMO’s management noted that the portal aims to make it simpler to share financial data with QuickBooks Online, while allowing SMBs to save time. With this update, small businesses won’t have to navigate between their online banking services and accounting software.
QuickBooks is a widely-used accounting software package that has been developed and marketed by Intuit. QuickBooks products are intended mainly for SMBs. They provide on-premises accounting applications, and cloud-powered versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and support various payroll functions.
At present, the portal is being tested and may be introduced in 2021. Customers will continue to maintain ownership of their financial information. User data may only be shared after obtaining permission or consent from the owner(s) of the data.
Brett Pitts, chief digital officer at BMO, stated:
“This collaborative relationship with Intuit Canada is an important step toward a larger open banking framework. We will continue to look for innovative opportunities that help our customers.”
In October 2019, digital bank Revolut began utilizing Open Banking APIs for the first time with a tie-in to Intuit QuickBooks. At that time, it marked the first time that a third-party provider began using the advanced functionality of the UK Government mandated Open Banking rules.
Open Banking offers an accurate, reliable picture of a borrower’s financial situation, according to P2P lending industry participants.