US bank coalition takes ownership of data sharing firm Akoya

Fidelity Investments is to spin off its API-based data sharing startup Akoya as an independent entity that will be jointly owned by Fidelity, The Clearing House Payments Co. and eleven of its member banks Akoya operates a secure API network that creates a safer and more transparent way for consumers to grant access to their personal financial data to third-party financial apps. The approach provides a more palatable alternative to old-school screen scraping tools which rely on bank customers handing over their credentials to third parties to access their account data. JPMorgan - one the eleven clearing house members backing the deal - this month warned fintech firms that they must sign onto a "concrete plan" by July to move from methods such as screen scraping and using customer passwords to a new data collection method.