Banks dropping support for qif downloads

[Jochen_Hayek@ACM.org]

>>>>> "JAT" == James A Treacy <treacy@debian.org> writes:

    JAT> I just got the following drivel as part of a reply to my asking why TD
    JAT> Bank in Canada was dropping support for download of qif files:

    >> Quicken 98 uses the 'QIF' file format.
    >> EasyWeb no longer supports this file format
    >> because its branding profile cannot be retrieved from Intuit
    >> (the manufacturer of Quicken).
    >> Intuit had decided to 'grandfather' Quicken 98
    >> without providing the new branding profile,
    >> and they did not renew the certificate for their site. 
    >> For further options, therefore, I would encourage you to
    >> contact Quicken technical assistance at:

    JAT> <vent>
    JAT> I never mentioned quicken 98.
    JAT> They need a 'branding profile' to create qif files?
    JAT> They want me to contact a company I don't do business with for assistance?

    JAT> It would be soooo easy for them to continue to generate qif files.
    JAT> Sometimes I wonder how businesses manage to stay in business. Oh, they
    JAT> are a bank. They can do what they want.
    JAT> </vent>

    JAT> Anyway, this is an omen of things to come.
    JAT> If Intuit has anything to do with it,

Have a look at this text, esp. the "Note":

    http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/2002/win/1177.html

It says:

    Note:
    Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) is a non-proprietary data format.
    Although QIF was originally developed by Intuit,
    and certain Intuit products (including this product)
    still contain the ability to import and/or export files in QIF format,
    Intuit does not endorse or provide support for this format.
    For this reason, Intuit does not know the identities of all
    institutions and processors that support QIF.

I do not possess a US quicken,
but I reckon the replace QIF by OFX.
Can anybody confirm that?

    JAT> support for qif files will disappear over the next year.
    JAT> Has any work been done on support for other formats?

If I got that right, the OFX support has a good piece of way to go
to be called complete or sufficient.

JH