[GNC-dev] Is PSD2 / Open Banking API / XS2A usable for GnuCash?

Wed May 3 07:24:38 EDT 2023

Arrggghh ... sorry for the noise.

There was an issue between the chair and keyboard. 😁

All Swedish banks are supported by the PSD2 proxy.

I'll see if this is of any use to GnuCash users and will report back.

On Wed, May 3, 2023 at 10:58 AM Cristian Klein <cristiklein at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Mkey ... In case anyone else in Sweden finds this thread, the unnamed PSD2
> proxy only features integration with a handful of Swedish banks:
>
> ```
> $ cat banks.json | jq -r '.[] | select(.countries | index("SE")) | .id'
> AIRWALLEX_AIPTAU32
> AMERICAN_EXPRESS_AESUGB21
> N26_NTSBDEB1
> PAYSAFE_NETEGB21
> PAYPAL_PPLXLULL
> PLEO_PLEODK00
> PAYSAFE_SKRLGB2L
> STRIPE_STPUIE21
> WISE_TRWIGB22
> ```
>
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 2:37 PM Cristian Klein <cristiklein at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Anselm and Frank! You confirmed my assessment that PSD2 cannot be
>> used directly by end-users.
>>
>> @Anselm: Could you share who is the "API proxy for interested developers
>> / end users" provider? (Perhaps as a private email, if that is sensitive.)
>>
>> Why would I trust a third-party to proxy my banking info? I'm split. On
>> one hand, I really shouldn't. On the other hand, I read somewhere that PSD2
>> only allows TPPs to store banking information for as long as needed for the
>> intended purpose of the customer. Hence, it almost feels like I have a duty
>> towards my fellow citizens to test the privacy and security of PSD2. 😀
>>
>> Best,
>> Cristian
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 5:50 PM Anselm Martin Hoffmeister <
>> anselm at hoffmeister-online.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Hallo Cristian,
>>>
>>> PSD2 does not help end users (account holders) to obtain their data from
>>> the bank directly.
>>>
>>> This is related to the political intention behind mandating the PSD-API
>>> for (all?) EU banks.
>>>
>>> There are certain agents in the financial market that profit from access
>>> to customer data (and aggregation thereof). Think of fintech lender
>>> companies that can check the credit worthiness of an applicant by
>>> accessing their spending history from their main account via
>>> standardized means. Those are the ones that profit from the API.
>>>
>>> For private customers there is **absolutely no way** to access a bank
>>> API directly. This is only open to (somewhat) trustworthy parties that
>>> prove their proficiency in banking language, have some kind of
>>> insurance, and put money into that process way above any regular monthly
>>> salary... and are a registered _company_.
>>>
>>> We had a discussion on aqbanking list about one certain fintech company
>>> that plays kind of API proxy for interested developers / end users, at
>>> the moment even for free. This may seem a wonderful prospect, accessing
>>> all the banks' transaction data even from those that do not regularly
>>> offer their customers any digital data, let alone structured information.
>>>
>>> The consensus was - iirc - that developing an aqbanking interface to
>>> that service helps mostly _their_ business model, not necessarily so
>>> much the users, and everyone would pay with their banking data.
>>> Depending on what that is worth to you, you might look into it - I did
>>> not any further.
>>>
>>> In case your Nordea account offers CSVs, you might better work with
>>> those, in a half-automated fashion?
>>>
>>> Lucky me has a german banking market that has a (rather national) data
>>> access standard, FinTS, that mostly works quite well - nearly all
>>> established checking account banks offer it. The newer fintechs mostly
>>> do not have that access though - one more reason to not bank with them,
>>> I imagine. Sorry this does not help with the swedish market.
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Anselm
>>>
>>> Am 26.04.2023 um 23:01 schrieb Cristian Klein:
>>> > Hello,
>>> >
>>> > TL;DR: Given infinite development bandwidth, can one even dream of
>>> using
>>> > PSD2 for Online Banking with GnuCash?
>>> >
>>> > I wanted to improve visibility into my spendings (what do you know,
>>> it's
>>> > 2023 😀) and wanted to try using GnuCash again ... after a 10-year
>>> break.
>>> >
>>> > However, my life situation changed, and I no longer have the time (nor
>>> > patience) to manually enter all transactions into GnuCash. Therefore,
>>> > hearing about all the hype around PSD2, I thought maybe GnuCash already
>>> > supports pulling all transactions from my bank (Nordea, Sweden, EU).
>>> >
>>> > Why don't I just hack a PSD2 backend for AqBanking?
>>> >
>>> > So ... I read up on PSD2 and here is what I understood:
>>> >
>>> >     - It introduces a heck of a lot of acronyms.
>>> >     - It essentially mandates an open API for access to my transaction
>>> >     information.
>>> >     - TPP = "Third Party Provider", i.e., the entity who -- upon my
>>> consent
>>> >     -- gets access to my transaction info.
>>> >     - XS2A = "Access to Account" is an API to essentially retrieve
>>> >     transaction information.
>>> >     - TPP needs to onboard at two levels:
>>> >        - First, the TPP needs to get some kind of certificate ("QSealC
>>> eIDAS
>>> >        Public certificate" -- in case anyone Googles this message)
>>> from the
>>> >        National Financial Authority, e.g., BaFin in Germany,
>>> > Finansinspektionen in
>>> >        Sweden, etc.
>>> >        - Second, the TPP needs to get onboarded with each bank.
>>> >
>>> > I learned these by reading the following documents:
>>> >
>>> >     -
>>> >
>>> https://medium.com/@mpn123/building-an-open-banking-access-to-account-xs2a-api-as-a-bank-or-aspsp-479f26b91a43
>>> >     -
>>> >
>>> https://www.openbankingeurope.eu/media/1176/preta-obe-mg-001-002-psd2-xs2a-tpp-user-management-guide.pdf
>>> >     -https://developer.nordeaopenbanking.com/pitching-form/compliance
>>> >
>>> > Does this essentially mean that PSD2 and XS2A is only usable for
>>> accounting
>>> > software delivered as SaaS and useless for accounting software
>>> delivered as
>>> > desktop applications like GnuCash?
>>> >
>>> > Any insight is appreciated.
>>> >
>>> > Best,
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-devel mailing list
>>> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cristian Klein
>>
>
>
> --
> Cristian Klein
>

-- 
Cristian Klein