Account aggregation allows banking customers to view and manage all of their bank accounts, investment accounts, and credit cards in one place. It’s designed to make it easier for users to assess their full financial profile, so they can make better-informed spending, saving, or credit decisions.

For end users, the goal is simplicity. But it’s historically been extremely difficult for banks and platforms to offer such a service — at least in real-time. Simply, the technology that connects and provides live data from a customer’s various accounts hasn’t been available.

Today, open banking — a banking model that connects banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions via APIs — means that real-time data sharing is finally possible. In this guide, we share how open banking works and how businesses can use it for effortless account aggregation.

We answer:

• How does bank account aggregation work? And what role does open banking play?
• How does account aggregration work in practice?
• What are some examples of account aggregation in practice?
• Why work with Yapily for account aggregation?
• How Emma uses Yapily’s open banking API for its personal finance platform

Want to learn more about open banking? Contact us to speak with an expert.

How does bank account aggregation work? And what role does open banking play?

Third-party providers (TPPs) that offer bank account aggregation — whether apps, platforms, or banks’ own solutions — are consolidating users’ financial data in one place. So, for account aggregation to work, the different banks that a user holds accounts with need to provide this financial data in real-time.

This solution is only possible with open banking. With open banking, businesses can retrieve data on account holders’ identity, transactions, and balances — with the account holder’s permission, of course.

Here’s how that works:

• A TPP works with an account information services (AIS) provider — a platform that’s authorised to leverage open banking to provide “read-only” data services. This means it can retrieve account data in real-time, without the ability to change it.

• The AIS uses an open banking API to securely connect the TPP with the user’s bank account, enabling them to pull the data they need.

• The end user is asked to consent to sharing their banking data with the TPP. This is done via their own bank’s platform, meaning they’ll need to give permission for each bank they connect to the account aggregation platform. Due to data privacy regulations, they’ll need to renew their consent after 90 days, however, this might change as regulations get updated.

• Once the customer gives authorisation, their data is fed to the TPP’s platform. They’ll then be able to see all their transaction data, bank balances, and more — all in real-time. It’s like a window into their bank account data.

Despite the number of steps, this all happens behind the scenes in a matter of seconds, with a fully seamless experience for the user.

While account aggregation is primarily about centralising a user’s banking data in one place, some open banking solutions allow TPPs to do more than this. However, if a TPP wanted to let users move funds between their various accounts, a standard AIS provider (AISP) wouldn’t be able to offer this service.

Instead, the TPP needs to also work with a payment initiation service (PIS) provider that’s authorised to move money between accounts. While some AIS providers also offer PIS, most do not. At Yapily, we provide both AIS and PIS.

How does account aggregation work in practice?

Below are two use cases of real businesses that have already adopted open banking and are benefitting from account aggregation.

Personal finance management (PFM) tools. PFMs allow users to track and analyse their finances. Rather than just looking at a list of transactions, users are presented with much more data about their income, spending, and savings.

Thanks to the depth of data that open banking allows TPPs to pull from users’ bank accounts, PFMs can use the technology to provide a broad range of services.

An example of a company using this technology in practice is the personal finance app, Emma, which works with Yapily to leverage open banking. The app is designed to give users a complete overview of their spending and suggest ways they can better manage their finances. Thanks to Yapily Payments — Yapily’s PIS — Emma also allows users to move cash instantly between accounts and make investments directly from their accounts.

Accounting software. Accounting software is usually used by SMEs to manage cash flow, reconciliation, and general accounting. In much the same way as with PFM solutions, accounting software allows small businesses to get oversight on spending across multiple accounts.

These insights can simplify processes and reduce the time spent moving or managing money across the business. SMEs can also manage their payroll and invoicing with open banking.

As an example, Juni supports e-commerce businesses who are having to manage multiple accounts, which often include thousands of lines of transaction data. As a solution, Juni’s platform brings all this data together to make it much easier to view and analyse.

Like Emma, Juni also uses Yapily Payments (as well as Yapily Data) to enable users to top up their accounts and apply for credit.

Read the full case study to find out more: How Juni + Yapily are supporting e-commerce businesses through open banking

Lenders: Open banking also plays a crucial role in lending by helping financial institutions assess creditworthiness more accurately.

By accessing real-time financial data, lenders can make better-informed loan decisions based on a customer’s actual income and spending behaviour rather than relying solely on traditional credit scores.

Read more: Open banking for lenders: How to choose the right platform

Why work with Yapily for account aggregation?

At Yapily, we’re an open banking platform offering both AIS and PIS services. We’re primarily an infrastructure provider, meaning we supply financial service providers and TPPs with API technology they can use to build better, frictionless, and more personalised financial services.

In the next part of this guide, we share five reasons why Yapily should be your first choice for account aggregation.

1. Access enriched data to support deeper insights into end users’ financial behaviour

Most conventional AISPs only supply TPPs with raw data from end users’ accounts. However, for most businesses, that doesn’t provide a useful level of insight. In fact, with most banks, TPPs won’t even get the merchant name associated with the transaction.

That’s why we built Yapily Data Plus. Data Plus is a service that builds on our Yapily Data product by providing a deeper level of insight, including retail and business-specific data categorisation and merchant enrichment. TPPs can present transactions in categories such as loan repayments, childcare, utilities, and much more. (You can find a full list of transaction categories here.)

With these categories, a user could see how much they spend on public transport, for example, or a business could see how much income they receive specifically from referral rewards or reimbursements.

What’s more, Yapily Data Plus also allows TPPs to provide data on the payment processor associated with each transaction as well as the recurrence type. For instance, a consumer could see how much they’re spending on subscriptions or one-off purchases.

With Yapily’s enriched data, you can provide deeper insights into spending, to help your end users make even better financial decisions.

2. Get reliable coverage for data and payments across Europe

When choosing an open banking provider, one of the most important factors you need to consider is coverage. This refers to the number and share of financial institutions across geographical regions that a solution serves. For instance, while a platform may have strong connectivity to banks in the UK (reaching 95% of accounts), its coverage in Germany may be significantly lower. \

For instance, while a platform may have good connectivity to banks in North America, reaching 95% of the population, it may not have as much coverage in Europe.

For account aggregation and other services, the better the coverage, the higher the potential to scale and grow the user base. If you’re building an aggregation platform but there are banks you can’t connect with, you won’t be able to serve all your customers.

At Yapily, we connect with about 2,000 banks across Europe. We have strong coverage in 19 European countries, including key markets such as the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

3. We are both a PISP and AISP

Where many open banking platforms focus on offering either data or payments, we offer both AIS and PIS services.

Plus, we’re one of the few platforms to support open banking for business accounts as well as consumer accounts. That means that you can use our API to support data and payment services across Europe — for consumer and business accounts — providing truly comprehensive coverage.

4. White-label your payment and data solution to improve adoption and build trust

Trust is the cornerstone of adoption when it comes to financial services like account aggregation. Users expect platforms to offer not only secure access to their financial data but also a consistent and professional experience that reflects the brands they trust.

Yapily offers two integration options to suit your needs.

1. Our Direct Integration provides a fully customisable experience, allowing you to build your own solution on our infrastructure and connect via our API. This gives you complete control over the user journey, branding, and functionality.
2. For a faster and more streamlined approach, our Hosted Pages solution offers an out-of-the-box experience with extensive customisation options. While Yapily has built the UI, you can still tailor key elements such as your logo, colours, and fonts to maintain brand consistency. This option significantly reduces development time while ensuring a seamless user experience.

Yapily’s white-labelled solution allows you to fully customise your platform — embedding your logo, colours, tone of voice, and user interface throughout the customer journey. This consistency reassures users, fostering confidence and building stronger connections with your brand.

Unlike many providers that enforce their own branding within the user flow, Yapily’s approach ensures your business stays front and centre, eliminating potential friction caused by unrecognisable third-party logos.

How Emma uses Yapily’s open banking API for its personal finance platform

Emma is a personal finance platform that aggregates its users’ financial data from across various bank accounts. It’s designed to give consumers deeper insights into their spending so they can make informed decisions to better manage their finances.

Yapily’s open banking infrastructure provides Emma with the banking connections they need to power their product. As such, we’re enabling financial data aggregation from multiple financial accounts.

However, we’re providing Emma with more than the ability to gather aggregated data. Emma also leverages Yapily Payments, so that its customers can:

• Move funds from one bank account to another.
• Deposit funds instantly and top up their Emma Invest account directly from their bank account, avoiding the settlement times associated with card payments.
• Split bills and pay their contacts.

As a result of Emma’s integration with Yapily, the platform saw 30,000 new users in a month and has benefitted from a 267% month-on-month increase in monthly transaction value.

Read the full case study: How Emma & Yapily are helping people make smarter financial decisions

Reach out to Yapily to get started with account aggregation

In this guide, we’ve shared the details of how open banking supports account aggregation and what you should look for to choose the right open banking provider for your business’s account aggregation needs

At Yapily, we can help you offer account aggregation services — as well as payment services — with our white-labelled open banking API. Reach out to find out more.