Definition
Plaid, MX and Akoya are the three leading US Open Banking aggregators.
The US market differs profoundly from Europe's: no PSD2 (and therefore no API mandate until the CFPB's Rule 1033 in October 2024), a long legacy of screen scraping (pulling data via login/password), an ongoing migration to tokenised APIs (the FDX standard), and highly tech-driven players with record fundraising.
| Player | Founded | HQ | Model | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plaid | 2013 | San Francisco | API (+ legacy scraping) | Leader (~12,000 banks) |
| MX | 2010 | Utah | Enterprise data + analytics | Enterprise challenger |
| Akoya | 2018 | Boston | Bank-owned data exchange (FDX) | Secure standard |
Plaid
Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid became the undisputed leader. Its acquisition by Visa ($5.3B, announced in 2020) was blocked by the DoJ in 2021 (which argued, on antitrust grounds, that Visa was seeking to eliminate a potential competitor in A2A payments). Remaining independent, Plaid raised $425M at a $13.4B valuation in 2021, before a markdown ($6B) and a subsequent recovery.
- Offering: account auth, transactions, identity, income, assets, investments, liabilities, and Transfer (A2A initiation since 2022).
- Coverage: 12,000+ US banks, plus Canada, the UK and several EU countries.
- Customers: Coinbase, Robinhood, Venmo, Acorns, Stripe and ~8,000 fintechs.
- Strategy: diversification (KYC, anti-fraud, A2A payments), EU expansion, and monetising data rather than raw APIs.
MX
Founded in 2010 by Ryan Caldwell and Brandon Dewitt in Utah, valued at ~$1.9B after a $300M Series C (2021). More enterprise-focused than Plaid: it targets banks, credit unions and large fintechs, with a strong emphasis on enrichment, categorisation and insights. Customers: Discover, Citizens Bank, USAA, Chime, and many regional banks.
Akoya
Founded in 2018 inside Fidelity, then spun off as an independent company in 2020, co-owned by Fidelity, The Clearing House and 11 major banks (Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, PNC, US Bank, Wells Fargo…). Its positioning is unique: a "bank-owned" data exchange where banks push their data via tokenised API (the FDX standard) and aggregators consume it — with no screen scraping and no credential storage. Safer, more reliable, more compliant. Akoya is the neutral intermediary (neither bank nor fintech), with 30+ participating banks and 80+ consuming fintechs.
The US market vs the EU
| Aspect | US | EU |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation | Recent (CFPB Rule 1033, 2024) | Mature (PSD2 since 2018) |
| API standard | FDX (voluntary) → CFPB | Berlin Group / STET / OBIE (mandatory) |
| Screen scraping | Still present | Banned since 2019 |
| Credentials | Login/password → OAuth (in progress) | OAuth + SCA |
| Players | Plaid dominant | Tink, TrueLayer, Bridge, Yapily |
CFPB Rule 1033 (October 2024)
The "Personal Financial Data Rights" rule (the US equivalent of PSD2/FIDA), finally enacted under section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act: banks must provide tokenised APIs for third-party access, with a phase-out of screen scraping and FDX as the reference standard. Rollout runs from 2026 to 2030, from the largest banks ($250B+ in assets) down to the smallest. Enough to reshape the market and, potentially, erode Plaid's dominant position.
What they are not
- Not banks: all are data intermediaries.
- Not PSD2: regulated in the US (and by the FCA in the UK for Plaid UK), not under EU PSD2.
- No historical PIS: no native US A2A before FedNow (2023) — Plaid Transfer is changing that.
- Not as present in the EU as Tink: gradual European coverage.
Within the PSD2 / Open Finance ecosystem
US aggregators are at a crossroads: shifting from screen scraping to tokenised FDX APIs (CFPB), expanding into the EU (where Tink, TrueLayer and Bridge dominate), and discussing convergence between FDX and the Berlin Group. FIDA is in fact partly inspired by Rule 1033, and vice versa.
Real-world examples
- Plaid: funding Robinhood accounts (~50% of deposits), aggregation for Coinbase, adding a bank account in Venmo.
- MX: analytics for Discover, white-label Open Banking for Chime.
- Akoya: JPMorgan and Fidelity push their data via tokenised API, consumed by Plaid, MX and others.
- CFPB: Plaid publicly backed Rule 1033, favouring standardisation.
- Visa-Plaid blocked: the DoJ's argument (protecting card volumes by eliminating an A2A competitor) weighs on the Visa-Tink case in Europe.
- EU expansion: Plaid UK launched in 2019, then FR/DE/ES/IT in 2022–2024 — it is catching up with Tink and TrueLayer but remains a challenger in the EU.