September 2020 Summaries

Jean-Denis Greze, an engineering leader at Plaid, discusses the concept of building a "spiky org" as opposed to a balanced one. A spiky organization focuses on being best at a few key skills and capabilities, rather than trying to be proficient in everything. This approach helps teams make decisions more easily and build their organization more effortlessly. Plaid's spikes include recruiting well, professional growth, impact-driven decision making, and operating bottom-up. To maintain these spikes, leaders should identify the problems/opportunities they need to solve, understand the organizational spikes necessary for success, and recognize the blind spots that come with those spikes. Additionally, mitigating weaknesses within an org can be achieved through isolation, outlets, and shocks.

Plaint interns have spent their summer working on various projects at Plaid. Lujing Cen, a computer science major from MIT, worked on resurrection queue draining to improve the performance of data updates for certain institutions. Claire Lin, a UC Berkeley student, consolidated data from multiple sources to improve the user experience for returning users. Brandon Wang, a UIUC student, reduced the latency of loading Plaid Link and created an internal tool that enabled business teams to configure institution-specific panes without deploying code. Akshit Annadi, a UC Berkeley student, added webhooks to the UK Payment Initiation product, improving client notification systems. Zack Holbrook, a MIT student, developed a Job Runner that enables bulk requests to backend endpoints, and Sean Walker, a Wake Forest student, created an Account Research Training Guide for future sales interns. Camden Ko, a Vanderbilt student, enabled integration support for financial institutions with image-based MFA. The Plinterns also participated in Plaiderdays, Plaid's internal hackathon, where they worked remotely to build a new way for people to sign in with Plaid.

Chime is a technology company that aims to simplify money management by partnering with banks like The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank. Their mission is to help customers achieve financial peace of mind. With millions of users, Chime's success can be attributed to its seamless digital onboarding experience and the ability to link an outside bank account. To facilitate these features, Chime collaborates with Plaid.

Deel is an AI platform that simplifies payroll for remote workers by enabling companies to legally hire employees worldwide, create contracts in minutes, and pay them in their preferred currency. The company's COO Dan Westgarth explains that managing a global workforce can be challenging due to the need for multiple payroll platforms, bank accounts, and lawyers. Deel sought a solution to authenticate foreign bank accounts but found building this functionality on its own or using local partners too cumbersome. Ultimately, they turned to Plaid for assistance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is set to propose new rules on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection and Wall Street Reform Act, which grants consumers the right to access their financial data in a usable electronic format. This rulemaking has significant implications for fintech products and companies that rely on consumer data, as it could either enable or stifle innovation and fragment the industry. The proposed rules aim to provide a strong and clear right for consumers to access all of their financial information, establish protections for consumers when accessing and sharing their data, and let the market figure out how to deliver on those rights in innovative ways. The CFPB's rulemaking will shape two key vectors: the scope of data covered and the strength of consumer data rights, potentially leading to three possible futures - Open Finance, where consumers have comprehensive data access rights; Open Banking, which is currently implemented in the UK with limited data coverage; or Closed Banking, where providers restrict consumers' data access. To advance consumers' interests, industry stakeholders can file comments, compile data showing consumer benefits, and collaborate on efforts to highlight the importance of data-driven digital products during COVID-19.

A recent survey by Plaid and The Harris Poll found that fintech played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 56% of Americans saying they could not have managed their finances without digital apps, products, and services. Fintech adoption increased significantly, with 59% using more fintech apps than before the pandemic. The survey also revealed that fintech saved time for 57% of users, money for 42%, and reduced stress or fear of managing money for 37%. Furthermore, 73% view fintech as the "new normal," with 80% saying they can now manage their money entirely without a bank branch. This highlights the growing importance of digital financial services in today's society.

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in the UK and Europe has opened up the banking industry to new players, promoting the development of Account Information Services (AIS). Companies must be registered or authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to benefit from PSD2's open access measures. An alternative, known as the Agency Model, allows companies to become agents of Plaid and provide AIS while satisfying legal and regulatory obligations. The agency model is a quicker and more cost-effective route for certain companies in the short term compared to applying for registration or authorization with the FCA.

Plaid, a company with over 80 internal services, operates most of its services as Docker containers. The company uses this approach for both development and production environments, resulting in large Docker images that can take up to 10 minutes to download over a slow corporate VPN connection. To reduce image sizes, Plaid has adopted the `MINIMAL = FAST` equation, which involves three strategies: using a thinner base image, making essential files smaller in size, and getting rid of cruft. By applying these strategies, Plaid was able to reduce the size of its Docker images by shaving off hundreds of megabytes. The company also used multi-stage builds to differentiate between development, CI, and production contexts, which helped keep image sizes minimal. Additionally, Plaid used tools like `dive` and `goweight` to analyze its Docker images and identify opportunities for further optimization. By implementing these strategies, Plaid was able to improve the performance of its applications and reduce the time it takes to deploy new code changes.

PSD2 and GDPR have driven the growth of open banking, but they may not be enough to fully support open finance, which refers to open access to all financial data. PSD2 applies only to payment accounts, while GDPR provides consumers with the right to data portability, but does not allow easy movement of data using TPPs via direct access. These regulations are a solid starting point, but need to evolve to ensure consumers, TPPs, and ASPSPs can make the most of open finance. Regulators will also need to establish clarity on protections, redresses, and liabilities that additional access will bring. The future of open finance requires further development to power a healthy financial life with various apps and services.

In August 2020, Baker Shogry made several improvements and additions to their services. They updated error messaging in Link to provide more actionable instructions for end users, making troubleshooting easier. Additionally, comprehensive account type/subtype filtering was introduced across all products, allowing users to configure the Link flow better. Furthermore, recurring payments (UK) were added through Payment Initiation with the introduction of standing orders. Lastly, new updates were released for their SDK on iOS (v1.1.35), including bug fixes.

Plaid Exchange has launched instant account activity, allowing institutions to send user-permissioned transactions data to authorized developers within seconds of a user's activity. This provides users with a consistent and up-to-date picture of their finances when using apps powered by Plaid. The feature is available to all financial institutions on Plaid Exchange, enabling them to offer real-time data to their users, who can make sound financial decisions. With instant account activity, users like those at Branch can access accurate and timely transaction history, helping them manage their cash flow and daily finances.