I would like to write my own read-only client(s) to pull my transactions from the bank and keep track of my spending. It would be possible to then feed this into other software (either that I write myself or that I can find and trust).
In the future, the goal is to actually initiate transfers to European bank accounts. For example an automatic transfer between savings accounts when the interest rates increase for one bank, or transfer from a savings account to a stock exchange instead of letting it sit on a stock exchange waiting to be invested.
It’s not entirely clear where to start as the banking system seems quite opaque and it feels like I’d have to get a job at the bank to understand how it works. Stock and crypto exchanges have APIs and sometimes even libraries, but banks?
Edit: no libs, but PSD2 is the keyword. Banks in the EU must(?) support open banking and provide APIs following that standard.
Try and search for PSD2 API for your bank. Every European bank is required to have open banking support. I’m not too familiar with it myself but it’s a good place to start your search.
Amazing what you can get done if you have a functioning government by and for the people.
Oh my, that’s quite the rabbit hole. Thanks. I’ll have to take a closer look at that.
It looks like there’s even opensource accounting software (GnuCash) that supports PSD2 through AqBanking. Unfortunately, it seems very focused on Germany and is written in C, which means I can’t contribute.
But from the features listed (if the translator works well), it seems like transactions are supported by PSD2. My impression however is that the space is not very active in the opensource world. Something to explore.
Cheers