A guide to using bank feed APIs

Bank feed endpoints play a critical role in supporting FinServ companies and their customers.

To break down the impact of using bank feed APIs, we’ll highlight several use cases and share a few real-world examples of these endpoints.

But to start, let’s align on the definition of a bank feed API.

What is a bank feed API?

It’s an endpoint that lets you access data from a particular bank account. This can include data related to account balances, account names, currencies, and more. 

Also, depending on the API provider, you may be able to perform multiple operations on the bank feed data, such as GET and POST requests.

https://www.merge.dev/blog/financial-statement-api?blog-related=image

How to use bank feed APIs

Here are just a few of the use cases they support.

POST bank feed transactions to ERP systems

To help customers reconcile their transactions on your FinServ platform quickly and easily, you can POST bank transactions to their ERP systems on a recurring cadence (e.g., every 24 hours).

GET bank feed transaction data from customers

Say you offer a financial planning & analysis (FP&A) platform that helps users access comprehensive and actionable financial models.

To ensure your models are consistently up to date and valuable for users, you can make GET requests to customers’ ERP systems’ bank feed endpoints every day to fetch and continually re-sync bank transaction data.

GET bank feed accounts from potential borrowers

Imaging you’re a business lender and need to determine credit worthiness across potential borrowers to effectively pinpoint the best candidates.

To help you evaluate candidates, you can access their bank feed accounts (with their consent) from their ERP systems and review their current and historical balances across active accounts. 

Bank feed API examples

Let’s break down a few bank feed APIs you can use. 

Xero

Xero has two types of endpoints that are part of their bank feeds API.

• Statements endpoint: It lets you fetch or create bank statements. For the latter, you’ll need to provide certain information in your API requests, including the connection feed ID, the start and end dates, and the start and end balances

• Feed Connections endpoint: It lets you either create feed connections in or retrieve feed connections from Xero. Like the Statements endpoint, POSTing requires  certain types of data, such as the account ID, number, and name

It’s worth noting that you’ll need to be certified by Xero before you can start building to the endpoint, which can take several months. 

There’s also no guarantee you’ll get certified. Many FinServ companies need additional permissions to apply and may ultimately fail to gain approval.

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https://www.merge.dev/blog/xero-api?blog-related=image

Merge

The leading API aggregator for B2B SaaS companies offers two Common Models, or normalized data models, for bank feeds.

• Bank Feed Accounts: You can get or add bank feed accounts and their associated data, such as account numbers, currencies used, and balance information

For example, here’s how it can look to POST Bank Feed Accounts through Merge:

{
 "next": "cD0yMDIxLTAxLTA2KzAzJTNBMjQlM0E1My40MzQzMjYlMkIwMCUzQTAw",
 "previous": "cj1sZXdwd2VycWVtY29zZnNkc2NzUWxNMEUxTXk0ME16UXpNallsTWtJ",
 "results": [
   {
     "id": "b26fd49a-cbae-470a-a8f8-bcbc119e0390",
     "remote_id": "987300",
     "created_at": "2021-09-15T00:00:00Z",
     "modified_at": "2021-10-16T00:00:00Z",
     "bank_feed_account": "49cd5a42-b311-4750-9361-52e2ed1d4653",
     "transaction_date": "2024-02-02T00:00:00.000Z",
     "posted_date": "2024-02-03T00:00:00.000Z",
     "amount": 100.1,
     "description": "Lunch expense",
     "transaction_type": "payment",
     "payee": "Elmo's diner",
     "credit_or_debit": "CREDIT",
     "source_transaction_id": "124569",
   }
 ]
}

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• Bank Feed Transactions: You can fetch or create bank feed transactions, including the transactions’ dates, amounts, descriptions, and whether they fall under credits or debits

Here’s how the response can look for a GET request: 

{
 "next": "cD0yMDIxLTAxLTA2KzAzJTNBMjQlM0E1My40MzQzMjYlMkIwMCUzQTAw",
 "previous": "cj1sZXdwd2VycWVtY29zZnNkc2NzUWxNMEUxTXk0ME16UXpNallsTWtJ",
 "results": [
   {
     "id": "b26fd49a-cbae-470a-a8f8-bcbc119e0390",
     "remote_id": "987300",
     "created_at": "2021-09-15T00:00:00Z",
     "modified_at": "2021-10-16T00:00:00Z",
     "bank_feed_account": "49cd5a42-b311-4750-9361-52e2ed1d4653",
     "transaction_date": "2024-02-02T00:00:00.000Z",
     "posted_date": "2024-02-03T00:00:00.000Z",
     "amount": 100.1,
     "description": "Lunch expense",
     "transaction_type": "payment",
     "payee": "Elmo's diner",
     "credit_or_debit": "CREDIT",
     "source_transaction_id": "124569",
   }
 ]
}

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Learn more about our bank feed endpoints by visiting our docs.

Benefits of using a bank feed API

APIs offer several benefits over scripts and files when it comes to syncing bank feed data.

• Fast sync frequencies: Depending on the provider and the specific endpoint, you may be able to sync bank feed data every day, every few hours, or even more often

• High data accuracy: API-based syncs let you and your customers avoid any manual intervention, which helps prevent costly human errors (e.g., assigning the wrong figure to a transaction amount) 

• Secure connections: API providers typically require clients to follow strict policies to access their endpoints, such as using specific authentication protocols (e.g., OAuth) and adhering to encryption standards like TLS for secure data transmission

• Wide availability: Most ERP providers offer bank feed APIs and a wide range of integration solutions are available to help you build to them quickly

Sync bank feed data across ERP solutions with ease via Merge 

Merge lets you access bank feed endpoints at scale, quickly, as you only have to build to Merge’s Accounting Unified API to access bank feed endpoints across ERP solutions.

In addition, Merge offers multiple unified data models—bank feed accounts and bank feed transactions—to help you access all the bank feed data you need across your customer base.

Learn more about Merge’s Bank Feeds Common Models and how you can use them by scheduling a demo with one of our integration experts.