Plaid Teams With Jack Henry To Bring Plaid Exchange To Banks

FinTech startup Plaid is partnering with banking platform Jack Henry & Associates to advance the Plaid Exchange for more than 350 financial institutions (FIs).

“We developed Plaid Exchange to make open finance as simple as possible for financial institutions — no matter their size,” Niko Karvounis, Plaid head of product, institutions said in a statement on Tuesday (Nov. 24).

“Our partnership with Jack Henry helps us bring Plaid Exchange to hundreds of regional and community banks, and helps ensure millions of people can access digital finance apps and services no matter where they choose to bank, invest and manage their money,” Karvounis added.

Since launching Plaid Exchange in May, Plaid said they have discovered that many FIs need technical support in order to integrate the platform. The tie-up gives Jack Henry customers access to the Plaid network and provides extra security to the 350-plus financial institutions using Jack Henry’s Banno digital platform.

Plaid Exchange is the industry’s first open finance platform, the company said. It gives banks, wealth managers, and FinTechs a way to offer stable solutions to connect accounts to apps and services.

“At Plaid, we believe it’s important to make sure everyone has the same ability to benefit from fintech, no matter where they bank,” said Reed Bouchelle, head of strategic partnerships at Plaid. “Both Plaid and Jack Henry care deeply about building superior technological solutions for financial institutions.”

Earlier this year, Plaid introduced the Plaid Exchange Partner Program, in collaboration with the API management platform MuleSoft.

Plaid was launched by William Hockey and Zach Perret in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco.

The Plaid Exchange API platform gives banks access to over 2,600 apps and helps financial institutions access consumer-permissioned data. It takes only three months for FIs to economically launch an API solution.

At the start of the year, Visa announced plans to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion but the deal is being challenged by the Department of Justice.