Ultimate Guide and Benefits to Yodlee Interactive Instant Account Verification

As a Solutions Engineer at Yodlee^® Interactive, I talk to many developers from early stage startups to larger technology companies – and help to provide technical solutions. Some of the challenges that financial app developers face are how to provide a seamless user experience and acquire a critical mass of customers. According to this whitepaper, the world of traditional banking is being systematically disrupted and transformed by a wave of new digital financial apps (FinApps^®) and services. These FinApps create new and innovative ways for consumers to pay for products and services, send and receive money, and manage investments. If your potential customers encounter friction during activation – whether due to a poor user experience or a slow verification process – they are likely to abandon the process, give up altogether, or move to a competitor. To address these pain points, Yodlee Interactive Instant Account Verification API provides a seamless way to verify a customer’s funding source using an open API architecture. This enables you to quickly find out if the account is valid instead of waiting 1-3 business days for challenge deposit verification. Many companies such as Dwolla, FormFree, DecisionLogic, and Boston Financial leverage our Instant Account Verification API to instantly verify a funding source, provide a secure environment for verification, and accelerate customer onboarding. If you’re a developer looking to get started, below is a guide with helpful terms, API integration resources, and our Test Drive Tool.

Key Terms to Know

• Cobrand: This is the Yodlee term for referring to a Yodlee Customer. This customer could be an individual (like a registered developer) or entity (like a financial institution such as a bank, brokerage firm, etc.) Each registered developer is a cobrand of Yodlee. Cobrand is uniquely identified using a name and ID. Each cobrand will be given a user ID and password generated by Yodlee for authentication. Cobrands need to register their customers as users into the Yodlee system so that each of those users can make use of Yodlee service.
• User: A user that is added by a customer/cobrand/developer into the Yodlee system. Profile information can be added for a user along with credentials (user id/password). These credentials will be used to login as a user to the Yodlee system.
• Cobrand Session: This is a Yodlee generated temporary identifier as a result of cobrand login API. API caller should pass cobrand credentials to get the session ID. This session ID is required for all API calls and should be stored temporarily so that it can be reused.
• User Session: This is a Yodlee generated temporary identifier as a result of user login API. API caller should pass user credentials to get the session ID. This session ID is required for most of the API calls and should be stored temporarily so that it can be reused.
• Site: A Yodlee supported online financial institution, which may have one or more accounts in it. For example, Bank of America is a site which could have more than one account info inside it. In general, site is a financial institution from which user related financial data will be gathered based on the credentials provided by the user.
• Container: Each account type is considered a container. For example, checking and saving accounts are considered banking containers, credit cards are considered credit containers, etc.
• DAG (Dummy Account Generator): A web application used to generate and manage dummy accounts to test during the development cycle. The sample account information is stored in XML files.
• Transaction: All transactions available in a site under each item account. Transaction contains date, description, type(cr/dr), and amount, etc.
• Categorization: An association between transaction and Yodlee predefined classification for those transactions. For example, transactions can be categorized as fuel, rent, travel, hotel, etc.
• FastLink: A web application/widget component that can be embedded to any third party web application. This component provides a simple account addition flow for third party application. The UI of this component can be customized to match the third party's application and enhance user experience.
• Item/Item Account: This is an individual account in a site. For example, Bank of America is a site and each account available inside the site is an item account.
• Site ID: A unique identifier of a bank’s site. For example, Wells Fargo. A SITE_ID may have multiple Content Service IDs under it.
• Content Service ID: A unique identifier of a specific container of a bank’s site. For example, Wells Fargo-Bank or Credit Card.
• Site Account ID: A unique identifier of a specific user belonging to a specific SITE.
• Item ID: A unique identifier of a user belonging to a specific content service. For example, a user that has a Wells Fargo-Credit account.
• Item Account ID: A unique identifier of an account added by the user. For example, savings account with Wells Fargo.

Instant Bank Verification API Integration Options Matching Services: Yodlee platform does the matching

• Matching attributes
  • Account Number
  • Account Type
  • Account Holder Name
• Returns
  • Appropriate Matching Code
  • Account Balance
  • Up to 90 days of Transactions

Data Services: Client does the matching and Yodlee provides the account data

• Returns
  • Account Number
  • Routing Number (if available)
  • Account Holder Name
  • Account Type
  • Account Balance
  • Up to 90 days of Transactions

Links to Get Started with IAV APIs

Developer Portal: Online, searchable developer documentation including Knowledgebase, FAQ and quick start guides

• IAV Product Guide
  • API References
  • API Flow: Add account in Matching Services and Data Services
  • Quick Start and Sample Applications
  • Dummy Account Generator (DAG): A web application used to generate and manage dummy accounts. The sample account information is stored in XML files.
  • TestDrive: Tool to explore REST APIs and different flows.

Guide for Test Drive Tool

This document is a quick start guide on how to access and use the Test Drive tool, which Yodlee Interactive provides to test/evaluate Yodlee Interactive REST APIs. Steps to Get Started with Test Drive Tool

1. Register at https://developer.yodlee.com
2. Visit https://devnow.yodlee.com/user and click on “Developer Info” tab to get the credentials required for evaluating Yodlee Interactive REST APIs.
3. You will get cobrand credentials as well as 5 pre-registered test users to connect to Yodlee and to test Yodlee Interactive APIs using any of those 5 test users.
4. Yodlee Interactive provides a UI based hosted tool to test and evaluate Yodlee Interactive APIs named as “Test Drive” and it can be accessed here.

How to Use the Test Drive Tool You can either go through the following steps about how to use Test Drive tool or check the tutorial here.

1. Use cobrand credentials present on Developer Info tab under “My Profile” to login into the Test Drive.
2. Once you login as a cobrand, use the User Credentials which Yodlee provides (out of 5 pre-registered users) present under Developer Info Tab under “My Profile” to create a user session and start exploring available APIs.
3. Depending on your requirements, choose Data or Matching services API groups and explore related APIs.
4. Test Drive also contains Flows, which will let take you through different APIs, which needs to be call for Implementing Data or Matching Services. This will also allow you to download code used in the flows, which will speed up your integration process with Yodlee Interactive APIs.

Hope you find these developer resources helpful! To learn more about how to build a successful fintech startup, click here.