List of Bank APIs

[Tryan]

Is there a list anywhere of which banks offer APIs? I work with high net worth clients, so I'd like to avoid reaching out and causing confusion at the custodian unnecessarily.  

Also will I need extra permissions with the custodian to establish an API? What are things I should ask in my intro email to expedite the process? 

[BrandonB]

Hi @Tryan 

I have worked with quite a few customers and know that many banks do in fact offer APIs for integration. What data can actually be accessed via a given API tends to vary from company to company. 

For starters, here is a helpful breakdown of how API calls work within Alteryx: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/REST-API-In-5-Minutes-No-Coding/ba-p/8137 

You can be pretty confident that most bank APIs will require  some form of authentication. This will generally either be in the form of an API token or a Client ID and Client Secret that is passed to an authentication endpoint to return a token. 

My first approach when trying to understand what API integration options are available is to first search online for "[Bank name here] API documentation". This will normally return any public facing information and will serve as a good starting point. Some API documentation isn't available for the public, however, and will likely require you to send an email or contact them directly for more information.

[Tryan]

Thanks for the info, @BrandonB. I'll reach out and see what I can accomplish on the API front.

My endgoal here is to just progress past the manual entry from PDF statements. If any custodians are unable to accommodate an API, do you know of other alternatives that may be offered? 

[Tryan]

Follow up @BrandonB - Do I need to set up an account on Quandl to receive the API data? 

If they ask for an "API key" from my end what should I provide?

[BrandonB]

Hi @Tryan 

This part of the instructions highlights how you get the API key

Alteryx can also ingest data from a SFTP which many companies use as a location to dump files. This could be a potential alternative for organizations that don't have an API available. 

You should also take a look at the Alteryx Intelligence Suite which has PDF parsing capabilities: https://www.alteryx.com/products/alteryx-platform/intelligence-suite 

[Tryan]

Thank you @BrandonB. I am working with a couple custodians now to get set up and will keep you posted as the process continues. 

Is it possible to get an Alteryx rep to help out with workflow creation? I'm new to the system and worry that uniformly codifying a PDF Parse may be beyond my abilities.

[BrandonB]

Hi @Tryan 

If you are interested in testing out the Intelligence Suite with the click and drag PDF parsing capabilities, there should be an Account Executive and Solutions Engineer that are assigned to your company who can get you a trial key to test this functionality. That way you won't need to use a bunch of complex regular expressions to parse out the data that you need. If you don't know who these folks are you can send me a private message and I'll get you in contact.