Open banking and data aggregation have quickly become two of the biggest trends in financial services; Europe and UK regulators have required open banking and even big banks in the U.S. are jumping on the trend; at the same time big tech firms have been expanding their reach in finance and their main driver is data; Google has recently partnered with Citi on a soon to be checking account and Levvel’s Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Payments Scott Harkey writes that they should buy MX; with Plaid and Finicity already scooped up it is only a matter of time before MX is acquired; MX is a Utah-based data aggregator that pulls data from thousands of financial institutions and cleans it up for consumption by 3rd parties; MX, in conjunction with their existing bank relationships, will allow Google to create a diverse set of products with data as their core currency; Google is not interested in becoming a bank and dealing with a significant increase in oversight; bank partnerships and key M&A deals would help the tech giant build the next banking experience. Forbes.
