A bank connection is a read-only link between your bank and Finly Money. Once it's set up, your balances and transactions come in on their own and stay up to date, so there's nothing to upload.
Plaid and Flinks do the connecting
Canada doesn't have open banking yet, so apps reach your bank through a connection service. We work with two of the biggest in Canada, Plaid and Flinks. Many Canadian finance apps you may already use rely on them too.
No single service works best at every bank. We connect each bank through the one that works best for it, and if one is having trouble with a bank, new connections to that bank go through the other. You don't need to choose: each bank's card on Accounts simply says which one it uses, such as via Flinks.
What we see, and what we don't
What | How it's handled |
|---|---|
Your bank password | You type it into Plaid, Flinks or your bank's own sign-in page. It never reaches us. |
Balances and transactions | Shared with Finly Money, read-only, for the accounts you choose to share. |
Moving money or changing anything | Not possible. The link can only read. |
Some banks let you sign in on the bank's own page. National Bank, for example, connects directly through Flinks, so your username and password aren't shared with anyone else.
Why your bank asks you to sign in again
Every so often your bank wants proof that it's really you, and the connection service can't answer for you. That's when Finly Money asks you to reconnect. The usual reasons:
- Your bank texts a security code or asks you to approve the sign-in in its app.
- Your bank ends sign-ins after a while, for safety.
- You changed your password.
- Your bank changed its website, and the connection service is catching up.
- Your permission ran out and needs renewing.
While a connection waits, everything already in Finly Money stays put. Reconnect, and new transactions pick up where they left off. See My bank connection stopped working, or read our longer guide, Why does my bank keep asking me to reconnect?
You stay in control
- Choose which accounts each bank shares, and change it later. See choosing accounts to share.
- Disconnect a bank any time from Accounts, and decide whether to keep or delete what it brought in. See disconnecting a bank.
- If you delete your account, the data from your bank connections is deleted too.