Schwab Signs Data Deals With Envestnet, eMoney, Intuit

"For at least a year, Yodlee and Schwab have been collaborating on what a commercial tie-up [would] look like" for information sharing, he said. It then took "a number of months on hammering out the agreement to make sure that it was a win-win-win-win — for Yodlee, for Schwab, for our clients and for the shared customers," he said. The deal, between the two companies, signed April 6, is a "legal tie-up" and "there is no money changing hands," he added.

With the latest pact, Schwab clients who opt in can expect to experience faster and more reliable access to their personal financial information via the financial services company's API, Envestnet|Yodlee said. Access will be based on client consent and "tokenization."

Client Data Sharing

The application solution means users won't have to enter and store usernames or passwords with any third-party company, Envestnet|Yodlee pointed out. With the agreement signed, teams from both companies plan to "move forward together to seamlessly implement these capabilities into the client experience," according to the firm.

The deals move the financial services industry toward greater API connectivity in the U.S., giving consumers greater connection across their financial accounts, helping to provide the framework for Schwab clients to "more securely and effectively allow access to, and use their personal financial information, with selected services designed to manage their financial wellness," Envestnet|Yodlee said.

"In the U.S., as we sign more of these agreements and migrate to consuming data from each of these [firm's] APIs… once we get the top 12 to 15 banks and advisory firms in the country under similar data sharing agreements, that will represent certainly more than 80% of the data that we have been asked to collect" by customers who opt in, Costello explained. He predicted that will eventually grow to "close to 100%" after adding community financial institutions.

Now that Envestnet has three of the top 15 institutions, "we're in conversations and/or negotiations with tens of institutions right now and … stay tuned — more announcements will be coming," he said.

Schwab investors had some 12.7 million active brokerage accounts, 1.7 million corporate retirement plan participants, 1.4 million banking accounts and $3.5 trillion in client assets as of March 31, it said.

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