New linking ability with other FIs | Page 2 | Oaken Financial | Discussion forum

speedwagen said
Doug seems overly insistent that fund transfers to/fro Oaken can be initiated externally, but regrettably they cannot.

What Doug may not be aware of is that unlike most FI's, Oaken individual acc'ts are in fact subacc'ts or nominee acc'ts to a master trust acc't in the name of the FI.

While the structure could be somewhat different, I do not believe that is correct that the Oaken Financial accounts are akin to broker held accounts held in a nominee name, as you suggest. It could very well have something to do with the fact that TD Canada Trust is Home Trust's and Home Bank's primary banker, and clearing institution, but EQ Bank follows a similar structure to Oaken and clears its EFTs and deposits through RBC, I believe.

Any of you familiar with the Altamira Cashperformer acc't, one of the pioneer HISA acc'ts now widely available thru brokers, was one such acc't. It originally was held @ CIBC in the name of Altamira as a master trust, while we the beneficiaries held nominee acc'ts or subacc'ts with Altamira, therefore, we the beneficiaries cannot have direct access to the master trust since it's not in our name. You can definitely set-up DD to a master trust or to anyone else's acc't if you choose, but you most definitely cannot pull money from an acc't that's not yours.

Yeah, definitely aware of the Altamira Cash Performer account and it is one of those broker-held accounts held in book entry format in a nominee name, just like accounts with other brokers. While Oaken may indeed be not able to accept externally-initiated EFTs, the reason is not as you suggest. As mentioned, I will independently investigate this further with Oaken, as time permits, and report back as soon as practicable. In the meantime, at least they've made push/pull transfers initiated within Oaken easier.

La Capitale in Quebec, whose primary business is as an insurer for the public sector I believe, runs a similar set-up whereby the master trust is held @ NBC or BMO, can't remember which.

I'm not sure as to the structure of La Capitale, an insurer, but they do have a direct-to-consumer deposit division (also with a cute squirrel).

Cheers,
Doug

As I understand it, Flinks is basically like a secure, third-party platform/technology that provides the embedded session and communicates back to Oaken Financial (or other partner FI) on whether a secure banking session with the customer's external bank was established. Presumably, upon receiving a 'yes,' Oaken Financial (or partner FI) considers that external bank account as 'verified').

Too bad it only supports "Big 5" banks. 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

GICinvestor said
Just to clarify the 3rd party interface, which could be vulnerable, WILL connect with MORE than the BIG 5. I personally would not use it. It is odd that our Hydro accepts banking information, online, based on my input from their concise directions. As does PayPal but they do a small deposit and then you respond back to them what it was and the process is complete. SO why the third party and possibly passing more information than necessary that we are not aware of. And if Flinks retains that info.

The reason why I say that is because they also provide this service: “Detect income, reduce fraudulent applications. Understand where your user's income is really coming from and gain access to a breakdown of their income sources: salary, government, pension and more.” How do they do that??????

See pics of what FIs you can link with at Oaken (no Manitoba CU’s).

  

To be clear, it is highly unlikely Flinks has any logon credentials. Essentially, they are just like a sort of embedded web browser within a web browser. The actual login logs you in directly to your bank's online banking system. Think of Flinks as like a "hall monitor" that says, "yep, x customer logged into his or her online banking system and was successfully authenticated." That's all Oaken Financial and others are care about.

Interestingly, Meridian Credit Union's Motus Bank subsidiary is also using Flinks as a method by which to verify one's external bank accounts, though reports on RFD and elsewhere were that only the "Big 5" + Tangerine and Simplii Financial could be verified in this way. So that's great to hear that other banks and credit unions can be verified.

There's a competitor to Flinks, but can't recall its name off hand.

Cheers,
Doug