US fintech Current launches platform API with Plaid as first partner

US fintech Current, with a mission to enhance the financial wellbeing of Americans, has launched a platform API and announced its first partner, open banking fintech Plaid.

Plaid is the first partner on Current’s API platform

Current’s new platform API enables other fintechs to build embedded financial services solutions quickly and easily.

As the first partner, Plaid will provide Current’s almost 4 million members access to more than 6,000 fintech apps, including digital payments, financial planning and investment tools, via the Plaid network.

Current chief technology officer Trevor Marshall says: “Our new platform API gives open banking partners the capability to embed our core banking technology.

“With Plaid, our members can access experiences that can help improve their financial lives with control and security.”

The new integration leverages phone number and device authentication, Current says, which eliminates reliance on banking credentials and provides a “frictionless” open finance customer experience.

Plaid partnership lead, universal access, Raja Chakravorti, says the integration with Current’s API-first platform has enabled “a simple, secure on-ramp to digital financial services for Current members, who are often banking for the first time in their lives.

“The integration ensures that consumers are in control of where and how their financial data is permissioned and shared, information that is essential to setting up a healthy financial life,” Chakravorti adds.