RaftLabs builds custom open banking integrations for fintech companies building lending, PFM, payroll, B2B payments, and embedded finance products. We integrate with Plaid, TrueLayer, MX, Finicity, Yapily, and Bud across US and UK markets. Services include account verification, transaction history enrichment, income and employment verification, payment initiation via UK Open Banking and SEPA, and multi-provider redundancy architecture. A basic Plaid or TrueLayer integration typically delivers in 6 to 10 weeks at $15,000 to $30,000. Multi-provider builds with consent management run 12 to 18 weeks at $35,000 to $70,000.

Why open banking is harder than the demo suggests

Every open banking provider has a demo that makes it look easy. You call one API, you get bank data, you build your product. The reality is more complicated.

Bank coverage is never complete. Plaid covers most major US banks but has gaps in credit unions and some regional banks that matter for specific customer segments. TrueLayer covers most UK high-street banks but has EU coverage that varies by country. When you build on a single provider, the banks it does not cover become your product's blind spots.

Data quality varies by bank. Some banks return clean, structured transaction data. Others return reference strings that look like POS DEBIT 12345 SOMEWHERE with no merchant name, no category, and no consistent format. The enrichment layer that turns raw transaction data into something usable -- merchant identification, category tags, income vs. expense classification -- requires real work.

Rate limits are per-customer, not per-account. When a customer has multiple accounts at the same bank, each refresh counts against your rate limits. Products that need frequent data refreshes for lending decisions or cash flow monitoring hit provider rate limits faster than the documentation suggests.

Consent management is more than a UI component. Regulatory requirements in the UK and EU require specific consent flows, specific disclosure language, and user-accessible consent management. Getting this wrong creates compliance risk.

Capabilities

What we build

Open banking provider integrations

Integrations with Plaid, TrueLayer, MX, Finicity, Bud, and Yapily depending on your target market and data requirements. Provider selection and coverage analysis before we build -- we map your target bank list against provider coverage and recommend the combination that covers your customer base. Integration covers the provider's link flow (account linking UI), token management (refresh token handling and re-authentication), webhook processing for real-time data update notifications, and error handling for the full range of bank-side and provider-side error responses. Normalized data models across providers so your application sees consistent account and transaction schemas regardless of which provider returned the data.

Account verification and balance checks

Account ownership verification confirming that the person linking the account is the named account holder -- required for AML and KYC purposes in most use cases. Account number and routing/sort code verification for payment setup. Real-time balance retrieval with configurable refresh intervals. Available versus ledger balance distinction -- the difference matters for lending decisions and payment initiation. Multi-account linking for customers with multiple bank accounts -- consolidated balance view and transaction history across accounts. Microdeposit-free verification for providers that support instant account verification, eliminating the 1 to 3 day delay of traditional microdeposit flows. Coverage falls back to microdeposit for banks not supported by instant verification.

Transaction history and enrichment

Transaction history retrieval covering the maximum window available per bank (typically 90 days to 24 months). Raw transaction enrichment: merchant name identification from raw reference strings, category classification (income, housing, transport, food, utilities, entertainment), recurring transaction detection for salary, rent, and subscription identification, and counterparty business name resolution. Income stream detection: salary payments, freelance income, benefits, and rental income identified from transaction patterns rather than customer-reported figures. Enriched transaction data stored in your system with the raw provider response preserved for audit purposes. Refresh scheduling to keep transaction history current without hitting provider rate limits.

Payment initiation

UK Faster Payments initiation via UK Open Banking -- per-payment consent flow, bank authentication, and payment status tracking through the payment lifecycle. SEPA Credit Transfer for EU payments. ACH payment initiation for US markets via providers that support it. Payment status webhook processing -- initiated, pending, completed, failed, and refunded states. Idempotency handling to prevent duplicate payment submissions. Reconciliation between payment initiation records and bank statement confirmation. Payment initiation is per-payment -- each payment requires separate customer authorization. We build the consent flow and payment confirmation UI that meets regulatory requirements and presents clearly to the customer.

Income and employment verification

Income verification from bank transaction data for lending, rent affordability, and payroll use cases. Salary detection: identification of regular employer credits, gross and net income estimation, income stability scoring. Self-employment and freelance income identification for applicants without a single regular employer credit. Benefit and government payment identification. Employment tenure estimation from first and most recent employer payment dates. Affordability calculations based on income minus identified recurring obligations. Bank-data-derived income verification as a supplement or alternative to payslip-based verification -- faster for customers, harder to falsify, and available in real time without document upload. Provider comparison for income verification: MX and Finicity have stronger income analysis models for US lending use cases; TrueLayer's income verification is more commonly used in UK mortgage and rent affordability contexts.

Provider redundancy and consent management

Multi-provider architecture that routes account linking to the appropriate provider based on bank coverage, with automatic fallback to an alternative provider if the primary provider returns an error or is unavailable. Provider selection logic that is invisible to the end user -- the linking flow works regardless of which provider handles the connection. Consent management UI: customers can view all active bank connections, see what data is being accessed, and revoke access per bank account. Consent expiry handling -- PSD2 consent expires after 90 days in the UK and EU; re-authorization flows that prompt the customer to renew consent before expiry without disrupting the product experience. Consent audit log for compliance purposes. The redundancy layer reduces dependency on any single provider and improves product reliability for your customers.

Which banks and markets do you need to cover?

Tell us your target market, the bank coverage you need, and what data your product uses. We will scope the provider combination and integration architecture, then give you a fixed price.

Provider comparison: Plaid, TrueLayer, and MX

Understanding the providers helps you understand what you are building on.

Plaid is the dominant choice for US markets. Broad US bank coverage including most credit unions and regional banks, well-documented API, and a developer experience that most fintech teams find familiar. Its transaction enrichment is basic by default -- raw data needs enrichment work. UK and EU coverage is limited compared to US-specialist providers.

TrueLayer is the strongest choice for UK and EU markets. Built for PSD2 compliance, strong UK high-street bank coverage, mature payment initiation API, and good developer tooling. Its US coverage is limited. If your product needs to work in both markets, TrueLayer handles the UK and EU side of a multi-provider architecture.

MX is designed for financial data analysis use cases. Its transaction enrichment and categorization are more developed than Plaid's out of the box -- better for PFM products, financial wellness tools, and lending products that need clean categorized transaction data rather than raw strings. Its bank coverage focuses on US institutions.

Most products targeting both US and UK markets use Plaid plus TrueLayer with a normalization layer that presents consistent data models to the application regardless of which provider returned the data.

Cost and timeline expectations

ScopeTimelineCost range
Single provider, account data and balance (US or UK)6 to 8 weeks$15,000 to $25,000
Single provider with transaction enrichment and income verification8 to 12 weeks$22,000 to $35,000
Payment initiation added to data access (UK Open Banking)add 4 to 6 weeksadd $12,000 to $20,000
Multi-provider with redundancy and consent management12 to 18 weeks$35,000 to $70,000

All engagements are fixed-price. We scope the provider selection, coverage map, and architecture before pricing. If your requirements are simpler than you expect, we say so.

How RaftLabs approaches open banking integration

We start with your target market and your bank coverage requirements. Before choosing providers or writing code, we map your customer base against what each provider actually covers. Coverage gaps that are acceptable in a US-only product may be critical gaps if you need UK banks or specific regional institutions.

From there, we design the data model. Open banking data from Plaid looks different from TrueLayer data. The normalization layer that lets your application work consistently regardless of provider is a meaningful architectural decision, not an afterthought. We design it before we build.

We handle the provider relationship setup including API credential provisioning, webhook endpoint configuration, and rate limit monitoring. We build the consent flow UI to meet regulatory requirements for your target markets. And we test against real bank connections -- not just sandbox data -- before declaring the integration production-ready.

To talk about an open banking project, contact us and describe the markets you need to cover and what data your product relies on.