Benjamin Alden, general counsel of personal finance startup Betterment, is caught up in a classic tale of industry disruption: His company allows users to manage their finances by linking their various financial accounts—including bank accounts and credit card info—into one dashboard. But financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are making some new demands on who can access financial data belonging to their customers and how it can be accessed, according to The New York Times.
The banks, the report said, are sometimes refusing to share information about their fees and interest rates, and are claiming that the restrictions are meant to increase user data privacy and provide oversight. Many startups see it differently, however.
