[JayBallentine]

Sorry - I am pretty passionate about this stuff, so I am compelled to expound here.

To be clear, we are not talking about PayPal and using their API's to underwrite deals.

Now regarding security. Let's say you have Joe Merchant who just issued a paperless submission. On his application it asks; "how many years have you been in business?"

Joe Merchant says; 3. However, when you ask the API this question; "How many years has Joe had this bank account?" and the API says; "his oldest transaction is 3 months old."

Now you know Joe Merchant should be blacklisted and never allowed to apply with you as clearly he is a credit risk.


EDIT: You can ask the API all sorts of questions like:

"How much time elapses before Joe withdraws each big deposit on average?"

"How many times per month does his credit card company deposit to his account?"

"How much is the sum of the total deposits from his processor to his account?"

"API, break Joe's year into quarters. Tell me the average number of daily deposits per quarter?"

Just be nosy you can ask...

"How much does Joe withdraw from ATM's?"

"How much does Joe spend at the liquor store?" And so on.

The bank will pass back raw data - dating back three years. The more questions you think to ask the API's the more fun you'll have!