Xero Connects To BBVA Compass Accounts Via API

Small business accounting software provider Xero is linking users’ accounts to their BBVA Compass bank accounts via API, the company announced on Wednesday (July 11).

Using BBVA’s open APIs, Xero lets small businesses and their accountants gain streamlined reconciliation capabilities while maintaining data security. The integration enables data from BBVA Compass accounts to stream into the Xero platform, providing businesses with a consolidated, real-time view of cash positions, the company said.

Bank reconciliation and other accounting functions will also be streamlined within Xero as a result of the integration.

The integration showcases the U.S.’s migration toward open banking and data sharing in the financial services industry, despite the market not having a regulatory requirement like the U.K.’s open banking or the EU’s PSD2.

“This partnership is a key milestone for Xero,” Xero America’s Head of Financial Partnerships Mary Buckley said in a statement. “Like Xero, BBVA API Market embraces open APIs to provide small businesses and their advisors with greater control, visibility and security over their financial data. We’re thrilled to be the first cloud accounting platform to announce a collaboration with BBVA API Market for this type of data sharing in the U.S.”

“BBVA API Market allows companies of any size, from numerous industries, to easily integrate financial services directly into their product offerings,” added Rob Sears, BBVA new digital businesses’ global head of product and open platform. “They can create new and innovative services that offer added value to their customers, monitor and analyze payments, verify identity and notify customers, and much more … all with the support of a global financial institution.”

Last year, Xero announced a similar integration into Capital One account data via the bank’s API, a collaboration that streamlined bank feeds directly into the Xero app for more efficient reconciliation, the company said at the time.