BMO Partners with Intuit to Securely Share Data

Mutual SMB customers will control what data they share using a secure API.

Need to Know

  • The partnership will allow BMO’s small-business customers to share data with Intuit’s QuickBooks tool more securely.
  • BMO plans to build an API portal to enable this transfer, through which customers can control which data they share.
  • Mutual accounts will be able to avoid “the drudgery of accounting” thanks to the partnership.

Analysis

Small-business banking with BMO just got a lot more seamless, as the bank has announced a partnership with Intuit to allow more secure data-sharing between BMO bank accounts and Intuit’s accounting tool, QuickBooks Online.

The partnership, which was announced earlier this week, will see BMO build an API portal to link mutual customers—that is, small businesses that already use both BMO and Intuit—to Intuit’s QuickBooks. Customers can then select which data they would like to share, such as account numbers and passwords, and can continue to transfer information and process transactions safely and quickly, saving the time of inputting such data each time they log on to QuickBooks Online, or other tools such as QuickBooks Self Employed and Mint.

“This partnership will enable our mutual small business customers to take greater control of their financial lives by more easily and securely exchanging the data they choose to share between BMO and Intuit Canada,” Brett Pitts, Chief Digital Officer for BMO said in a statement announcing the Intuit partnership. “Going forward we are excited by the potential to expand this to our North American platform for our mutual customers using QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Self Employed and Mint—including possible two-way data sharing.”

Jeff Cates, president of Intuit Canada at the time of the original announcement back in 2018, emphasized the importance of the partnership in not only offering secure data transfer, but in saving customers’ time: the integration, he said, will prove beneficial in “removing the drudgery of accounting.”

“We are focused on working with partners to find ways to help businesses save time and grow,” he continued, “and are proud to work with BMO to enable the success of our joint customers.”

“We believe every customer should be able to access their financial data in whatever format they wish or with whatever app they choose to better their financial life,” said Rajneesh Gupta, VP of the financial institutions segment at Intuit.

Intuit is a financial software company that develops tools geared towards small businesses—like QuickBooks, which is accounting software, and Mint, an online personal finance service that offers money-management and budgeting tools. The company’s other products include TurboTax, a tax preparation program, and Credit Karma, which provides credit score access.

The BMO-Intuit partnership, in some ways, mirrors the partnership announced earlier this month between TD and Finicity. Like BMO and Intuit, TD and Finicity recently teamed up to offer more seamless and secure data transfer between a big bank (TD, BMO) and a fintech entity (Intuit, Finicity). The key difference lies in the target demo for each partnership: The TD-Finicity integration, which also depends on a secure API, responds directly to customers’ need to securely share data across financial platforms outside of their home bank; BMO and Intuit are more closely targeting small business owners and entrepreneurs.