Table of Contents
Why does Monarch work with multiple data providers?
Is the connection secure? What information is shared?
Why is my account’s connection not consistent?
What is Monarch doing to improve connection reliability?
What is a data provider?
In the context of financial tools like Monarch, data providers are third-party services that securely connect to your financial institution (like banks and credit card companies) to retrieve your account data and provide it to Monarch. Monarch never directly accesses your accounts. Rather, these data providers serve as intermediaries between your financial institution and Monarch.
Monarch works with three data providers: Plaid, Finicity, and MX. Once you have connected an account to Monarch via one of these three data providers, Monarch will receive regular updates on your transactions, account balances, and other financial details, which are then aggregated and displayed on your Monarch dashboard. This allows you insights into your spending, income, investments, and savings from all of your accounts - all in one app!
Why does Monarch work with multiple data providers?
In order to provide the most coverage for our users, Monarch works with three different data providers. As each data provider works slightly differently and has varying relationships with hundreds of banking institutions, each account you connect may require using a different data provider. Not all data providers can work with all banking institutions, and one data provider may be able to more reliably connect to a certain institution than the others. When you first connect your accounts, Monarch will default to suggesting the data provider that historically has had the strongest connection. However, you can always switch to a different data provider if needed.
You can view details about connection reliability for some accounts here for the US or here for Canada.
Is the connection secure? What information is shared?
The connection between Monarch, the selected data provider, and your financial institution allows your accounts to remain secure. Monarch never sees your login credentials. All shared data is fully encrypted to ensure your information remains secure and private. You can view more about privacy and security here, including how each data provider protects your confidential information.
The data providers only share the essential details needed to manage your accounts, including account balances, transaction history, and account type.
Why is my account’s connection not consistent?
Sometimes, the connection between your banking institution and the data provider used to connect the account may be inconsistent or unreliable, or the bank may require regular reconnections as additional security. When this happens, the account itself may appear disconnected, or you may see inaccurate data such as missing transactions or an old account balance. At times, our data providers may have trouble connecting at all - this low success rate is usually due to institutional settings that prevent or limit the ability of third parties to connect.
Connection issues are almost always between the data provider and your bank and can happen for several reasons:
- Bank security measures: Connections may be interrupted after security protocols are updated at the financial institution. To solve this, try updating your credentials as outlined here (under the “Update Login Settings” section).
- Account login changes: If you update your login credentials (username, password, two-factor or multi-factor authentication), you will need to re-authenticate your credentials (see the “Update Login Settings” section).
- The selected data provider no longer supports the financial institution or vice versa: The relationship between the data providers and the various financial institutions is always evolving, and a data provider and bank may no longer work together. In this case, you will need to try reconnecting your account via a different data provider.
- The bank is blocking certain information or accounts from being transmitted: Not all financial institutions release or provide all account details to the data providers (for instance, some may only share transactions but not balances, or may only share certain types of accounts). In general, this missing information would need to be manually added as the data provider has no way of receiving it from your bank, or you may need to try a different data provider to see if they are able to access more data.
- The bank set a limit on refreshes: Some banks may set a limit on the number of refreshes allowed, or may block updates and new connections during certain hours or days, preventing timely updates. A forced refresh can be helpful here.
- The bank has changed the way that data is sent: As an example, the bank may have previously sent the balance of a loan, but now is sending the paid amount. This can cause accounts to appear to have the wrong balances. In this case, using a different data provider may provide a better experience.
You can visit our troubleshooting page for more details.
What is Monarch doing to improve connection reliability?
We know that having accurate, reliable, and timely account information is of utmost importance to our users, and that account connections are an integral part of your experience with Monarch. While connection issues most often lie between the data provider and institution - and therefore are outside of our control - we also know that Monarch is the end product and that those disconnections reflect on us. Because of this, connections are our number one priority.
We partner closely with all three data providers to file bugs, help with investigations, and provide them feedback on user requests. Additionally, we work with them to ensure they are supporting the largest and most requested data institutions. As Monarch grows, our partnership with these data providers grows as well, and we are able to collaborate with them more closely to continuously improve the customer experience.
Beyond this, we have a team fully dedicated to improving connectivity. Our ongoing multi-pronged approach includes working to get a quicker diagnosis of issues, improving guidance when a disconnection occurs, and enhancing transparency surrounding connection issues.