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Bank Feeds Security Fact Sheet

How does Landlord Studio’s secure bank feeds connection work? We deploy technology used by hundreds of other financial platforms and apps.

Ben Luxon avatar
Written by Ben Luxon
Updated over a week ago

At Landlord Studio we understand that security when it comes to financial data is of utmost importance. And to ensure the highest level of bank connection security, just like hundreds of other innovative financial platforms and apps on the market, we use a financial data aggregator called Plaid to connect customers to their banking data.

Plaid maintains secure connections to thousands of banks across the world so that companies like Landlord Studio can focus on building powerful, time-saving services to help you streamline data access for better oversight and management. When you connect your bank accounts to Landlord Studio, it's Plaid that does the heavy lifting in the background.

This fact sheet addresses common questions investors have about how Landlord Studio establishes and maintains secure data connections to banks, credit card issuers, and lenders.

Plaid is an Industry Leader in Secure Bank Connections

Familiar names like Intuit, Acorns, Betterment, Expensify, Wave, and Venmo, along with most of the top banks, lenders, and investment advisors around the world have relationships with Plaid. Millions of consumers across thousands of tech platforms, including Landlord Studio, trust Plaid to access their financial data safely and securely.

Plaid’s security practices are designed to meet or exceed industry standards, with numerous controls in place to keep your personal information safe. Plaid uses best-in-class encryption protocols, secure cloud infrastructure, multi-factor authentication, and around-the-clock monitoring to protect users' data.

All Connections are Read-Only

Secure banking connections made through the Landlord Studio platform are always a one-way street. No one (including you) has the ability to create an actual transaction, move funds, or otherwise alter your banking settings through the Landlord Studio's bank connections. Once connected, Landlord Studio will import transaction data, which can then be added to the Landlord Studio income and expense tracking ledger which you can then review and edit. Landlord Studio will also report the current account balance for reference.

Any changes or edits made in Landlord Studio will, of course, not be reflected in your actual bank accounts. This is a critical safety and security feature that largely eliminates the incentive for someone to try to gain access to your banking data through Landlord Studio.

Login Credentials Not Accessible

For enhanced safety and security, your login credentials are never stored on Landlord Studio’s servers. No one at Landlord Studio can see your log in or password. Instead, Plaid makes the secure connection on your behalf and then delivers ongoing data feeds via Landlord Studio for as long as your credentials remain valid.

Sometimes the connections break, passwords, expire, and/or security questions change on the bank end of things. This can result in a broken connection and a requirement to update your login credentials in order to refresh transaction data. When this happens, we'll notify you via email and provide a link to restore your connection.

Strong Encryption

Plaid only allows data to be transmitted using strong TLS protocols and ciphers. Landlord Studio communicates with Plaid over encrypted pathways and all connections require API key authentication, cryptographically hashed headers, and timestamps to verify authenticity. Plaid has an extensive and proven track record of developing and maintaining industry-leading security protocols.

Third-Party Reviews & Audits

Plaid subjects themselves to frequent network penetration testing and third-party code reviews by independent auditors. These regular audits are conducted by financial institutions and federal regulators and are an integral part of how both services maintain their security infrastructures with the highest integrity.

Compliance with Banking Standards

Finally, Plaid is in full compliance with the Bank Services Company Act and other relevant industry standards and federal regulations. This helps ensure that Landlord Studio’s bank linking process and real-time data imports keep up with best practices in data transmittal and security infrastructure.

Data Refreshes

Once you've connected your accounts, you may notice that new transactions won't always appear in your Landlord Studio account immediately. This is because Landlord Studio waits for transactions to officially "post" before importing them, which eliminates the need to reconcile previously imported data. This is consistent with Landlord Studio’s "one-way street" approach in which data is imported only once and then fully available for editing inside Landlord Studio only.

For banks that support Open Banking or that have established data-sharing agreements with Plaid, you can expect your data to refresh multiple times per day and new transactions to appear within hours once “posted” on the bank side. For other banks, it can take up to 48 hours for transactions to appear.

Resources

More Bank Feeds Help Docs

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