Intuit signs deal with Wells Fargo to share customer data

(Reuters) — Wells Fargo & Co reached an agreement with Intuit Inc to allow the bank’s customers who use financial management applications such as Mint, TurboTax and QuickBooks to choose the information they share while importing bank account details.

Intuit’s Mint, TurboTax and QuickBooks are personal finance tools which allow individuals to calculate taxes and pay bills using their smartphones.

An application programming interface (API), built by Wells Fargo, will be used for importing bank account information between the two companies’ servers, lowering cyber security risks.

API is a programming code that specifies how software components should interact.

The arrangement is a step toward allowing individuals to use their mobile phones to track their day-to-day financial activities, which experts believe could help individuals save more money.

Wells Fargo is one of the biggest U.S. banks and Intuit offers some of the most widely used personal finance tools.

The move follows a similar data-sharing agreement between Intuit and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co last week.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)