[nzlug] Linux-friendly banks in NZ?

[David McNab]

Hi,

Does anyone know of any banks in NZ who provide an interface which can
allow downloading of account transactions via open-source software?

For example - BNZ - good range of statement download options - CSV, OFX,
QIF format files over a given date range. But to get there, one first
has to bring up the BNZ site via a web browser, log in, then go through
that damnable 'netguard' challenge. AFAIK, the netguard login is
particularly difficult to automate since the column/row coordinates are
displayed as images. I'd rather not have to spend days writing an https
client which OCRs the netguard images. Also, there's a ton of javascript
which has to be executed.

BNZ do offer 'PC business banking' via a Windows or Mac-only app which
accesses the BNZ servers via some protocol - but that forces use of
non-free software. Also, they charge like a wounded bull for the
software and the access account.

I'm hoping that some financial institution on these shores may offer
some kind of API accessible through means such as SOAP or XML-RPC over
https which allows a program to connect, authenticate, choose dates and
account(s) then download the transaction data.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
David