[nzlug] Linux-friendly banks in NZ?

[Andrew Errington]

On Fri, May 2, 2008 12:44, David McNab wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-05-02 at 15:22 +1200, Mark Foster wrote:
>
>> How're your online banking credentials stored and read into the script
>> for authentication purposes, David?  Sounds a bit risky...
>
> I would prompt for them with a dialog box. With this, the risk should
> not exceed that of accessing online banking via a regular web browser.

Who is 'them'?

This is not really about being 'linux friendly', it's about being techie
friendly.  What you are doing (I think) is trying to script something for
someone so that they can press a button and get their data.  Since there
is no single standard for this you will have to make a bespoke solution
for every bank that your clients use.

Unfortunately, logging into online banking is an all-or-nothing
proposition.  Once you have logged in you can get the transaction data
(which is what you want) but you can also send money, pay bills, open term
deposits etc.  It seems to me that you need the bank to provide a subset
of these facilities (i.e. transaction data only) which perhaps needs only
a lower level of protection.

Have you tried actually talking to the banks[1]?  Since you are asking
about all banks then it would seem that you have no compunction in moving
to the bank that provides what you want.  The other way of looking at this
is to stay with the bank you have if they are receptive to your
requirements.

However, since your clients have to log on to the website (and suffer the
byzantine security measures) for other banking operations, why make a
special case for this?

Andrew

[1] Remember, you are their customer.  They serve you.