The UK is moving in this direction. The ODI/Fingleton report into Data Sharing and Open Data for Banks[1] recommended creating a open banking API standard and suggested using OAuth, using Twitter as an example (see p24 of the report). Work has begun on defining the roadmap towards creating an API standard[2].

1: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-sharing-and-...

2: http://theodi.org/news/open-banking-working-group-uk-experts...

It's absolutely true that offering data migration services decreases bank account stickiness, and that's something everyone is terrified of doing in the finance industry. Customer acquisition costs are so high, I doubt you'd believe me if I explained them to you.

Of course we would believe you. When you use a metric like "customer acquisition costs", you can say pretty much whatever you like.

I'd rather hear something like, "We have such little deployed value at the retail level that no one wishes to contract with us unless we spend a lot of money over here (legalized entrapment codes and marketing)."

But if you think that even pro consumer banks like Simple had better costs, think again.

It could actually be extended into a very compelling product; imagine being able to issue not only read-only tokens, but a token which authorizes the bearer to withdraw up to $100/month. Parents could issue such tokens to children for emergencies, or other such situations.