How so? There's no reason a bank account shouldn't be programmable. If the worry is fraud and account hacks, that already happens when the computer is compromised or people get scammed.
Agreed.
But until we have a better system of plainly showing access levels to one's account its a scammer paradise to allow access via said API.
You and I are educated in the world of API access, so will think twice before clicking "agree" to allowing emoji corp access to my bank account to "verify your identity", but a significant number of people would blindly click allow. Until we have either educated the public, or made an access GUI that stops 99.9% of that kind of use case, its just not worth the hassle.
Nobody says such API would be connected to a person's life holdings. It could be low amounts that are safe to lose in case of a hack.
Of course, you need to educate people to not put all their life savings into those accounts. But the same applies to multiple other services.
as you've alluded to, its not open to consumers, only financial institutions, with good reason. It gives you lots of access to do all sorts of things.
> how I can transfer one pound from me to you using a 20 line Python script?
Now this isn't a usecase I had thought about. I mean there are APIs that I can use to interface to a specific bank that will allow me to do this. But they are hidden behind layers of bureaucracy.
I think the issue for _consumer_ banking is making sure there is enough screening to make sure its not as easy for scammers and tricksters to get money from you.