Galileo integrates with Plaid to Simplify ACH Transfer Setup

Galileo announced its integration with Plaid today, giving Galileo clients a streamlined experience in the bank authentication process for its customers. With this integration, joint clients of Galileo and Plaid may offer their customers an easy way to connect their bank accounts and initiate ACH transfers. “Our new integration with Plaid supports our mission to remove the complexities of payment processing, so our clients can focus on innovation and the customer experience,” said Clay Wilkes, Galileo CEO. “Leveraging Plaid’s technology, we’re excited to offer a simplified process for our clients and minimise ongoing requirements to initiate ACH transfers.” With connections to more than 11,000 financial institutions, Plaid enables fintechs and app providers to seamlessly access consumer-permissioned data needed to deliver financial products and services. With this latest platform integration, Galileo clients can enable their customers to conveniently authorize the transaction that initiates an ACH transfer. “Today’s consumers expect the convenience of accessing all their bank information—from multiple banks and neobanks—from their financial apps,” added Wilkes. “Plaid has removed the complexity of meeting that expectation by making it simple for developers to authenticate customers’ bank accounts.” The benefits to Galileo clients include:

• Easier integration. Clients must still integrate with both Galileo and Plaid, but the Plaid integration is simplified tremendously.
• Safer. Only tokens are passed between Plaid, the app and Galileo, so no customer data is exposed.
• Simpler. Clients avoid having to do their own ID and balance checks, and retaining sensitive customer data on their systems.

The integration also benefits the sponsoring banks associated with the accounts, because the routing and transit number is verified before they receive the transaction, ultimately minimising transaction risk. “ACH payments have become increasingly popular for many consumers; a trend accelerated this year during the COVID-related shift toward ecommerce and away from brick-and-mortar retail experiences,” said Lowell Putnam, head of partnerships, Plaid. “However, the infrastructure and user experience around these payments hasn’t kept up with this new demand, which is why we’re excited to work with Galileo to provide a faster and easier experience for their clients to offer ACH transfers securely.”