OFX

Open Financial Exchange, or OFX, is a unified specification for the electronic exchange of financial data between financial institutions, businesses and consumers via the Internet. Open Financial Exchange, which supports transactional Web sites, thin clients and personal financial software, streamlines the process financial institutions need to connect to multiple customer interfaces, processors and systems integrators. By making it more compelling for financial institutions to implement online financial services, Open Financial Exchange was designed to help accelerate the adoption of online financial services by financial institutions and their customers.

OFX was created by CheckFree, Intuit and Microsoft in early 1997.  It is a specification created by vendor partners and, as such, is not a true industry standard.  The Open Financial Exchange specification is publicly available for implementation by any financial institution or vendor, and is being used by CheckFree, Intuit and Microsoft as the primary mechanism for supporting financial data exchange in their products and services.

OFX supports a wide range of financial activities including consumer and small business banking; consumer and small business bill payment; bill presentment and investments, including stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Other financial services, including financial planning and insurance, will be added in the future and will be incorporated into the specification.