Intuit Mint, Chase Bank & USAA Bank

Empowering Users with Transparent Data Control

Project Overview

Mint connects customers’ financial accounts—including bank accounts, credit cards, and bills—presenting everything in a single place with automatic updates and categorization, as evident in the home dashboard screens displaying a user’s $12,013 balance across accounts with clear breakdowns of cash, credit debt, and investments.
Working at Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and open banking solutions that had established data exchange agreements with major financial institutions like Chase Bank and USAA, I helped create a progressive disclosure design that communicates what data is being shared, with whom, for what purpose, and for how long. This solution extends the FDX launch to help millions financially-conscious Americans gain confidence in their digital finance management. This project shows designs that improve integration with major institutions like Chase Bank and USAA, along with compliance with FDX guidelines (which both Intuit and Finicity helped establish as founding board members), delivering a system that empowers users to make informed decisions about their financial information.

My Role

As a Design Lead at Finicity, I focused on user experience, visual design, and prototyping for the Intuit Mint Financial Data Exchange interface. I created wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes aligned with Intuit’s brand and met FDX compliance. My work included designing transparent permission screens that informed users about the specific data accessed, like SSNs and account types. I also integrated biometric authentication and secure OAuth flows while reflecting the visual identities of partner banks like Chase and USAA. Through usability testing, I refined the interface to communicate data-sharing details in a transparent and user-friendly manner effectively.

Project Duration: October - November 2019

Key Partners: Intuit, Financial Data Exchange (FDX), Chase Bank, USAA, Finicity

Team: Fas Lebbie, John Adams

Problem Context

Intuit Mint is a free personal financial management service used by over six million consumers in the US and Canada. It consolidates financial information—such as bank accounts, credit cards, and bills—into one platform. Mint updates and categorizes information in real-time, allowing users to track spending and monitor investments. It also provides bill reminders and payment services, enabling users to manage finances, as shown in the app’s home screens. Given Mint’s central role in managing users’ financial lives, the financial data ecosystem presents challenges, with consumers concerned about sharing personal information, especially after major data breaches. In 2019, as part of Finicity’s open banking initiative (later acquired by Mastercard), I was tasked with creating a secure interface for Intuit Mint to address data security concerns while maintaining compliance with Financial Data Exchange (FDX) standards. FDX, founded in 2018, is a non-profit organization unifying the financial sector around secure data exchange, with Intuit and Finicity as founding board members. Authorized data sharing enables various personal finance apps that have transformed financial management. Research shows 63 percent of smartphone users have at least one financial app, highlighting the tension between data security concerns and financial technology convenience. This discrepancy stems from a lack of transparency in how financial data is shared. Users must make consent decisions without fully understanding the implications when third-party apps request access to their financial data. This was evident in traditional methods where users shared login credentials with third-party apps without clarity on data access.

Credit: Getty

Design Interventions

Our design intervention focused on Mint’s users, which had grown to over 20 million by 2019 from six million core users across the United States and Canada. We particularly focused on those who are financially conscious and intentional with their finances. According to Mint’s 2019 data, over 70% of users pay off credit card balances monthly, suggesting they invest time to gain confidence in their financial processes. Mint’s existing functionality allowed users to see their financial status, track spending, monitor investments, and receive bill reminders in one place, as shown in dashboard screens displaying consolidated financial information. Our challenge was to extend this convenience while maintaining security when third-party applications requested access to this consolidated data. This became increasingly important as Finicity had established data exchange agreements with major financial institutions like Chase Bank (in 2017) and USAA (in 2018), moving from credential sharing to API-based data exchange. As a founding board member of the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) organization alongside Intuit, Finicity was committed to implementing secure, transparent standards for financial data sharing. We developed an interface for the Financial Data Exchange platform that enables users to understand what data is being shared, with whom, for what purpose, and for how long. Building on this, my UX solutions —started with basic information about connections, then detailing specific data requested (SSN, routing numbers, account information), and providing granular control over which accounts to connect, why this information is needed, and how long it will be accessed integrating financial institutions, particularly Chase Bank and USAA, which many Mint users rely on for primary banking.

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Design Process

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Reflections & Impact

This work with Intuit Mint builds on the early work I contributed to the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) project, where I was one of the early designers. This project continued the FDX momentum and contributed to the broader movement toward secure, transparent financial data sharing. By 2019, FDX had grown to 36 member organizations spanning financial institutions, data aggregators, core processors, and fintechs, committed to enhancing consumer controls through standardized APIs and security practices. The Finicity-Intuit Mint partnership demonstrated that consumer-permissioned data sharing could be secure and user-friendly, setting an industry precedent. Finicity’s work was forward-thinking as it expanded data exchange agreements with major financial institutions. Mastercard later acquired it in 2020 for $825 million, validating the importance of open banking solutions. The industry is shifting towards recognizing the importance of transparency and user control in building trust. The project’s lasting impact is evident in its design patterns, which have become standard practice in financial data-sharing interfaces, prioritizing transparency, control, and security while maintaining user-friendliness.

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