# Mastercard Open Finance Data
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-data/documentation/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

#### Access your customers' financial data through a single, secure API {#access-your-customers-financial-data-through-a-single-secure-api}

Mastercard Open Finance Data enables you to access your users' financial data from thousands of banks and financial institutions. Built on Mastercard's global open finance platform, this API supports a unified integration model that simplifies access to account information, balances, transactions, and account holder details---without the need to integrate separately with each institution's interface.

Mastercard Open Finance Data is part of Mastercard's broader Open Finance ecosystem, designed to help partners build innovative financial services, improve decision-making, and deliver seamless user experiences.
Note: The Mastercard Open Finance Data product page can be found [here](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-data/product/open-finance-data/index.md).

## How it works {#how-it-works}

By integrating to the Mastercard Open Finance Data API in your application, you can guide your users through the process of securely sharing their financial data and use this data to provide compelling, personalised services.

Mastercard's Flow provides a user experience to allow the user to consent to and authorise financial data sharing. This experience is configurable to allow you to provide certain screens in the journey.

The process begins within your application, where you prepare the user for data sharing and initiate the connection to Mastercard's Flow through the Open Finance Data API. The user is then guided through a secure consent experience, including authentication with their bank to authorize access.

Once consent is obtained, the system will collect the user financial data and make it available for your application to deliver personalised services. Clients receive updated account and transaction data at regular intervals without user interaction, provided the consent and access tokens remain valid, ensuring a seamless and continuous experience.

![how-it-works](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/open-finance-data/documentation/img/how-mcobs-works_b.png)

#### Next Steps: {#next-steps}

Now that you have an understanding of what the service does, proceed to the [API Basics](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-data/documentation/api-basics/authentication/index.md) section for details on authentication and encryption.

## Getting started {#getting-started}

You can get started integrating with our API in just a few steps. [Contact us](mailto:openbankingeu_support@mastercard.com%3E) to start the process.

We will provide you with access to our sandbox where you can integrate to our APIs and test your solution. The sandbox includes access to our test bank, which simulates the behaviour of a provider bank, with example users and account information.

## More information {#more-information}

* Refer to the [API Reference](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-data/documentation/api-reference/index.md) to learn more about the API.