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This page defines the terms used throughout Meld’s Bank Linking documentation so that you and your team can speak the same language as the API. Use the diagram at the bottom to see how each entity relates to the others.

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Terms

  • Account — Your Meld account, which represents your company.
  • Customer — A customer you create with Meld. A single customer usually represents one person or business and can have multiple bank connections. Track customers using customerId (a Meld-generated unique ID), or pass your own ID in as externalCustomerId.
  • Service Provider — The entity responsible for completing a connection between a user and a bank account. Plaid, Finicity, MX, Yodlee, Salt Edge, and Salt Edge Partners are all service providers.
  • Connection — A link between a service provider and a login to a bank. A connection can have several financial accounts associated with it (for example, a checking account and a savings account). A connection is tied to a particular institution.
  • Institution — A financial entity where money is stored. A bank is the most common type of institution; credit unions are another.
  • Financial Account — Includes checking accounts, savings accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, credit card accounts, and so on. A single connection can have multiple financial accounts, and individual accounts may support different sets of products. For example, credit card accounts don’t support identifiers (i.e. routing and account numbers).

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Relationship diagram