About FDX

No content found

No content found

No content found

No content found

OFX Work Group

About OFX

Open Financial Exchange is an open standard for client-server systems and cloud based APIs for exchanging financial data, and performing financial transactions between financial institutions, and financial applications.

Further, the API allows the exchange to be facilitated either directly or via an intermediary such as data aggregation service providers.

OFX has been the dominant direct API for banks to provide data to financial applications since 1997. It is actively deployed at over 7,000 financial institutions, and the remaining institutions have easy access to certified OFX servers via all major technology providers and systems integrators.

The Open Financial Exchange specification is publicly available for implementation by any financial institution or vendor, and is available for review on this website. Open Financial Exchange is being used by CheckFree, Intuit, Microsoft and many others as the mechanism for supporting financial data exchange in their products and services.

OFX is widely implemented (>7,000 OFX FIs).

OFX is developed and maintained by an active consortium of leading financial application, aggregation services, and financial services providers.

Active OFX solution providers participants include:

Evolution of Open Financial Exchange

Open Financial Exchange API Specification

OFX enables efficient transfer of data between the aggregation service providers and Financial Institutions. In addition to the previous authentication mechanisms, OFX 2.2 onwards provides a tokenized authentication solution to improve upon the existing protocol. It continues to offer secure and efficient access for consumers to access their financial data.

The specification is split into two parts for easier consumption – OFX Banking 2.3, and OFX Tax 2021.0. The tax specification has adopted calendar versioning for an intuitive mapping to tax years.

OFX Specification and Schemas

Version / Description Specification (.pdf) Schema Files (.zip) All Files (.zip)
OFX Banking Version 2.3 Download Download Download
Tax Extension Version 2021.0 Download Download Download

Note: You may find previous OFX Specifications below. To match current IRS forms, only the latest version of the OFX Tax Extension is published.

2021 Supported Tax Forms

Core Tax Forms – Included in Specification documentation

Form 1098 : Mortgage Interest Statement
Form 1098-E : Student Loan Interest Statement
Form 1098-T : Tuition Statement
Form 1099-B : Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions
Form 1099-DIV : Dividends and Distributions
Form 1099-INT : Interest Income
Form 1099-MISC : Miscellaneous Income
Form 1099-OID : Original Issue Discount
Form 1099-R : Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.
Form 1099-NEC: Non-Employee Compensation
Form W-2 : Wage and Tax Statement

Schedule K-1 Tax Forms

Form 1065 K-1 : Partner's Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.
Form 1120S K-1 : Shareholder's Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.
Form 1041 K-1 : Beneficiary's Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.
Form 5227-K-1: Split-Interest Trust Beneficiary's schedule K-1

Additional Tax Forms

Form 1097-BTC : Bond Tax Credit
Form 1098-C : Contributions of Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes
Form 1099-A : Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property
Form 1099-C : Cancellation of Debt
Form 1099-CAP : Changes in Corporate Control and Capital Structure
Form 1099-G : Certain Government Payments
Form 1099-H : Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) Advance Payments
Form 1099-K : Merchant Card and Third-Party Network Payments
Form 1099-LTC : Long-Term Care and Accelerated Death Benefits
Form 1099-PATR : Taxable Distributions Received From Cooperatives
Form 1099-Q : Payments From Qualifed Education Programs
Form 1099-S : Proceeds From Real Estate Transactions
Form 1099-SA : Distributions From an HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA
Form 2439: Notice to Shareholder of Undistributed Long-Term Capital Gains
Form 5498 : IRA Contribution Information
Form 5498-ESA : Coverdell ESA Contribution Information
Form 5498-SA : HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA Information
Form W-2G : Certain Gambling Winnings
Form W-2C: Corrected Wage and Tax Statement

v2.3 Supported Message Sets

Banking
BillPay
CreditCard
Email
Image
InterTransfer
Investment
Loan
PresentmentDelivery
PresentmentDirectory
Profile
SecuritiesList
Signon
Signup
WireTransfer

OFX Roadmap

Previous Versions

Version / Description Specification (.pdf) Schema Files (.zip) All Files (.zip)
Tax Extension Version 2020.0 Download Download Download
Version 2.2.1 Download
Version 2.2
See also OFX Implementation Guide for 2.2 and OAuth		 Download Download
Version 2.1.1 (Equivalent to OFX 2.1 with MFA) Download
Version 2.0.3 (Equivalent to OFX 2.0.2 with MFA)
Note: OFX 2.0.3 is the same as OFX 2.1.1 but without loans and amortization, images, investment closing and Automatic 10 way download. (It is therefore a smaller spec and more easily perused if the newer features aren’t needed.) Unlike OFX 1.0.3, 401k and Tax are included in OFX 2.0.3. OFX 2.x specifications are also XML (versus SGML) based.		 Download
Version 1.6 (last of the SGML specs) Download
Version 1.0.3 (equivalent to OFX 1.0.2 with MFA) Download
Version 1.0.2 Download
Aggregation Specification 1.0 (.doc) Download
What are the primary enhancements in OFX 2.2?
OFX 2.2 includes a new OAuth token-based authentication model and expanded data access. OAuth offers increased security, and the new data elements significantly enhance data transfer in OFX solutions.

Open Financial Exchange was also developed with input from financial institutions and financial services companies.
What does OFX stand for?
Open Financial Exchange. With more 7,000 banks and brokerages as well as major payroll processing companies using OFX, the specification is the most widely adopted open standard for the exchange of financial information between consumers and financial services providers.
How did OFX start?
On January 16, 1997 Microsoft, Intuit, and Checkfree announced a technical specification, called Open Financial Exchange, that would enable financial institutions to exchange financial data over the Internet with Web users and users of popular software such as Quicken and Microsoft Money. The objective was to eliminate confusion and uncertainty with a single, unified, open specification.

The initial specification was released on February 14, 1997. It merged elements of Intuit's OpenExchange, Microsoft's Open Financial Connectivity, and Checkfree's electronic banking and payment protocols.
Who contributes to the standard?
Originally created in concert with and in response to the needs of the financial services industry, the Open Financial Exchange specification continues to reflect the involvement of leading financial institutions and technology companies. Innovators in the creation and delivery of online financial services include U.S. banks, credit unions and brokerage houses, as well as fintech companies. Technology solution providers assist these financial institutions to develop tailored solutions.
Why was it developed as an open specification?
Open specifications are more compelling than closed proprietary solutions for financial institutions because they can easily use open standards to create custom implementations for their unique needs. OFX combines industry-standard authoring, networking, and security into a highly effective and durable standard. Open Financial Exchange has helped accelerate the adoption of online financial services by financial institutions and their customers.
How does OFX help reduce implementation costs?
Open Financial Exchange is platform-independent, so it frees financial services companies to choose the platforms, processors and systems they use.
What is the latest version of OFX?
As of February 2016, the latest version of OFX is 2.2.
What is the OFX version history?
OFX has evolved through the years from OFX 1.0, which used an SGML syntax, to the current OFX 2.2, which uses XML. The biggest reason for the SGML-to-XML transition was retaining interoperability and backward compatibility, while maintaining a modern syntax within the open specification. Significant changes came when the financial industry introduced Multi-Factor Authentication in 2006. The OFX consortium branched off of the OFX 1.0 and OFX 2.0 versions that were most heavily used at the time, and created XML-format spec versions. This change resulted in OFX 1.0.3, 2.0.3, and 2.1.1. The only functionality change for these numbered versions was the addition of MFA.

OFX 2.2 is the current version, with all of the features of previous versions, including backward compatibility and MFA. It expands the specification with data tags and modern security features through OAuth.
What versions of OFX are production clients and servers using?
Many servers and clients currently in production were initially developed using OFX 1.0.2 using an SGML-based OFX syntax. Many have transitioned over to XML (introduced with the OFX 2.0 specification). However, for backwards compatibility purposes, both SGML (OFX 1.x) and XML (OFX 2.x) are supported in the current marketplace by most processors.
How many banks use OFX?
More than 7,000 banks and brokerages use OFX, as well as major payroll processing companies. The specification is the most widely adopted open standard for the exchange of financial information between consumers and financial services providers.
Is OFX only implemented in the United States?
The consortium does not track specific implementations of OFX such as names of financial institutions, what versions or parts of the specification they support, etc. However, the specification is open, and is not geographically restricted. Some companies in Europe, South America and Australia appear to have implemented OFX.
Since OFX is “open” can my product connect to any financial institution that supports OFX?
Most financial institutions use a hosting provider for their OFX servers. Because those arrangements involve contractual details that may limit access, you should contact the financial institution
Is there a public list of financial institution OFX server URLs?
There is no public list of financial institution OFX server URLs. While the OFX specification is "open" for development, OFX request/response connectivity details are normally proprietary.
Why should a financial institution or financial application developer consider implementing OFX?
The OFX standard is a mature, proven financial data API that is broadly implemented across top financial institutions and financial applications.

No content found

No content found