> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.finta.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bank Connections

> Connect your banks, credit cards, investment accounts, and payment processors to Finta. Supports Plaid, GoCardless, Mercury, and Stripe.

A bank connection is an authorized link between Finta and one of your financial accounts. Once connected, Finta automatically syncs your transactions, balances, and other financial data to your destinations.

You can connect as many accounts as your plan allows and route them to different destinations based on how you want to organize your data.

## Providers

Finta supports four providers. The right one depends on where your accounts are and what type of data you need.

| Provider       | Region     | What it connects                                                  | How it syncs                                          |
| -------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **Plaid**      | US, Canada | Thousands of banks, credit cards, investment and loan accounts    | Webhook-triggered when your bank reports new activity |
| **GoCardless** | Europe, UK | Banks via open banking across the UK and Europe                   | Daily scheduled sync                                  |
| **Mercury**    | US         | Mercury business bank accounts                                    | Real-time via webhooks                                |
| **Stripe**     | Global     | Charges, customers, invoices, subscriptions, Issuing transactions | Real-time via webhooks                                |

### When to use which provider

* **Plaid** is the default for US and Canadian bank accounts. It covers the widest range of institutions including checking, savings, credit cards, investments, and loans.
* **GoCardless** is for European and UK bank accounts. It uses open banking, which means your bank authorizes Finta directly (no screen-scraping).
* **Mercury** is for Mercury customers who want a direct integration. It provides real-time updates instead of the daily sync you'd get connecting Mercury through Plaid.
* **Stripe** is for syncing your Stripe business data. It pulls in charges, customers, products, prices, subscriptions, and invoices.

## How automatic syncs work

After connecting an account, Finta keeps your data in sync automatically. The method depends on the provider:

**Webhook-driven (Plaid, Mercury, Stripe):** These providers notify Finta when something changes. A new transaction posts to your bank account, and Finta picks it up within minutes. Mercury and Stripe send real-time webhooks. Plaid sends update notifications that trigger a sync.

**Scheduled (GoCardless):** Finta runs a daily sync to pull the latest transactions and balances. Some European banks also have rate limits on how often data can be fetched, so daily is the most reliable cadence.

Where supported, Finta also runs periodic backfills to catch anything webhooks might miss.

## Connecting your first account

Click **Connect Account** from the Accounts page in the Finta dashboard. Search for your institution and Finta will show you the available provider. Follow the prompts to securely authorize access.

Finta requests read-only access to your financial data. Bank usernames and passwords are never stored by Finta—authentication is handled via OAuth tokens managed by the provider's own security infrastructure.