I had an opportunity to sit down with Nicolas Delattre, a Montreal-based software developer and Wealthica supporter who released an unofficial mobile app using the Wealthica API (the application was authorized by the Wealthica team).
He is the first Wealthica user to release an application that uses our API and we hope this encourages others to go that route.
We discussed his initial interest in Wealthica, reasons for building the Android app as well as his views on the open banking movement.
Hi Nicolas, nice to connect with you. Can you tell me a little bit about your professional background?
Hello Phil, I have an engineering degree from France where I experienced the arrival of the Internet and open software. It was around 1993, in the computer room of the school I attended; I was fortunate to have a passionate teacher. There was a lot of excitement, especially seeing Java, Javascript, and Linux come to life. Other players at the time did not last but influenced the industry for years to come such as Netscape Server and Silicon Graphics!
Subsequently, I have always worked in computer science, first on client server applications with Delphi; then on Web applications, always with Java and Linux. Currently, I focus on cloud computing, more specifically PAAS solutions and micro services architectures.
I like to think I’m well-rounded hence I’m interested in everything related to computers. I develop mobile applications on Android on my free time and like to find solutions with these new constraints (screen size, memory…) and provide simple solutions for all.
Much change and transformation is underway in the sectors I previously stated and it’s exciting to experience such developments.
What did you like about Wealthica and its product offering?
Wealthica provides a simple solution to a complex problem: providing a consolidated view of securities held by a client across several institutions.
On a daily basis, the solution offers an aggregation of all my investment accounts and provides me with a consolidated view of all securities on a website. In a simple and prompt manner, you exactly know what happened to your values. In addition, you have access to a set of high quality reporting tools.
Wealthica provides a simple solution to a complex problem: providing a consolidated view of securities held by a client across several institutions.
For investors, whether they are self-directed or advisors, it’s really neat and simple. I salute the enormous work done to maintain such frameworks every day.
What made you decide to create a mobile app based on the Wealthica API? How has the experience been so far?
Initially, I made myself a mobile application that allows me to trade using the APIs of my online broker. I like to own my data and decide how I use it.
Then, through my professional activities, I was given a presentation of the solutions proposed by Wealthica. This is where I learned that Wealthica had an API for developers. I told myself that I could use such to facilitate my own development endeavours.
I also noticed that there was no Android application for Wealthica.
From there, I decided to release an application to fill this gap. Development was fast as the documentation on APIs, design and features was quite helpful. I had a few conversations with Simon Boulet (Wealthica’s CEO) which helped, and it in the end it was a cool experience to develop the application.
“All your wealths in one application” is free, and currently available in the Google Play Store. I’ve gotten positive user feedback so far.
What is your take on the open banking movement? Do you think Canada is slowly but surely catching up with other jurisdictions such as the UK, EU or Australia when it comes to “freeing” financial data?
My point of view as a user and developer is that the need to be able to freely access your own financial data is clearly there.
In recent years, software architectures have changed and more and more APIs are available. There is a lot of legal work to be done, but some actors are well ahead and showing the way.
We are still far from a standardized API for specific industries because we are dealing with areas where there are a lot of actors with older and newer systems alike. This is where Wealthica and others bring a simple solution.
I strongly believe in the positive dynamics of open data because it creates a healthy competition and it is always for the benefits of the end users.
We are still far from a standardized API for specific industries because we are dealing with areas where there are a lot of actors with older and newer systems alike. This is where Wealthica and others bring a simple solution.
To answer your question, my feeling is that Canadian actors have realized that they have no choice but to move towards this openness of data so as not to be left out.
Thanks for your time Nicolas, I appreciate your answers.
My pleasure, thanks for taking the time to ask me those questions.
