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One of the big problems with financial data is there is no standard API to get data out of the financial institutions. Mint is a glorified site scraper. As a user you are giving mint your username and password to login and trust that they won't do anything malicious and that they will protect your data.

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There are standard APIs, and in some countries they're coming into law to be offered this year.

Mint itself, like a lot of personal/SME finance apps, started out as a layer on top of Yodlee, or a similar service, at the time providing a technology/data layer for other apps to work with, so it was less giving passwords to apps, but having them pass-through to a heavy lifter. I agree giving passwords away is not wise, however.

I could talk for hours on on changes in APIs happening over the next couple of years here if you fancied. If you'd like to know more, just reply saying so and I can drop you a mail.

I'd actually be curious to know some of this stuff. Email is my handle at gmail.

Even a standard CSV download would be a step up.

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