Schwab brokerage import issues

Since mid October, customers of Charles Schwab brokerage have found that they are unable to download data from their brokerage accounts into 3rd party applications like StockMarketEye. Frustratingly, this was not due to any change made by users or by StockMarketEye. It seems to be something with Schwab’s “direct connect” (i.e. OFX) service.

Based on numerous reports, the change at Schwab was intentional. Many customers have received the response below (or a similar response) from Schwab when contacting them for more information on the situation. Here’s what Schwab has said:

“As of market close on October 16, 2020, Schwab made the decision to restrict access to its legacy OFX (ofx.schwab.com) for all third parties except for: Quicken (personal finance management), TurboTax, and H&R Block (for tax preparation). This step is being taken to secure our clients’ data; and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. Third-parties who have historically used OFX to aggregate Schwab client data (such as StockMarketEye) are encouraged to register for access to the [new] Retail Account Aggregation API at “developer.schwab.com”.”

What We’re Doing Now

In the short term, we will release a new version of StockMarketEye which supports importing Schwab’s CSV files that contain historical transactions. New documentation on the steps to do the export at Schwab and the import into StockMarketEye will also be made available. We understand that this process is cumbersome and time consuming. But it is something we can get out to you quickly.

Longer term, we are looking into various ways of using Schwab’s new API. With a new integration for Schwab, importing and updating of Schwab accounts will work smoothly again in StockMarketEye. However, at this time, we don’t have an ETA on when that level of integration will be available. We’ll update this blog post when we have a more concrete timeline in place. Thanks for your patience! 🙂

Updates

[Update – October 29, 2020 – Short-Term Workaround] StockMarketEye 5.3.3 has been released. v5.3.3 includes support for importing Schwab’s historical transaction CSV files. Our User’s Guide contains detailed instructions on how to use the import.

[Update – November 29, 2020 – Interim Workaround] StockMarketEye 5.4 has been released. v5.4 includes support for importing and updating from Charles Schwab again. On the surface, the interim solution allows StockMarketEye to import and update from Schwab just as before. Under the hood, there have been changes which allow StockMarketEye to access Schwab’s “direct connect” service in a more secure and controlled manner. This is a temporary fix, while we work more with Schwab to build out a long term solution using Schwab’s new API. We strongly suggest reading our User’s Guide section on importing from Charles Schwab before importing or updating your Schwab portfolios in StockMarketEye.