Five Lakes API integration services (debt & trust account export)

Authentication mirror

We replicate the Five Lakes login handshake — including device binding, token refresh and any MFA challenge — so a back-office service can hold a long-lived session per consenting client. Useful for nightly statement pulls without re-prompting the user.

Enrolled debts API

List, filter and diff a client's enrolled accounts: creditor name, account fragment, original balance, current balance, settlement offer and status (pending, settled, dropped). Drives reconciliation against credit-bureau pulls and creditor letters.

Trust-account ledger API

Time-ordered ledger of every escrow movement: scheduled monthly draft, ad-hoc deposit, attorney/legal fee, settlement disbursement to creditor. Powers GL posting, fee reconciliation and audit reports for both consumers and operators.

Scheduled-activity webhook

Push notifications for the next draft date, planned settlement payment and attorney follow-ups. The webhook payload is idempotent and delivery-acknowledged, so downstream systems (CRM, SMS, email) can rely on at-least-once semantics.

Document & agreement capture

Programmatic capture of approved settlement agreements and disclosure documents. We hash the original PDF, store the metadata (signing party, timestamp, IP), and expose a signed-URL endpoint for retrieval — useful when an auditor or attorney needs the original artifact.

Source-code & documentation drop

Runnable Python or Node.js source, an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Postman collection, integration test harness and an operations runbook covering token rotation, rate-limit backoff and incident response. Pay after acceptance.

1. Bookkeeping sync to QuickBooks / Xero

Context: a debt-settlement firm or its consumer wants every trust-account movement to land in their general ledger automatically.
Data / API: trust-account ledger entries (deposits, fees, disbursements) pulled hourly via the ledger API.
OpenFinance angle: the integration follows the same shape as a Plaid/Akoya account-and-transactions feed, mapping ledger lines to journal entries with a deterministic external_id.

2. NSF and missed-draft early warning

Context: firms lose enrolled clients when a scheduled draft fails and goes unaddressed for days.
Data / API: scheduled-activity webhook plus a delta on trust-account deposits.
OpenFinance angle: mirrors event-driven Open Banking patterns — the consumer's bank-side pull-payment failure is reflected on the trust-account ledger and triggers a retention workflow.

3. Hardship attestation for downstream lenders

Context: a credit-rebuilding partner needs to verify that a consumer is actively enrolled in a debt-resolution program before extending a secured card.
Data / API: a scoped read on enrolled-debt status and consent record.
OpenFinance angle: resembles the consumer-credit verification flows that Spinwheel and similar credit-data platforms surface, but sourced from the debt-relief side rather than the bureau.

4. Compliance evidence pack for FTC / CFPB exam

Context: the firm needs a single, time-stamped evidence pack showing fee was charged only after a settlement was reached and accepted.
Data / API: joined view of settlement-offer status, client approval timestamp and fee ledger entry.
OpenFinance angle: the evidence pack is exported in FDX-style JSON, so an examiner or auditor can replay it with standard tooling.

5. Consumer-facing dashboard widget

Context: a personal-finance app wants to show a Five Lakes client their net debt trajectory next to their bank balances.
Data / API: read-only enrolled-debt totals plus next scheduled draft.
OpenFinance angle: aggregator pulls the data through a per-user OAuth-style token and renders it alongside bank, card and brokerage data.

Authenticated session bootstrap

// Step 1 — exchange user credentials / device binding for an access token.
POST /api/v1/fivelakes/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "client_ref": "FL-2026-00041892",
  "device_fingerprint": "a1b2c3...",
  "consent_scope": ["debts.read", "trust.read", "schedule.read"]
}

// 200 OK
{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOi...",
  "refresh_token": "rft_5f2a...",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "consent_id": "csnt_8821"
}

Enrolled-debts statement query

POST /api/v1/fivelakes/debts/list
Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "client_ref": "FL-2026-00041892",
  "as_of": "2026-05-09",
  "include": ["status", "current_balance", "last_offer"]
}

// 200 OK
{
  "items": [
    {
      "creditor": "Capital One",
      "account_tail": "4421",
      "original_balance": 5820.14,
      "current_balance": 6173.87,
      "status": "negotiation",
      "last_offer": {"amount": 2620.00, "expires_at": "2026-05-22"}
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": null
}

Trust-account ledger + webhook

// Pull ledger
GET /api/v1/fivelakes/trust/ledger?client_ref=FL-2026-00041892&from=2026-04-01
Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>

// Webhook payload (scheduled-activity event)
POST https://your-app.example/hooks/fivelakes
X-FL-Signature: t=1715241600,v1=2c7b...
{
  "event": "schedule.draft.upcoming",
  "client_ref": "FL-2026-00041892",
  "draft_amount": 412.00,
  "draft_date": "2026-05-15",
  "idempotency_key": "evt_91ab44"
}

// On 5xx, the webhook retries with exponential backoff up to 24h.

Regulatory anchors

Debt-settlement data carries a heavier regulatory profile than ordinary bank statements. Our integrations are built to align with the CFPB Regulation F updates to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule for debt-relief services (which restricts upfront fees), and applicable US state attorney-general guidance. Trust-account flows acknowledge the long-standing FDCPA exemption for bona-fide escrow arrangements while still surfacing every movement for audit.

Privacy & data minimisation

Per-consent scoping (debts.read, trust.read, schedule.read) is enforced server-side, PII is masked at rest, and a tamper-evident consent log captures every grant, refresh and revocation. A revoke-now endpoint terminates downstream tokens and triggers cascading deletions across caches and warehouses within an SLA the customer chooses.

About OpenFinance Lab

We are an independent technical studio focused on app protocol analysis and OpenFinance-style API integration. The team mixes engineers from US fintech, debt-resolution operations, banking back-offices and cloud security. We have shipped statement-export, ledger-sync and consent-management pipelines for both regulated lenders and consumer-facing fintechs.

• Debt-relief, consumer credit, and back-office accounting integrations
• Custom Python / Node.js / Go SDKs and integration test harnesses
• Full pipeline coverage: protocol analysis → build → validation → compliance review
• Source code delivery from $300 — receive runnable API source code and full documentation; pay after delivery upon satisfaction
• Pay-per-call API billing — access our hosted endpoints with no upfront cost; ideal for usage-based pricing

Contact

For quotes, sandbox access, or to scope a Five Lakes integration tailored to your stack:

Contact page

Send the target app name (Five Lakes), the data scopes you need (debts / trust ledger / scheduled activity), and any existing sandbox credentials. Two engagement models available: source-code delivery from $300, or pay-per-call hosted API.

Engagement workflow

1. Scope confirmation — which Five Lakes surfaces (debts, trust ledger, scheduled activity, documents) and which downstream system (QuickBooks, CRM, BI).
2. Protocol analysis & consent design (2–5 business days, complexity-dependent).
3. Build, internal validation against fixture data, and signed-webhook plumbing (3–8 business days).
4. Documentation, sample code, and red-team checklist for FDCPA / FTC TSR alignment (1–2 business days).
5. Typical first delivery: 5–15 business days; partner approvals or unusual ledger reconciliations may extend timelines.

FAQ

What Five Lakes data can be exported through an integration?

How long does delivery take?

How do you handle compliance for debt settlement data?

Can I be billed per API call instead of paying upfront?