Patent ID: 7203845

Claim:
A method implemented by a financial analysis system, the method comprising: identifying multiple financial accounts associated with a user, wherein the multiple financial accounts are with a plurality of financial institutions; presenting the user with a plurality of modes, each of which can be associated with one of the plurality of financial institutions, wherein the user has user authentication data for each of the plurality of financial institutions, and wherein each mode directs the financial analysis system to handle user authentication data received from the user in a specified manner, the modes comprising, a low trust mode that directs the financial analysis system to temporarily use the user authentication data received from the user without storing the data; and a plurality of higher trust modes that each direct the financial analysis system to store the user authentication data; receiving a selection of a mode from the user for each of the multiple financial institutions; associating a selected mode with each of the plurality of financial institutions; storing financial institution data for each of the plurality of financial institutions, comprising data which may be used to locate and communicate with each of the plurality of financial institutions; storing the associated modes; and handling the user authentication data associated with each of the plurality of financial institutions as directed by an associated mode each time the financial analysis system accesses one of the multiple financial institutions on behalf of the user.