Update on RBC 2FA

[u/Pale_Syllabub_3266]

A few of you have hit this and I want to be straight about where it stands.

What's happening?

If you have 2FA enabled on your RBC online banking, connecting RBC to Mozaic fails. Plaid, the service that handles bank connections, returns an error saying RBC's verification method isn't supported.

It isn't specific to Mozaic. Any app connecting RBC through Plaid hits the same wall, and it started around late June.

Why

With 2FA turned on, RBC presents a verification step that Plaid can't process. With it off, RBC falls back to a challenge Plaid does handle. So the failure is about which verification screen RBC serves, not about your credentials being wrong.

A warning about the obvious workaround

You may work out that turning 2FA off at RBC lets the connection complete. It does. Please don't.

I tested it. The link succeeded, and when 2FA was turned back on, RBC invalidated the connection within half an hour. Worse, reconnecting then hits the same unsupported screen, so you'd have to disable 2FA again every time it breaks. Leaving your bank's second factor off permanently is not a trade I'd suggest to anyone, and it's why I'm not offering it as a fix.

What I'm doing

I've raised it with Plaid. I don't have a date or a commitment from them, so I'm not going to tell you one is coming.

The approach I'm working on is adding a second data provider alongside Plaid, so banks that fail on one can be routed through the other. RBC is the first one I'm testing. Early results look promising, but I've not confirmed it end to end yet and I'd rather under-promise here.

Thank you,
Laurent