Consumer Consent Notice

1. About this notice

• 1.1This notice explains, in plain English, what happens when you choose to connect a bank account so that your accountant can keep your books up to date. Please read it before you connect. It is provided by Maxware Ltd ("Maxware", "we", "us"), the provider of the MAX platform ("MAX").
• 1.2Connecting your bank uses "open banking", a secure, regulated way of sharing bank data that puts you in control. You decide which accounts to share, you approve the connection with your own bank, and you can stop sharing at any time.
• 1.3The regulated open banking service that reads your bank data is provided by Yapily Connect Ltd ("Yapily"), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide account information services. Maxware provides the MAX technology platform that delivers your data to your accountant; Maxware is not itself the FCA-authorised account information service provider. We support and align our part of the journey with the FCA’s Consumer Duty, so that the information and choices you are given here are clear, fair and not misleading.

2. Before you connect – at a glance

• 2.1Here is the short version. Before you connect a bank account, it is worth knowing the following.

• Who reads your data: your bank shares it securely through Yapily Connect Ltd, the FCA-regulated open banking provider.
• Who receives it: your accountant, through the MAX platform, so they can keep your books up to date.
• What is shared: your account details and transactions, for the accounts you choose – nothing else.
• Your login stays private: you approve the connection on your bank’s or Yapily’s own secure pages. Maxware never sees or stores your bank login details.
• It is time-limited: your consent lasts up to 90 days and must then be actively reconfirmed – it will not roll on silently.
• You are in control: you can withdraw your consent at any time from the Portal or your bank’s app, and MAX will stop receiving your data straight away.
• There is a charge: a per-bank-feed charge applies for open banking connectivity, so connecting more banks or accounts costs proportionally more (see section 8).

3. Who is involved

• 3.1You. You are the account holder deciding whether to share your bank data. You choose which accounts to connect and you can change your mind at any time.
• 3.2Your bank. Your bank holds your account and only releases data once you have approved the connection using its own secure login and security checks (known as strong customer authentication).
• 3.3Yapily Connect Ltd. Yapily is the regulated business that carries out the account information service – it securely retrieves the data from your bank once you have consented. Yapily is authorised and regulated by the FCA for this activity.
• 3.4Maxware and MAX. Maxware provides the MAX platform, which receives the data from Yapily and makes it available to your accountant. Maxware provides the technology; it is not the FCA-authorised account information service provider, and it never receives or stores your bank login details.
• 3.5Your accountant. Your accountant (the practice you work with) uses the data in MAX to carry out bookkeeping and accounting work for you.

4. What data is accessed, and what it is used for

• 4.1For each account you choose to connect, the following information is accessed:

• your account details – such as the account name, sort code, account number and balance; and
• your transactions – the payments in and out of that account, including dates, amounts and the descriptions your bank provides.

• 4.2Only the accounts you select are shared. Accounts you do not choose are not connected, and no data is taken from them.
• 4.3The data is used for one purpose: bookkeeping and accounting carried out by your accountant – for example, matching and categorising transactions, reconciling your accounts, and preparing your records and returns. It is not used for marketing, and it is not sold to anyone.
• 4.4Your accountant is responsible, as data controller, for how they use your data to provide their services to you. How Maxware handles personal data within MAX is explained in our Privacy Policy.

5. Your bank login stays private

• 5.1You never share your bank login with Maxware. When you connect, you are handed over to your bank’s own secure pages (via Yapily) to approve access using your normal banking security. Your username, password and security codes are entered there – not in MAX.
• 5.2Maxware never sees, receives or stores your bank login details. MAX only ever receives the account and transaction data you have agreed to share, after you have approved the connection.

6. How long your consent lasts, and reconfirming it

• 6.1Your consent lasts for up to 90 days. This is a rule of open banking designed to protect you – access does not continue indefinitely on a single approval.
• 6.2Before the 90 days are up, you will be asked to actively reconfirm your consent if you want the connection to continue. If you do nothing, the connection simply lapses and MAX stops receiving new data from that account.
• 6.3Reconfirming is quick and does not require you to log in to your bank again. You simply confirm with a single tap in the Portal, and your existing consent is extended for a further 90 days.

7. Withdrawing your consent

• 7.1You can withdraw your consent at any time – you do not need a reason, and there is no charge to stop.
• 7.2You can do this in either of two ways: from the Portal in MAX, or directly in your bank’s app or online banking, using its open banking or "connected apps" settings.
• 7.3As soon as you withdraw consent, MAX stops receiving further data from that account. Withdrawing consent does not delete data already shared and used for your bookkeeping; that data is kept and deleted in line with our Privacy Policy and Data Retention Policy.
• 7.4Withdrawing consent stops the data feed. It does not, by itself, change the agreement between you and your accountant. If you are unsure how stopping a feed affects your bookkeeping, please speak to your accountant first.

8. What open banking connectivity costs

• 8.1Open banking connectivity is a paid service. A per-bank-feed charge applies for each bank connection used to bring your data into MAX. This charge covers the regulated connectivity provided through Yapily.
• 8.2The charge is per bank connection (per "feed"). This means the more banks you connect – and, where relevant, the more accounts requiring separate feeds – the more feeds you use, and the higher the total cost will be, in proportion to the number of feeds.
• 8.3The charge for each open banking connection is made by Maxware to your accountant, not to you directly. Your accountant may include this cost in the fees they charge you for their services. If you would like to know whether a charge applies to you and how much it is, please ask your accountant.
• 8.4We keep this pricing clear and upfront so that you know a charge applies before you consent. We periodically review our pricing to make sure it continues to represent fair value, consistent with the FCA’s Consumer Duty expectations on consumer understanding and price and value for the parts of the journey we control.

9. Your consent statement

• 9.1The wording below is what you will see and agree to on screen, immediately before we send you to Yapily’s secure pages to connect your bank:

By selecting ‘Connect’, I confirm that:

• I want to connect the bank account(s) I select so that my accountant can access my account details and transactions through the MAX platform for bookkeeping and accounting;
• my bank will share this data securely through Yapily Connect Ltd, the FCA-regulated open banking provider, after I approve the connection using my bank’s own security;
• Maxware provides the MAX platform and will not see or store my bank login details;
• this consent lasts up to 90 days, after which I must actively reconfirm it, and I can withdraw it at any time from the Portal or my bank’s app, after which MAX will stop receiving my data; and
• a per-bank-feed charge applies for open banking connectivity, which my accountant pays and may include in the fees for their services to me.

I have read the Consumer Consent Notice and I agree to connect the account(s) I select.

• 9.2When you select "Connect", you will be taken to Yapily’s secure pages to choose your bank and approve access. You can cancel at any point before you approve, and no data is shared unless and until you do.

10. Frequently asked questions

11. Help and how to complain

• 11.1If you have any questions about connecting your bank, this notice, or how your data is used, please contact us by email at nyal@usemax.ai. Your accountant can also help with questions about your bookkeeping.
• 11.2If something has gone wrong and you wish to complain, please email us at nyal@usemax.ai. We will acknowledge your complaint within five (5) working days and aim to give you a full written response within thirty (30) working days. If we need longer for a complex matter, we will explain why and keep you updated. Full details are in our Complaints Procedure.
• 11.3If your complaint concerns how your personal data has been handled, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at www.ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would, however, welcome the chance to put things right first.
• 11.4Because the account information service is provided by Yapily Connect Ltd as the FCA-regulated provider, some concerns about the open banking connection itself may need to be raised with Yapily or your bank. We will help point you to the right place if you are unsure.

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