What is a member?

A member is an object on the MX platform that represents a connection between a user and an institution. For example, when an end-user of your app goes to connect an external bank account and a member doesn't already exist, a member is created to represent that user's connection with the institution, the external bank.

While not the highest level of the MX Hierarchy, the member object is perhaps the most important—the authentication information, such as Credentials or OAuth tokens, and all accounts that are aggregated through that connection are stored underneath that member object.

A member on the MX platform is different from a “member” of a credit union or financial institution—that kind of “member” would be considered a user on the MX platform.

Multiple members can be connected to a single user, e.g., one member for their bank, another for their mortgage provider, another for their credit card provider, etc.

Multiple accounts can belong to one member, e.g., a checking and savings account at one institution.

Accounts cannot be deleted on an individual level. To delete an account, the entire member would need to be deleted.

Duplicate Members

A user can have more than one member connecting them to the same institution only if those members use different credentials — the MX platform does not allow duplicate members using identical credentials. A create member request will fail if the provided member credentials are identical to those already in use by another member connecting the same user to the same institution.

Updating an existing member's credentials can also return a duplicate member error if the user already has another member connected to the same institution using the same credentials as provided in the update.

Member Connection Status

The connection_status indicates the state of a member's aggregation, meaning the state of a user connecting to a particular institution.

To learn more about what different connection statuses mean and how to resolve them, click here.

View developer documentation around members here.