Credit Karma Deal Positions Intuit to Corner Market on Consumer Data

Intuit’s planned $7.1 billion acquisition of Credit Karma has the potential to make it the dominant provider of consumer leads to digital financial institutions. But growing concerns about consumer data privacy and Intuit’s track record shepherding its previous fintech acquisitions could undermine those lofty ambitions.

The deal comes as pressure builds for financial institutions to “share” customer data more efficiently and securely to enable consumers to have more control and oversight of their own finances. And it makes Intuit a key stakeholder as financial institutions, data aggregators, and regulators worldwide confront one of the most important questions of the digital era: Whose data is it?