Bank / institution logos (e.g. Monzo) — legal + sourcing

[NikolayMetchev]

Goal

Display bank/institution logos (e.g. Monzo) when importing or showing accounts, in a legally defensible way, with a graceful fallback.

Legal context

Bank logos are protected by copyright (artwork) and trademark (brand). No license simply grants them. Display is generally defensible under nominative fair use when:

• The logo identifies the user's actual account at that bank (factual/descriptive use).
• We don't imply endorsement, partnership, or affiliation (no "Powered by Monzo", no Monzo-branded UI chrome).
• The logo isn't altered or used as our app's branding.

This is the same basis Plaid, TrueLayer, Emma, Snoop, Money Dashboard etc. operate on — defensible, not explicitly licensed. Not legal advice; worth a quick lawyer check before commercial launch.

Lower-risk asset sources (preferred order)

1. Open Banking provider CDN — if importing via Plaid / TrueLayer / Nordigen (GoCardless Bank Account Data), the institution logo comes in the API response and their terms cover display. Cleanest path; likely already in use for transaction import.
2. Logo.dev — https://logo.dev — https://img.logo.dev/monzo.com style lookup, free tier.
3. Brandfetch API — https://brandfetch.com — logo by domain, free tier, terms permit display.
4. Per-bank press/brand kits (e.g. Monzo) for the most-used banks.

Guardrails

• Do not bundle scraped bank PNGs in the repo as the primary asset library — weakest legal position. Fetch/attribute via API and cache.
• Always provide a generic fallback: Lucide landmark / building-2 tinted with the bank's brand color (see generic-icons issue).
• Add a standard trademark disclaimer ("All trademarks are property of their respective owners") for commercial release.

Proposed resolution logic

getInstitutionIcon(id):
  1. logo from Open Banking provider response   # best, licensed
  2. else Logo.dev / Brandfetch by domain       # fallback API, cached
  3. else generic Lucide "landmark" + brand color

Open question

• Import path: Open Banking (Plaid/TrueLayer/Nordigen) vs CSV/file import? Determines whether logos come licensed-for-free (provider) or via Logo.dev/Brandfetch.

Tasks

• Confirm import path / provider.
• Implement getInstitutionIcon with provider-first, API-fallback, generic-fallback.
• Add logo caching.
• Add trademark disclaimer.