Richard Humphreys |
Independent not-for-profit standards association The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) has launched its API Exchange, an online digital library containing over 65 standardised API definitions that will help banks drive faster open banking innovation.
The definitions help to reduce the complexity of building and delivering open banking capabilities for banks, providing clear guidance on how to implement, innovative and intuitive digital services across both back-end and customer facing functions. This will allow banks to react to the limitations with modernising legacy technology and changing customer expectations more quickly, and with less cost.
The API Exchange has been created by over 35 developers from across the BIAN member network of leading banks and technology vendors, including PNC, Microsoft, Citi, IBM and Virtusa. The current API library will support banks with building modern processes around customer offers and on boarding, payments, loans, and mobile access, with additional API definitions to be added in the coming months.
Banks, software vendors and fintechs can access definitions from the API Exchange at no cost, once registered online. All APIs have been created using BIAN established data models and in accordance with the ISO20022 global standardisation approach, ensuring integration compatibility across all major technology platforms used by banks today. The BIAN API Exchange is currently hosted on Azure, Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud computing platform.
“An open library of standardised API definitions will supercharge banks’ digital transformation efforts,” said Hans Tesselaar, executive director of BIAN. “BIAN’s member community has done all the leg work; our network of leading banks and technology businesses have worked hard to create impactful APIs for a large majority of critical banking functions, ensuring they meet global standards, and work reliably. This means banks can overcome current business challenges around modernisation and focus on what matters most: getting smarter and more innovative services to customers much faster. This announcement is the beginning of a new era in software development for the financial services industry. We will continue growing this online resource, creating building blocks to drive unified progress in modern banking services and the move to micro services.”
Janet Lewis, vice president of the Worldwide Financial Services Industry at Microsoft added: “It is a transformational time for the financial services industry. As a BIAN founding member, Microsoft eagerly worked side-by-side with industry leaders to bring the API Exchange to market to help drive standardised adoption of innovative services. We believe open technology and APIs set the foundation for a cloud- and AI-powered future for the industry and are happy to host the API Exchange on Microsoft Azure.”