Open Banking for India’s Fastest Growing Private Sector Bank — A Case Study on its Developer Portal
Banks today have a wealth of information about their customers — right from EMIs to utility bill payments. This information is a bridge to multiple futuristic plans that can altogether change the face of Banking and Finance as we know it today. Something worthy of having its own separate novel in the history of Financial Revolution.
When you’re in a banking environment, and are extremely customer centric in your approach, it is inevitable and critically decisive to a great degree to make the customers feel secure, and more in control of their operations. And as custodians of big data, these institutions are in a position to explore and expand in uncharted waters of growth and opportunity. Thus, many financial institutions today, are recognising the appeal to upgrade to an open banking functionality with the optimal application of APIs. These three letters are basically the bible that’s way ahead of its time, and answers to the call of secure, agile and dependable.
Single handedly, this avenue has the potential to revolutionise many areas in financial services beyond traditional banking, and revamp the way we manage our savings and assets, our expenses and payments, our shopping experiences, and to avail any online services under the sun. Beyond conventional banking, Open Banking has the potential to disrupt many aspects of financial markets, redefining fresh ways to invest, access money, browse, and purchase goods and services online.
Open Banking may facilitate access to existing products such as loans, insurance, debt advice, and financial advice for underrepresented markets, and also bring in new product offerings to markets across industries. The most efficient Open Banking model is cooperation among ecosystem stakeholders, from both banking and non-banking entities, using open technological frameworks to exchange information, workplace environment, data, and service offerings to establish new opportunities and real value-added services and products for the ecosystem.
Open Banking, and the use of APIs around them, would allow third party developers to build supremely customer friendly services for Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC). API, or Application Program Interfaces, serve as a mode of interaction between multiple software applications. The amalgamation of this breakthrough with banking systems, spells out advancement and prosperity in a breadth of languages.
Why should I use Open Banking API?
Simply put, it makes life easier by centuries!
When two computer programs are enabled to interact with one another, with minimal human interaction to support it, think of all the other productive things that you could invest your time in. Like, maybe, take a mid-morning nap. Just kidding.
To upgrade to new, and more refined, technology could mean opportunities never spoken of before! This Open Banking Developer Portal is the embodiment of the age-old phrase — one stone, many birds. By the application of this upgrade into your banking systems, you’re not only stepping up your game for the long run, but are also actively contributing to increasing customer satisfaction and ease, which will eventually help build a bigger, more holistic, customer base.
Getting Started
We, at Applied Cloud Computing, have been an implementation partner with one of the fastest growing private sector banks for their open banking portal. Be it for use as a Vendor, or a partner, getting a head start on Open Banking portal with ACC, can be done in 3 simple steps! Just,
1. Create an account
2. Explore the APIs and see what our APIs have to offer
3. Start building and connect to the Sandbox environment to simulate the APIs
And that’s it!
Our API dashboard is characterised by a clear access control system for ensuring data privacy. We have created it with a combination of defined functionality, and scope, that meet specific business demands. At its heart, it follows a modular approach though, and multiple APIs can easily be combined in an application! You can, thus, have an access to the simulator environment and/or to live environment.
What does this mean for my business?
With Open Banking Developer Portal’s intuitive and secure access interfaces, you can build and extend your products and services much beyond the initially forecasted reach. The API Sandbox aids developing your application with ease. Our API dashboard lets you access financial solutions and approved customer data, with minimal effort, and integrate it seamlessly with your products and services.
We created a developer platform that provides high-quality APIs for your use. You simply need to register and gain access, and you can begin operating with ease. We are renowned for catering a smooth and developer friendly experience. There is an up-to-date API documentation, clear guidelines for consuming APIs, sample codes, and much more to explore. You may require a timely renewal post expiry, and you can safely test in our sandbox, get error responses, and steadily build competent interfaces thereon!
How does Implementation Work?
Many countries, especially in the European bracket, are already thriving in this sector. And many in the subcontinent have caught up to the trend, as well. Let’s quickly have a glance at a few use cases to get started with the endless possibilities this system can produce.
Use case #1: Online shopping rewards
Transaction data is the bedrock for many loyalty programs and rewards systems. In for a fact? Majority of our shopping data and be traced back to our bank account and this data can easily be plugged into various different avenues. Banks can use transaction data to provide rewards to their users based on their purchases. No more need to make extra space in your wallet or fish for cards from different stores, when you can get it all in one, secure interface.
Use Case #2: Quick loans for out-of-pocket expenses
Another big trend for the application of Open Banking data is for acquiring quick loans. Very likely that we will see a similar trend in India as well. Bank accounts usually contain an up-to-date picture of our financial data. Hence, using that data, credit scores can be kept track of to provide easy and quick loans to the eligible in their time of need, such as an emergency medical expenditure in a hospital that’s not covered in one’s insurance. This could be a powerful tool to refurbish the credit bureau industry.
Use Case #3: Fund Management for SMEs
Not just regular customers, but SMEs too can well utilize data driven products. For instance, this data can be crucial for cash flow analysis and build of optimisation tools. Cash flow optimisation services can use the access to the bank account of the SME to provide insights and support with crucial decisions. These can support them with accounting and similar services as cash management is very important, especially for small capital companies.
Use Case #4: Investment management
Open API can assist you in optimising your financial portfolio and even serve as your personal financial advisor. You can connect with your advisor through a mobile app thanks to software that uses natural language processing. It would not only assist you in reviewing your expenditures and savings, but it would also provide answers to all of your questions.
These are just a few cases, and with the adoption of open banking with our readymade APIs, you too can create many such functional use cases with ease.
Future Scope of Open Banking
FinTech is bound to causes a disruption once data sharing is successful. All the tasks that would have historically taken several banking days to complete, could now be accomplished in a matter of minutes. The world as a whole is shifting to a more digital platform, and banks are definitely not ones to lag behind here. Interconnections and collaborations are the future.
Since, banks have earned the reputation of being a symbol of trust and security, integrating it with FinTech has caught a lot of attention — not just because of its ease of use, but also because it enables the end user to be more in control. Banks can enhance the efficiency, accuracy and cost savings at which stakeholders can add value to the network and ecosystem by allowing API communication, and flourish in an exceedingly fast-growing market like India.
The Open Banking standard defines how financial data should be created, shared and accessed. Benefits include easy transfer of funds and comparing product offerings to create a banking experience that meets each user’s needs in the most cost-effective way. When in place, APIs help you do several things such as integrate with Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems of corporate clients, perform e-KYC, PAN verification, offer currency rates, retrieve credit scores, offer lending and payment products, collaborate with third parties to create innovative products, and much more.
