3 Benefits of Open Banking APIs

If you are in the financial services industry or in tech that deals with finance, you will have heard of Open Banking APIs. The landscape of online financial services is being transformed by the Open Banking API, and firms that want to take their businesses to the next level are opening up to the possibilities of this new technology.

Numerous large financial services institutions have already taken an Open Banking API on board. The initiatives are fast becoming standard in the industry and have many benefits. Here we take a look at why Open Banking APIs are beneficial for firms, including how they can help to improve customer engagement, enhance services, and increase revenue.

 

1. Open Banking APIs Improve Customer Engagement

When banks put Open Banking APIs into practice, they improve their bank’s appeal to customers. This means that they are better able to meet the demands of their existing customer base as well as to increasingly appeal to new customers. Customer engagement is essential when banks think about how to develop in the future. With increasing numbers of institutions entering the market in different ways, banks and finance firms must engage with their customer base to demonstrate that they can fully meet their needs. Banks with Open Banking APIs can attract customers looking to move banks when their existing organisation does not offer the services they need.

 

2. Open Banking APIs Enhance Services

Open Banking APIs are an integral part of Open Banking. These APIs are the means through which banks and financial institutions do business. When they use Open Banking APIs, firms can enhance their service offerings and build their brand.

For example, APIs in the banking world easily connect with additional financial APIs so that firms can build on their services without creating systems anew. These services enhance daily life for customers and also help institutions provide a more streamlined offering. They increase the appeal of the bank for users.

It is worth considering, also, that APIs can also be used by other institutions to create their own services, building on the bank’s APIs. While some institutions will see this as a threat, others will judge that these initiatives are useful and can be built on in order to provide a deeper, more valuable service to clients.

 

3. Open Banking APIs Increase Revenue

In essence, the Open Banking API developments must provide a means of increasing revenue. Without this benefit, financial institutions will not take these developments on board. This is especially true in the current competitive financial market. Open Banking APIs give banks a new method of increasing digital revenue. It is also vitally important that digital revenue enhancements are made using secure methods, which is where APIs are useful. Banks may decide on increasing revenue through unsecure channels, but ultimately this will damage reputations and create the potential for security breaches.

There is no doubt that these APIs are profitable. And by offering Open Banking API initiatives, banks will be able to offer themselves as platforms with enhanced service provision, and not simply as the banks of the past.

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of The World Financial Review.