Globally, the regulatory push for open banking has increased
the availability of open banking APIs, which in turn enables fintech to build
new products and services. To date, however, there are still a limited number
of business models and innovative products developed in each country. Greater
access to a wide range of product APIs and new approaches to partnership
relationships are needed from banks, while fintech should increase its focus on
meeting needs in specific target markets to best seize emerging opportunities.
Platformable’s Q1 2022 Open Banking/Open Finance State of
the Market Report describes the digital financial services landscape as the
year commences. At the start of 2022, there were 1,537 open banking platforms
worldwide.
98 countries have open banking regulations in place
globally. In 2022, the next chapter in open banking regulations is continuing,
with some countries embracing open finance and improved data sharing regulations:
Europe and the UK are expanding into open finance with the
UK’s Smart Data Initiatives and the European Commission’s Digital Finance
Strategy.
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently hosted
a public consultation on the user data held by tech payment platforms, while
Canada released the results of their second review of open banking.
In the Asia Pacific region, open finance regulations
outpaced open banking with the launch of the Philippines’ Open Finance
framework and an account aggregation framework in India focusing on financial
data sharing.
Brazil’s advancements took centre stage in Latin America
with the final phase launch of its open banking framework.
Europe Remains Open Banking Leader
Compared to Q4 2020, open banking API platforms have grown
175% globally. Europe remains the leader, accounting for 75% of the world’s
open banking platforms.
Comparing various global regions, the UK was responsible for
creating more open banking platforms than the US and Canada – 49 compared to 30
platforms available in Q4 2021. Despite this lead, however, UK banks publish
fewer API products overall, offering 253 APIs compared to 296 available in the
US and Canada.
New regulatory frameworks are a key driver for steady growth
in open banking infrastructure in other parts of the world. The Asia Pacific
region saw a 139% growth rate, reflecting the continued deployment of
Australia’s Consumer Data Rights (CDR) Framework. There was also a 147% growth
in the number of Latin American open banking platforms due to Brazil’s open
finance progress, and Mexican incumbents offering product and service data
outside of a regulatory push. In the Middle East and Africa, there was a 65%
growth in open banking due to Nigerian open banking advancements.
Open Banking API Innovation Moves Beyond Compliance
Bank API Products by Category and Region, Q4 2021 (N
= 5,133)
API products have grown 20% globally since Q4 2020.
Regionally, Latin America saw the largest increase with a 178% rise in API
product growth. The US and the UK placed second and third with 164% and 122%,
respectively.
In the graph above, mandated APIs (those focusing on
payments, account information, and product information) shown in dark purple
comprise the majority of API product availability, outside the Russian and
Eastern European markets. These numbers suggest that open API product
innovation accounts for roughly 20-40% of the total offerings.
For fintech, products offered by mandated APIs are essential
to allow customers to complete everyday tasks like checking their budgets or
transferring money. However, fintechs need to access APIs that provide
additional functionality to develop well-rounded products that meet the user
journey needs of customers.
Looking at global examples demonstrates how innovation is
enabling new products (and types of business models) to emerge in the open
banking ecosystem.
Commerzbank: Germany
Germany’s Commerzbank conducts a two-pronged approach to
APIs by offering mandated APIs (required to be provided, for free, under
Europe’s Second Payment Services Directive, or PSD2) and Premium APIs, which
they can sell to agreed partners and third party users, separately. By splitting
their offerings, they can better enable new digital business models. Sometimes
these models may seek to create new direct revenue streams (for example, by
charging for the APIs). In other cases, the APIs may act as new customer
acquisition channels, allowing Commerzbank to reach customer segments that were
outside its direct marketing opportunities.
In Q4 2021, Commerzbank added Customers and Home Loans Light
APIs to their catalogue: The Customers API streamlines onboarding into fintech
apps using Commerzbank customer data. This allows fintech to simplify the
customer identification process, where potential users may drop off because of
having to re-enter all of their personal information. Instead, customers can
log in as a Commerzbank user and securely access the fintech product without
data entry duplication.
The Home Loans Light API provides a no-code widget for
end-users to calculate their indicative interest rate after inputting a few
relevant details. The widget lets third party websites, for example, real
estate sites, home design and renovation sites, or apps that target potential
home construction buyers, to easily integrate Commerzbank’s loans calculator
into their websites and apps. By offering this product for free, Commerzbank
can shift the integration costs onto the third parties, and open a channel to
receive qualified new loan product customers.
Quanto: Brazil
Brazilian fintech platform, Quanto, supports companies who
want to draw on their open banking data to improve financial decisions.
Already, Quanto has been accredited in all eight open finance certifications –
the maximum available to third parties under Brazil’s open banking regulations.
This breadth of capabilities to securely make use of open banking
functionalities (where customers consent to connect their accounts) allows
Quanto to offer more complete financial service offerings that draw in data
from a complex array of operational systems.
Quanto is able to combine the customer’s company data with
recent market indicators and to help customers identify new financial
opportunities. For one customer, this increased their loan approval rate by
28%.
The increase in open banking platforms has the potential to
change the global financial landscape by encouraging the creation of new
fintech products. Open banking is still very much in its nascent stage: many
banking platforms still only offer the minimum (mandated) APIs required by
their country’s regulations. Those banks that provide additional
functionalities have the opportunity to create new digital business models and
open up new avenues for their fintech partners to deliver better products to
end-users. For fintech, seeking out bank platforms and building partnerships
with these banks that go beyond the mandated APIs will enable a richer set of
customer experiences to be embedded into their fintech apps and products.
Click here for the
original article.