The Place of API Integration in the Finance Sector

Financial Satements API usage in corporate banking

Open banking, which is one of the most convenient ways of rapid digitalization with the developing technology, has started to turn to digital flows in line with the expectations of customers and business partners. In this way, the increase in the business value that APIs will create for the company and its customers becomes more and more important every day.

Old methods of corporate banking have been challenged by the complexity of meeting the needs of large and medium-sized customers of banks and providing various corporate services. Security and privacy has always been one of the most important issues in the financial sector. However, the understanding of open banking contradicts these basic principles. Today, institutions serving in the financial sector should develop new strategies about when and how to securely and openly share their customers' data with third parties.

 

Unlocking business value from APIs

APIs allow data transfer within and outside the organization. APIs that allow this bidirectional data flow can perform simple operations such as verifying account balances and reporting status, while at the same time, they can easily overcome planned complex transactions.

 

There are some important points that institutions in the finance sector should consider before making an API selection. These points can be classified as follows according to the value that APIs will add to organizations;

 

APIs for modernization: these APIs can be integrated into the banking ecosystem to increase the efficiency of unused systems by providing operational acceleration. Important points for organizations that want to use APIs for modernization are as follows:

Industry standards for web services and APIs

Microservice architecture and abstract old structures

Lowering costs and increasing security

 

APIs for corporate connectivity: With these APIs, banks can increase innovation by interacting with corporate customers and external partners, expanding their distribution access and creating new business models. Leveraging enterprise connectivity APIs can help organizations:

Modernizing corporate-to-bank connectivity

Switching to real-time information streams

Enabling direct processing

APIs for innovation in banking: These APIs are open to everyone and open banks' ecosystems to external innovation, data sharing and commerce. It also offers new business services by creating a strong innovation center. There are issues that organizations should pay attention to when taking advantage of the features provided by the API:

Open banking regulation

Developer portals to interact with developer communities

Promoting APIs to encourage adoption

Creating higher value services from more granular APIs

 

APIs that can be applied to all areas of corporate banking can support the transaction cycle of many transactions, such as payments and treasury management, from first participation. In this way, third parties can connect directly to banks and serve these activities without any problems.

 

What is the Innovation Path for Corporate Banking?

Traditional methods for organizations serving in the financial sector are not sufficient to meet the service requirements arising from new needs. For this reason, banks should start using APIs that will modernize their systems. In addition, they must expand the use of APIs that provide smooth functioning of corporate connections and third-party services, and create pathways for innovation and sharing. These innovations will then turn into new products and services that banks can offer for their customers, leading to a new source of income for banks.