How do open banking and APIs benefit your company?

4 min reading
How do open banking and APIs benefit your company?
How do open banking and APIs benefit your company?

BBVA API Market

Open banking has changed the financial paradigm as we have known it so far. The widespread use of new digital platforms, connected devices and technology consumers has led to a boom in business opportunities for every company, many of which are already leveraging their benefits as much as possible.

In this new financial-technological ecosystem, APIs have become the ideal travel companion. APIs are a set of standardized and modular tools that serve to improve business processes by developing a set of innovative services that benefit every company, whether large, medium or small.

These are some of the most important benefits that open banking and APIs can offer your company.

Greater control of information

According to the survey “The future of banking is Open,” conducted by PriceWaterHouseCoopers and the Open Data Institute, almost six out of ten companies are concerned about the privacy and security of information.

However, and even if it sounds contradictory, the opening of APIs and customer banking information allows users to exercise greater control over their data. This is because of all the enhanced security systems that the applications that use banking APIs to offer their services are required to implement.

In fact, one of the main strengths of the PSD2 regulation, the European directive governing open banking, is precisely that it provides this enhanced security. Transactions that rely on these APIs must include dual or enhanced authentication measures, as must explicitly request consent from the user to use their data. As a result, no third-party application can use banking information if it is not expressly authorized by the customer.

Knowing the user better

The flow of communication between customers, banks and companies is continuous and, above all, takes place in real time. Thanks to this, information flows very quickly and efficiently, which allows financial service providers to anticipate changing user habits.

Moreover, when the habits of users are analyzed in detail, companies can anticipate their interests and develop new products and services that are consistent with the needs of the market. A good example of this is the BBVA Customers API, which can be used to speed up the onboarding of your customers by not requiring them to fill out endless forms and by always having their data available to you, with their consent.

A catalog of personalized services

Most companies already manage all their business systems through dedicated systems, such as an ERP or CRM. This is not always enough, however, especially because some of them either do not cover all the company’s needs or they are too costly to adapt.

Open banking in general, and all the potential offered by APIs in particular, allows developments to adapt to the needs of each company in a way that is agile, simple and, of course, affordable. As a result, service providers and financial institutions can offer a much more personalized catalog to companies.

Fast and effective response

Benefits of open banking and APIs for your company

Liquidity is one of the most important elements of every company, whether large or small, and the fundamental component of a country’s business and financial system. Such is its importance nowadays that if a company does not have sufficient liquidity, its very viability is in danger, no matter how healthy its balance sheet may be.

This situation is more common than it seems, especially because, on some occasions, financing is not available as quickly or under the conditions that a company needs.

APIs solve this problem by offering a rapid response to business needs, especially in everything related to credit and loan applications. Liquidity thus flows much more effectively, activating the entire production system and allowing companies to undertake new investments, pay off debt or pay salaries, among many other needs.

Adapting to change quickly

In the business world, the rate of change is hectic, but it is even faster in the technology sector. A system that today can provide a certain business function may be obsolete tomorrow, and replacing it can sometimes be complex and costly.

Because of this, companies are increasingly demanding more solutions that adapt to the changes imposed by the market. And this is where APIs come in. APIs are standardized and modular implementations that quickly adapt to the new business and industrial reality.

Real-time information

Until recently, dedicated P2P connections between a company and its bank were the only option to automate some basic cash flow processes. Sometimes, this option was reserved for large companies with the financial resources to match, since they were costly to maintain.

However, thanks to open banking, connections to financial institutions are now accelerated and simplified, and a simple consultation can offer all the necessary data in real time. Moreover, this new financial paradigm allows even smaller companies to integrate technology into their business processes, automating them and eliminating the need for human intervention.

This affects not only the receipt of information, but also the flow of collections and payments, which are made directly through the bank’s platform, thus guaranteeing the integrity and security of the data.

In short, open banking does away with need for intermediate systems that can slow down connections. An example of this type of service is the one offered by Notifications API, an event subscription API that lets you receive, almost in real time, notifications for the operations you select.

Attract new customers

Open banking is not only a way to lower costs, but to raise income as well. According to the Accenture survey “It’s Now for Open Banking,” one of the main benefits that open banking can bring to companies, both large and small, is that it allows them to reach new customers and markets.

Integrating APIs into business systems facilitates the search for new customers across different platforms and devices. APIs also speed up onboarding, making it easier to incorporate new customers and close out transactions. This is the case of the BBVA Customers API, which gives you access to key information about a customer in a way that is very simple, accurate and up to date.

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