Application programming interfaces (APIs) are increasingly used in banking, thus it is crucial for financial institutions to have a solid API strategy to interact with clients and partners.
According to Claire Melling, NatWest Group’s director of Bank of APIs, “there’s a potential to API-enable pretty much all client journeys,” and given the multiple interactions financial institutions (FIs) have with consumers, they can play a “vital part in smoothing out those trips.”
The opportunities are endless, whether they pertain to common financial activities like payments, loans, property transactions, or data exchange. There are opportunities everywhere, said Melling, and as reputable companies, we have a responsibility to help our customers find those answers.
In delving more into her job at NatWest, she mentioned three primary areas of focus: developing API standards to fulfill regulatory criteria such as open banking and the European Union’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
“We’re looking at how we can go above and beyond those standards,” she stated, referring to open banking and other rules as “a tool to API-enable the business.”
This includes identifying areas where NatWest can API-enable certain customer journeys to provide value to its customers through the use of customer attributes, direct access to commercial customers, and variable recurring payments (VRPs), a new type of payment instruction in the United Kingdom that allows customers to consent to payment providers making payments on their behalf.
