Open Banking APIs Worldwide - networked financial ecosystems. A country-by-country guide to Open Banking APIs with analysis which regions are ...

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Open Banking APIs Worldwide - networked financial ecosystems. A country-by-country guide to Open Banking APIs with analysis which regions are ...
Open Banking
APIs Worldwide
A country-by-country guide to Open
Banking APIs with analysis which regions
are driving the global evolution of
networked financial ecosystems.
Management
Summary
The ripple effects of Open Banking can now             spread and important are these changes,
be felt across the world. But why is it caus-          that ndgit is dedicating a second white paper
ing such endemic and sustainable change?               to the topic.
According to our analysis, key drivers are:
changing customer behaviour, increasing                In our first paper „Open Banking – The Glob-
networking among banks, the rise of ecosys-            al Revolution in Banking“, we embarked on a
tems and the emergence of new supporting               journey around the world by means of quali-
API technologies.                                      tative analysis - giving some broad insights on
                                                       market developments across the various re-
While some consider PSD2 in the EU as syn-             gions. We were delighted with the consider-
onymous with open banking, our findings                able interest that this content piece received.
clearly show that it’s really only a ‘stimulus’ to
opening-up banks. To this end, similar aspira-         Readers of the new whitepaper can expe-
tions for Open Banking APIs are now being              rience a unique country ranking model, de-
seen worldwide – already touching more than            veloped exclusively by ndgit. This is based on    Open Banking Status
50 countries and affecting more than 10,000            four factors: the spread of Open APIs, regula-    A comparison of Regulatory requirements, Standardisation Initiatives
banks.                                                 tory requirements, standardisation initiatives
                                                                                                         and TPP regulation
                                                       and the presence of a central TPP regulatory
Open banking is reshaping the banking in-              body.
dustry on a local and global level. So wide-

                                                                                                                                   20                                                         20                                 20

     ndgit’s open banking
                                                                                                                              15                                                                                            15
     leader board
                                                                                                                                                                                             11
                                                                                                                                   10                                                         10                                 10
     1.   EU + EEA + UK       10.   Malaysia         19. South Africa
     2.   Australia           11.   Canada           20. USA                                              5
     3.   Hong Kong           12.   Thailand         21. New Zealand                                           4                        4          5             4                                     4      5
     4.   Bahrain             13.   Ruanda           22. Chile
     5.   Japan               14.   India            23. Nigeria

                                                                                                                                                                              early stages
                                                                                                                                                   established

                                                                                                                                                                 developing
          South Korea               Switzerland

                                                                                                                                        advanced
     6.                       15.
                                                                                                               planned

                                                                                                                                                                                                             planned
     7.   Brazil              16.   Indonesia
                                                                                                         yes

                                                                                                                                                                                                       yes
                                                                                                                         no

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       no
     8.   Mexico              17.   China                                                                                          0                                                              0                              0
     9.   Singapore           18.   Kenya
                                                                                                         Regulatory                     Standardisation                                               Central TPP
                                                                                                         requirements                   Initiatives                                                   regulation

2     Open Banking APIs worldwide       Management Summary                                                                                                 Open Banking APIs worldwide                Open Banking Status        3
Table of                                                                                         Introduction
contents                                                                                         Banks are already in the midst of digital trans-     support. At the same time, payments have
                                                                                                 formation. Operations and business process-          been accelerated and simplified with, for
                                                                                                 es are being digitised, with paper documents         example, electronic billing, contactless pay-
                                                             d) Australia & New Zealand     40   being replaced with automated, electronic            ment, Apple Pay and Google Pay. With their
1. Management Summary                        2
                                                                  Australia                 41   options. Bank customers are also increasing-         new, ultra-convenient processes, ‘first-pio-
2. Introduction                              5
                                                                                                 ly benefiting from new online and mobile             neers’ are slowly creating new customer ex-
3. What is open banking?                     5                    New Zealand               42
                                                                                                 banking services. Once lengthy and unpleas-          pectations. Increasing competitive pressure,
    Open Banking as a consequence            6               e) Africa                      43
                                                                                                 ant procedures, such as loan applications, are       this is setting new standards for the financial
                                                                  Ruanda                    44
    of new value chains                                                                          now handled much faster, with new features           ‘experience’. Those that cannot deliver, will
    New customer needs                       7                    Kenya                     44
                                                                                                 such as digital-identity and video onboard-          fall behind. The wholesale disruption of the
    New technologies                         7                    Nigeria                   45   ing, verification and authentication reducing        financial market – similar to that previously
    Competition                              8                    South Africa              45   time and effort. Chatbots and Robo-Advisory          seen in sectors such as the media industry – is
    Regulatory requirements and standards 9               6. Platforms and Ecosystems       47   Services offer new levels of consultancy and         already in full swing.
4. From Open Banking APIs to Ecosystems 9                 7. Key Take Aways                 49
    Legally driven minimal approach         10            8. ndgit Open Banking Plattform   50
    Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)              11           9. Authors                        50
    Innovations with FinTech APIs            12
    Banking Ecosystems                       13
5. Open Banking APIs worldwide              14
    a) Europe                               20
        European Union and EEA               21
        United Kingdom                       21
        Innovators in the EU
        Switzerland
                                            22
                                            24
                                                                                                 What is Open Banking?
    b) America                              25
        Brazil                              26
        Mexico                              27
        Canada                              27                                                   The term open banking is currently used in two       A significant evolutionary step towards this is
        USA                                 29                                                   different ways. Some banks use open banking          the second Payment Service Directive (PSD2).
        Chile                               30                                                   to merely publish Open APIs, so third-party          Through this, the European Union is commit-
                                                                                                 providers (TPPs) can access the data. At             ted to providing its banks with Open Banking
    c) Asia                                  31
                                                                                                 ndgit, however, we believe that open bank-           APIs for regulated third-party providers, start-
        Hong Kong                           32
                                                                                                 ing is much more than that as it also involves       ing this year. The resulting PSD2 APIs can be
        Japan                               33
                                                                                                 opening up bank services and infrastructures         seen as a precursor and important driver for
        South Korea                         33
                                                                                                 to TPPs allowing them to develop new inno-           open banking.
        Bahrein                             34                                                   vative applications for their end customers
        Singapore                           35                                                   based on Open Banking APIs. This gives bank
        Thailand                            36                                                   customers the opportunity to carry out their
        Malaysia                            37                                                   financial business using new customer-cen-
        China                               37                                                   tric applications from non-banks, alongside
        Indonesia                           38                                                   their own bank‘s e-banking services.
        India                               39

4     Open Banking APIs worldwide     Table of contents                                                                                    Open Banking APIs worldwide   What is Open Banking?      5
Open Banking as a consequence                                                                                      New customer
of new value chains                                                                                                needs

Given these considerations, ndgit defines                                                                          Many of the changes delivered through digi-           vices and transactional products. This leads
open banking as a value-adding business                                                                            tisation are driven by shifts in user behaviour.      to increasing pressure for banks to innovate
model that uses Open APIs to generate new                                                                          Today, customers can easily search and com-           and forces them to rethink new digital offer-
revenue streams.                                                                                                   pare the most attractive and cost-effective           ings.
                                                                                                                   products on the market, without having to
Open API’s are different from regulated PSD2                                                                       rely on their incumbent provider. Major tech-         A prime example of this can be found in Chi-
APIs, as banks can decide for themselves to                                                                        nology groups such as Amazon and Google               na, where non-banking technology groups
what extent they open up their bank data                                                                           are not only transforming the delivery of ser-        such as Alibaba and WeChat have very suc-
and processes. They form the essential basis                                                                       vices industry-wide, they are using holistic          cessfully created digital ecosystems that fo-
for implementing future networked business                                                                         processes to significantly alter customer ex-         cus on linking customer-centred services
models of banks with the wider ecosystem.                                                                          pectation - it‘s not just about shopping any-         and products. The gradual integration of pay-
                                                                                                                   more.                                                 ment and finance capabilities, now provides
Innovators are already offering their custom-                                                                                                                            customers with a holistic digital customer
ers new customer-centred services based on                                                                         In the meantime, customer-centred finan-              experience, which delivers more innovative
Open APIs, thereby promoting innovation                                                                            cial products are being pushed out to the             versions of services that were previously re-
and competition in the marketplace. As indi-                                                                       market by FinTech’s. These can be used in-            served for banks. In this way, new entrants
cated above, the key drivers of open banking                                                                       dependently of the user’s bank giving them            continuously supplement and substitute tra-
are new customer needs, the development                                                                            access to a multitude of innovative apps, ser-        ditional banking products.
                                                                                      Customer
of new technologies, competitive pressure
and regulatory requirements and standards.           Digital Partner
                                                      Distribution
Below we describe the individual drivers in
more detail:

                                                                                                 Digital Partner
                                                                 Digital Partner

                                                                                                                   New
                                                                                                  Distribution
                                                                  Distribution

                                                                                                                   technologies

                                                                                                                   The networking of value chains, and the               easy set-up, scalability, configuration and
                                                                        Bank                                       emergence of new platforms which are                  analysis of the links. Unlike other industries,
                                                                                                                   aligned to holistic customer processes, have          banks are still in the construction phase of
                                                                                                                   made IT-side networking a priority for all sec-       this type of system. The industry-specific re-
                                                                                                                   tors with API platforms and microservices             quirements for safety and functionality, es-
                                                                                                                   now a paradigm for the systemic connection            pecially with the introduction of the PSD2,
                                           Digital Partner                                                         of various partners.                                  pose major challenges.
                                              Services
                                                                                                Digital Partner
                                                                                                   Services        Instead of complex interfaces, easy-to-un-            So far, there are only a few suppliers in the
                                                                                                                   derstand and technically designed REST                market, which can provide both the required
                                                               Bank
                                                             Products                                              APIs provide easy access for a variety of part-       technical and banking expertise as a whole.
                                                                              Digital Partner
                                                                                 Services                          ners while API management systems ensure              Open APIs place high demands on IT secu-

6    Open Banking APIs worldwide   Open Banking as a consequence                                                                                                Open Banking APIs worldwide   New customer needs      7
rity. Regulations and standards for the implementation of open banking require a wide range
of complex security functions from the banking systems. While these are partly fixed, banks are
able to select some within a certain framework and are responsible for the appropriate security
                                                                                                    Regulatory
concept. To this end, countries such as Switzerland and Nigeria have pushed ahead with the          specifications
introduction of security standards for the exchange of sensitive data to simplify the implementa-
tion and use of new security technologies.                                                          and standards

                                                                                                    Internationally, Open Banking APIs are now
                                                                                                    being created on all continents. They are ei-
                                                                                                    ther initiated by regulatory bodies, e.g. PSD2,
                                                                                                    or by market-driven standards. The aim of
                                                                                                    the regulators is twofold - to open up pay-
                                                                                                    ments to non-banks and facilitate alternative
                                                                                                    business models; and to promote consumer
                                                                                                    protection and increase pressure on suppli-         nical understanding and technical prerequi-
                                                                                                    ers to create fairer price structures.              sites to become open banking providers and
Competitive pressure                                                                                The EU, Hong Kong and Australia are gov-
                                                                                                                                                        to offer their own services to customers and
                                                                                                                                                        partners.
                                                                                                    erned by regulatory requirements. Mostly,
                                                                                                    these focus on payment transactions and             It’s clear that Open banking is much more
Historically, banks have been more cautious          petitions and Market Authority (CMA) has       only a limited range of banking services.           than just a „buzz word“. It marks a global
and conservative in responding to market             committed the nine largest UK banks to         Nevertheless, they are an important corner-         evolution in the financial market, which will
changes. They often focus on smaller innova-         implement pre-defined Open APIs to drive       stone for the spread of the open banking            gather increasing momentum with or with-
tions such as banking apps, electronic bank          competitive and innovation pressure in the     philosophy. With them, banks develop tech-          out regulatory requirements.
statements or providing extended banking             financial sector.
functions of FinTech partners. However, their
primary business models, products, and ser-
vices have remained unchanged.

So far, they have been able to afford this type
of approach due to the lack of innovative
providers and competitive pressure. In mar-
kets dominated by a few banks, monopo-
listic conditions have further weakened the
pressure to innovate. But that is changing.

New, disruptive providers of financial ser-
vices are entering the market, creating un-
                                                                                                    From Open Banking APIs
                                                                                                    to ecosystems
precedented momentum. Next generation
challenger banks and FinTechs are creating
a new competitive landscape, forcing tradi-
tional banks to create new digital services. If
they don’t change, they risk losing their cus-
tomer channel to third parties.                                                                     For many banks, the path to open banking begins with the introduction
                                                                                                    of regulated or market-standard Open APIs, which can then be progres-
                                                                                                    sively developed in the direction of networked banking and the design of
We have already seen the development of                                                             ecosystems.
this type of innovation-promoting compet-
itive landscape in the UK. Here, the Com-

8     Open Banking APIs worldwide   Competitive pressure                                                                                    Open Banking APIs worldwide   Regulatory specifications   9
Digital Partner

Legally driven minimal                                                                                          Banking-as-a-Service                                               Distribution

approach                                                                                                        (BaaS)
                                                                                                                                                       Regulated                                              Bilateral
                                                                                                                                                         Tipps                                                Partners

                                                               In the EU, PSD2 demands that from Septem-                                                                AISP                        PISP
                                                               ber 2019 banks must have PSD2 APIs to allow
                                                               third-party providers to access account infor-
                                                                                                                                                      Fintechs                                                   Portals
                                                               mation and trigger payments. While it pro-
                                                               vides a set of requirements, it leaves enough
                                                               scope for individual markets to define the in-
                     Digital Partner
                                                               terfaces themselves. To make the task easier
                      Distribution                             for banks and to avoid a jumble of thousands
                                                                                                                                              APP                                                                              APP
                                                               of individual solutions, various standardi-
                                                               sation bodies have emerged. One of these
                                                               is The Berlin Group, whose framework has                                                                            Acc
                                                                                                                                                                                           Loans
                                                                                                                                                                                  ounts
                                                               become the leading standard for PSD2 and
                                                               which, according to the European Banking                                                                  Client
                                                                                                                                                                                                    Assets
                                                                                                                                                                         Data
         AISP                             PISP                 Association, is now used by 78% of EU banks.1    The next generation of open banking models
                                                                                                                                                                                   Open
                                                                                                                will further extend open banking services to
                                                                                                                                                                                  Banking
                                                               For thousands of banks, the regulated intro-     enable third-party services and products to
                                                                                                                                                                                  Platform
                                                               duction of PSD2 APIs represents the starting     be released enabling TPPs to service custom-
                                                               point of API banking. Other international        ers with integrated and networked banking
                            PSD2                               financial markets already have comparable        services known as value-added services.
                             API                               regulations and market standards for PSD2-
                      AIS          PIS                         like Open APIs for third-party providers. To     As a rule, they use API platforms - similar to
                                                               ensure their long-term competitiveness,          a marketplace - to deliver a set of bank func-
                                                               many future-oriented financial institutions      tions. These banking APIs go well beyond
                       Open                                    already rely on the extensible base technol-     the PSD2-like open banking APIs and open
                      Banking                                  ogy of API platforms when implementing           banks in all product areas, such as accounts,
                      Platform                                 PSD2 APIs. This makes it quick and easy to       investment products or credit processes. This
                                                               upgrade to open banking.                         enables new digital service providers to net-
                                                                                                                work their applications and value chains with
                                                                                                                banks’ services, data and infrastructures. In
                                                                                                                this way, external third-party vendors become
                                                                                                                new channels between the bank and the cus-
                                                                                                                tomer, thereby scaling the reach of the bank.

                                                                                                                With white-label banking, APIs allow banks,          channel. In turn, third-party vendors can flex-
                                                                                                                B2B organisations and digital partners to ac-        ibly serve existing customers from their own
                                                                                                                cess products and individual processes and           and their partners’ products to create added
                                                                                                                API platforms provide the scalable deploy-           value.
                                                                                                                ment of white-label accounts or depots. In this
                                                                                                                way, banks can provide the required banking          In Switzerland, for example, customers of
                                                                                                                licenses, compliance and risk management             the TPP ‘neon’ will automatically also be-
                                                                                                                experience, and generate new attractive rev-         come customers of the supporting bank, Hy-
                                                                                                                enue streams in an expanded distribution             pothekarbank Lenzburg.
1
    Source: EZB survey: https://www.moneytoday.ch/news/berlin-group-und-der-weg-zur-psd3/

10        Open Banking APIs worldwide       minimal approach                                                                                                Open Banking APIs worldwide        Banking-as-a-Service       11
Innovations with                                                                            Banking                                                     a new type of experience for the customer –
                                                                                                                                                        similar to a smartphone App Store. Custom-
fintech apis
                                                         Digital Partner
                                                          Distribution                      Ecosystems                                                  ers can choose which partner functions they
                                                                                                                                                        want and, depending on the agreement of
                                                                                                                                                        the two partners, these white label services
                                                                                                                                                        are delivered under the brand umbrella of
                                                                                            Ecosystems are the last development stage                   the bank or reveal themselves as their own
Some banks are already employing FinTech                                                    of open banking. With their help, banks can                 brand. This type of ecosystem, will finally re-
innovations and partner modules in their                                                    differentiate themselves from their compet-                 alise the so-called platform economy, where
end-user applications. In particular, to cov-                                               itors by being able to offer affiliated partner             the bank becomes the navigator for all on-
er functions that they would only be able                    APP                            services to specific customer target groups.                line financial services for the customer.
to offer with great effort, such as account                                                 Complementing their own digital offerings
aggregation, financial management or ro-                                                    to create comprehensive end-to-end finan-                   They are the expression of value chains in
bo-advisory. Increasingly, these services are                                               cial services with holistic customer-centred                which the bank no longer offers its own ser-
                                                                                  Fintech
based on PSD2-regulated account access                                              Hub     processes. In addition, they can use these to               vices, but networks with third-party products
with which data from any third-party banks                                                  innovative non-banking services and build                   and services via banking APIs.
of the customer can be included. Easy access
is made possible by quickly and flexibly inte-
grable APIs.
                                                          Open
Consequently, these modules are rapidly be-              Banking
coming essential building blocks of banks’               Platform                                                                        Digital Partner
                                                                                                                                          Distribution
new digital strategies and customer jour-
neys. Customer-centric applications with in-      XS2A   Score     Rate    Sign
novative sub-features can now be developed
faster and more flexibly, keeping the bank on
par with innovators. Imagine fully digitised
credit processes with access to third-party
accounts, financial analysis, credit history,
and digital signatures that seamlessly accel-                                                                                           E-Banking
erate the user from application to approved                                                                     Lending                                                   Invest-
                                                                                                                                                                           ment
credit - all via FinTechs and powered by APIs.
                                                                                            Finance                                             App
                                                                                                                                                Store                                          Beyond
Alternatively, banks with PSD2-based ac-                                                    Manage-                                                                                            Banking
                                                                                             ment
count access can also reuse their own com-                                                                                              Partner Ecosystem
plex services and offer them, via licensing
models, to digital partners. Examples include                                                                                            Acc
                                                                                                                                        ounts
                                                                                                                                                   Repor-
                                                                                                                                                    ting
customer ratings, onboarding or real estate
and property valuations. This allows the ex-                                                                                  Clients                        Assets
clusive knowledge contained within special-
ized departments to be scaled, shared and                                                                                                  Open
monetized across a broader target group.                                                                                                  Banking
                                                                                                                                          Platform

12   Open Banking APIs worldwide    Innovations                                                                                                                                                      13
UK and Australian regulations are the most
Open Banking                                                                                                               developed in terms of content. The UK Open
                                                                                                                           Banking Standard went live with the CMA9

APIs worldwide
                                                                                                                           banks as early as 2018 and subsequently in-
                                                                                                                           spired regulators and others worldwide.

                                                                                                                           In Australia and Mexico. The most widely used
                                                                                                                           standard is now the NextGenPSD2 of the Ber-
                                                                                                                                                                                                           Pioneer
                                                                                                                           lin Group, which is used by a majority of banks
The opening up of the banking market - by         islation is being developed and more than                                in the 28 EU countries. It is based on the ex-                                  Follower
regulators on the one hand and market stan-       ten others where market standards for open                               perience with the FinTS standard for account
                                                                                                                                                                                                           Converter
dards on the other - is constantly advancing      banking are being worked on.                                             access and payment initiation services, which
worldwide and already extends to more than                                                                                 was established 20 years earlier and is still                                   Riser
50 countries. Outside the EU countries, there     While the EU has been responsible for most                               used by most German banks.
are currently six more markets where leg-         of the current regulatory requirements, the                                                                                                              Beginner

                           Canada

                                                                                          Iceland              Norway

                                                                                                                        EU /
                                                                                                UK
                                                                                                                        EWR
                                                                                                        Lichten-
                            USA                                                                           stein                                                                               China

                                                                                                     Schweiz
                                                                                                                                                                                       Hong
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Japan
                                                                                                                                                                                       Kong

                                    Mexico

                                                                                                                                                         India                    Thailand

                                                                                                           Kenya          Nigeria

                                                                                                                                                                        Singapore

                                                Chile
                                                                                                                                    Ruanda                                        Malaysia
                                                           Brazil

                                                                                                                                                                      Indonesia
                                                                                                                    South Africa

                                                                                                                                                                                               Australia

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        New
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Zealand

14   Open Banking APIs worldwide                                                                                                                             Open Banking APIs worldwide      Open Banking APIs worldwide        15
Regulators
Open Banking APIs
A comparison of markets and countries                                                                    Africa         5

                                                                                                  Australia &
                                                                                                  New Zealand                                        50

                                                                                                  Asia                                     33

                                                                                                  America                             31

                                                                                                  Europe                                                                            97
Open Banking Status
                                                                                              0            10     20        30        40        50   60    70    80      90   100

    Africa        10
                                                                                              Market Standards
    Australia &
    New Zealand                                   48

    Asia                                   39                                                     Africa                         25

    America                      27
                                                                                                  Australia &
                                                                                                  New Zealand                                               63

    Europe                                                                           97           Asia                                                      63

0            10   20        30        40    50        60    70    80     90    100
                                                                                                  America                        25

                                                                                                  Europe                                                                            99

                                                                                              0            10     20        30        40        50   60    70    80      90   100

Distribution                                                                                  TPP-Regulation

    Africa             16                                                                         Africa           0

    Australia &
    New Zealand                            40                                                     Australia &
                                                                                                                                                     50
                                                                                                  New Zealand

    Asia                                         46                                               Asia                            28

    America                      25                                                               America              13

    Europe                                                                           98           Europe                                                                            97
0            10   20        30        40    50        60    70    80     90    100
                                                                                              0            10     20        30        40        50   60    70    80      90   100

16           Open Banking APIs worldwide              A comparison of markets and countries                                                Open Banking APIs worldwide    A comparison of markets and countries   17
Market research                                                                                           Global Status of
results in detail                                                                                         Open APIs
                                                                                                                                        70                                                                  70                                          70
ndgit carried out global market research to           In our overall ranking, the UK and Australia,
identify the proliferation of Open Banking            together with the 28 EU countries, are Pio-                                63 %                                                                                                       63 %
                                                                                                                                        60                                                                  60                                          60
APIs, the existence of regulatory requirements        neers (1) and considered to be the ‘front run-
and market driven initiatives, third-party reg-       ners’ of Open Banking. Japan, Hong Kong,
                                                                                                                                        50                                                                  50                                          50
ulations, and the scope of Open APIs offered.         South Korea, Bahrain and Brazil are classed as
In case of the absence of API standards, we           Followers (2). Among the mid-field Convert-                                                                                                    46 %
                                                                                                                                        40                                                                  40                                          40
have focused on Open APIs provided by                 ers (3) are Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Cana-
banks.                                                da and Thailand. While up and coming Risers
                                                                                                          21 %                          30               21 %                                               30              21 %                        30
                                                      (4) are Switzerland, India, Indonesia, China               17 %                        17 %                       17 %                                        17 %
From our findings, we have divided each               and Rwanda. According to our analysis, those
                                                                                                                                        20                                                                  20                                          20
country’s Open Banking aspirations into five          at the earliest stages, Beginners (5), are repre-

                                                                                                                                                                                      early stages
                                                      sented by the US, New Zealand, Chile, Nigeria,

                                                                                                                                                          established

                                                                                                                                                                         developing
groups:

                                                                                                                                              advanced
                                                                                                                  planned

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             planned
                                                                                                                                        10                                                                  10                                          10
                                                      Kenya.

                                                                                                          yes

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      yes
                                                                                                                            no

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       no
                                                                                                                                        0                                                                   0                                           0
   Pioneer                                            Our observations identified the following
Heavily regulated Open Banking                        market conditions:                                  API prescribed                     Standardisation                                                         TPPs
                                                                                                          by regulatory                      Initiatives present                                                     regulated
  Follower                                            – Legal regulations exist in the European
Weaker regulated Open Banking                         Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Bah-
                                                      rain and Hong Kong.
    Converter
Stronger market standards                             – Regulations were at least announced in an-
                                                      other half-dozen countries.
  Riser
Weaker market standards                               – Most widely used are Open Banking APIs in
                                                      the European Union, UK, Singapore, Australia,
    Beginner                                          Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia.
First Initiatives
                                                      – There are currently just four countries with
                                                      central regulatory bodies for TPPs.

                                                      Overall, we detected signs of active initiatives
                                                      in 87% of all countries analysed. Which leads
                                                      us to the conclusion that Open Banking is a

     87%
                                                      global phenomenon!

             active initiatives
              of all countries
                 analysed

18    Open Banking APIs worldwide   Market research results                                                                                              Open Banking APIs worldwide                             Market research results           19
European
Europe                                                                                 99                                                     Union and
                                                                        98
                                                  97                                                      97           97
                                                                                                                                        100
                                                                                                                                              EEA
With its PSD2 legislation, the European Union                                                                                           90
is a clear Pioneer (1) in the widespread intro-                                                                                               All countries in the EU and the European Eco-         is a member of the EU, UK banks will be re-
duction of Open Banking. PSD2 covers the                                                                                                80    nomic Area - which includes Norway, Iceland           quired to comply with PSD2 and only allow
regulation of third-party service providers as                                                                                                and Liechtenstein - must implement PSD2               registered TPPs to access their PSD2 APIs.
                                                                                                                                        70
well as the requirements for a standard.                                                                                                      and, in the process, transfer sovereignty over        Large parts of the PSD2 requirements are very
                                                                                                                                        60    the bank data to their customers. At the              similar to those of the CMA and some - like ac-
Within the EU, however, there are significant                                                                                                 same time, third-party service providers who          cess control for TPPS – are identical. So it can
differences in the progress of implementation                                                                                           50    want to access account data or initiate pay-          be assumed that even after Brexit, PSD2-like
and cooperation between banks and FinTechs                                                                                                    ments must also be regulated. Under PSD2,             specifications will remain. It is also expected
                                                                                                                                        40
via Open APIs. Of particular note, and there-                                                                                                 as of September 2019, over 5,000 European             that the CMA‘s mandate will be extended to
                                                                                                                                              banks must provide access to account infor-           the remaining UK-based banks.

                                                  Open Banking Status
fore worthy of separate consideration, is the                                                                                           30

                                                                                       Market Standards
UK and the implementation of the UK Open                                                                                                      mation and payment initiation via Open APIs.

                                                                                                                       TPP-Regulation
Banking APIs by the CMA9 banks. In contrast,                                                                                            20    Safety guidelines for this have been set with         The UK has perhaps the most intense bank-

                                                                        Distribution

                                                                                                          Regulators
Switzerland does not follow the PSD2 regula-                                                                                                  the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) of           ing market internationally with strong com-
                                                                                                                                        10
tion and relies on the emergence of market                                                                                                    the European Banking Association (EBA) but            petition from traditional banks, challenger
standards that are gradually spreading.                                                                                                 0     the market has been left to design its own            banks and FinTechs. Due to the resulting
                                                                                                                                              open interfaces. To this end, several Europe-         high level of innovation, the number of banks
                                                                                                                                              an working groups have been developing API            that already offer open interfaces today is the
                                                                                                                                              standards. Among the most successful is the           highest worldwide.
                                                                                                                                              Berlin Group. Covering 78% of all European
                                                                                                                                              banks, its framework provides the most wide-
                                                                                                                                              ly used standard, followed by UK Open Bank-
                                                                                                                                              ing and STET.

                                                                                                                                              A comparison of the standards, and the rea-
                                                                                                                                              sons for Berlin Group’s rapid rise, can be found
                                                                                                                                              in our white paper „Berlin Group - Develop-
                                                                                                                                              ment, Features, Outlook“.

                                                                                                                                              Spotlight: United Kingdom                                   Example: Starling Bank
                                                                                                                                              The UK is considered the principle Pioneer (1)              The Starling Bank already
                                                                                                                                              in the introduction of Open Banking. From                   has its own API marketplace,
                                                                                                                                              January 2018, its Competition and Markets                   offering FinTechs innovative
                                                                                                                                              Authority (CMA) mandated country’s nine                     services beyond its Open APIs
                                                                                                                                              largest banks (CMA9), to provide standardised               in categories such as account
                                                                                                                                              Open APIs. This gave the UK much earlier reg-               aggregation, personal finance
                                                                                                                                              ulation than any other market. The CMA-ini-                 management, insurance, peer-
                                                                                                                                              tiated Open Banking Implementation Entity                   to-peer investments, savings and
                                                                                                                                              (OBIE) defined the APIs within the UK Open                  mortgages.
                                                                                                                                              Banking Standard. Although this had to be
                                                                                                                                              extended to include individual PSD2 require-
                                                                                                                                              ments, it also covers areas such as credit data
                                                                                                                                              not regulated by the PSD2. As long as the UK

20    Open Banking APIs worldwide   Europe                                                                                                                                            Open Banking APIs worldwide   European Union and EEA        21
78% of all European banks
                                                                                       provides the most
                                                                                                                         Example: Nordea
                                                                                                                         Nordea already maintains a
                                                                                                                                                                 hub, which now serves more than 25 ban-
                                                                                                                                                                 king groups. The hub will take API functiona-
                                                                                                                                                                 lity beyond the scope of PSD2 e.g. to savings
                                                                                                                                                                 products, loans and real estate finance.
                                                                                     widely used standard                developer portal with Open
                                                                                                                         APIs for Account Information            Other countries, like Portugal, Luxembourg
                                                                                                                         Services, Domestic Payments,            and Italy, have formed hubs that are based
                                                                                                                         and SEPA Transfers. Account             on the standard of the Berlin Group and
                                                                                                                         services for corporate                  make FinTechs easier to integrate. In Portu-
                                                                                                                         customers are also under                gal, SIBS covers about 95% of the market. In
                                                                                                                         development.                            Italy, the bank-based Interbank Association
                                                                                                                                                                 for Corporate Banking founded the Globe
                                                                                                                                                                 Hub.
Overview UK

Score .....................................   100/100
Status ...................................    Pioneer (1)
Open APIs ..........................          Very common
Regulator............................         Yes
Initiatives ............................      Advanced
TPP regulation .................              Yes

Innovators in the EU
Within the European Union, Germany, Spain                               have operated in a legal but grey area, sup-
and the Nordics are considered, from sever-                             plying more than 800 FinTechs. The intro-
al perspectives, to be particularly innovative                          duction of PSD2 has provided greater legal
in the field of Open Banking. This includes                             clarity on the part of the third-party service
the emergence of ‘hubs’, that centralise the
delivery of APIs through a single vendor, the-
                                                                        providers as well as a reduction of supported
                                                                        use cases.
                                                                                                                                                                      Overview EU / EWR
reby making integration much easier for Fin-
Techs.                                                                  The Nordics are considered leaders in digital
                                                                        banking and are now extending their innova-                                                   Score .....................................   100/100
Germany was the first country to provide in-                            tion into Open Banking. A number of banks                                                     Status ...................................    Pioneer (1)
terfaces and APIs for account access. Since                             already offer Open APIs today and provide                                                     Open APIs ..........................          Very common
1998, FinTS has provided a functional spec-                             access to account information.                                                                Regulator............................         Yes
trum that has been well beyond the scope                                                                                                                              Initiatives ............................      Advanced
of PSD2, for example, ensuring custody ac-                                                                                                                            TPP regulation .................              Yes
count data is provided by almost all German                             Spain was recently named a pioneer in digi-
banks. Since 2016, against this backdrop, a                             tal banking in an analysis by Oliver Wyman.
broad range of local account aggregators                                As part of PSD2, Redsys has launched its own

22        Open Banking APIs worldwide                 Innovators in the EU                                                                              Open Banking APIs worldwide              Innovators in the EU         23
Switzerland
Although legendary for its banking land-
                                                                           Example: ecosystem of
                                                                           Hypothekarbank Lenzburg
                                                                                                                       Americas                                                                                     31
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         40

scape, Switzerland can be ranked as a Riser                                Recognised with several
(4) in the realms of Open Banking. This is due                             innovation awards, the                      The development of Open Banking within                                                                                      27
to the fact that both the Swiss Bankers Asso-                              Hypothekarbank Lenzburg                     the American continent differs greatly from
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         30
ciation and the authorities reject legal regu-                             ecosystem has enabled                       one region to another: While the US is char-                              25                              25
lation for opening bank data.                                              multidimensional business                   acterised by a large number of challenger
                                                                           models using the ndgit API                  banks and FinTechs with very broad digital
Therefore, Open APIs in Switzerland are driv-                              platform. Through its Open                  offerings, the development of Open Banking
en by the market itself. But there are some                                Banking APIs, innovative start-ups          APIs tends to be championed by countries
market bodies working on public standards                                  such as neon consume white-                 like Mexico and Brazil.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         20
                                                                                                                                                                                 13
for banking APIs. This includes the industry                               label products to launch services
association Swiss FinTech Innovations (SFTI)                               directly to their customers. In             Other South American countries, however, re-
which, together with the system providers                                  addition, banking customers can             main Beginners (5), while Canada, as a Con-
Avaloq, Finnova, Temenos, Finstar and ndgit,                               benefit from an ecosystem of                verter (3), shows clear signs of having a rapidly

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Open Banking Status
are designing the Common API. OpenBank-                                    FinTech partners, that can use              emerging open market.                                                                                                                             10

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Market Standards
ingProject.ch is also planning an Open API

                                                                                                                                                                                TPP-Regulation
                                                                           their data via Open APIs to deliver
for Swiss payments. In addition, SwissCorpo-                               value-added services.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Distribution
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Regulators
rate API, an interface standard and hub for
business customers, is also planning to go
live this year, and will be supported by major                                                                                                                                                                                                                           0

Swiss banks.

                                                                      As of today, only Hypothekarbank Lenzburg
                                                                      offers Open Banking APIs in Switzerland via
Overview                                                              a developer portal which has been success-
Switzerland                                                           fully used by various FinTechs since 2018.
                                                                      Similar to PSD2, these APIs support account
                                                                      information and payment initiation but also
Score .....................................   13,5/100                take into account local Swiss characteristics.
Status ...................................    Riser (4)
Open APIs ..........................          Some
Regulator............................         No
Initiatives ............................      Established
TPP regulation .................              No

24        Open Banking APIs worldwide                   Switzerland                                                                                                        Open Banking APIs worldwide                                          America                  25
Brazil                                                                                            Mexico
Brazil is one of the world’s Open Banking                                                         Mexico is ranked as an Open Banking Con-
Followers (2). It already has some open APIs                                                      verter (3) and lies mid-field in terms of the
provided by banks and these cover a relative-                                                     region’s other players. The introduction of
ly broad range of services. In April, the central                Example: Banco Brasil            FinTechLaw, in March 2018, made it the first            Overview Mexico
bank also announced the main guidelines for                      Banco Brasil already provides    country in Latin America to regulate the fin-
the regulation of Open Banking but the exact                     a third-party developer portal   tech market. Similar to the CMA’s approach
model is still being discussed.                                  with sandboxes. Included are     in the UK, this law not only promotes greater           Score .....................................   38,5/100
                                                                 account information, credit      protection of consumer data but also fosters            Status ...................................    Converter (3)
By 2020, it will oblige all banks to open up to                  card, investment, and payment    competition, thereby increasing the pressure            Open APIs ..........................          Some spread
third-party providers in a multi-stage process.                  functions.                       on local banks to innovate. In addition to reg-         Regulator............................         Planned
In addition to account access functions and                                                       ulation of FinTech companies in the market,             Initiatives ............................      Early stage
payment triggers, it will include locations of                                                    it also makes the introduction of Open APIs             TPP regulation .................              Planned
service points, loans and customer data with-                                                     mandatory.
in its guidelines. As with the UK, it’s aiming
beyond the demands of Europe’s PSD2. How-                                                         Some features , such as the Customer Con-
ever, a third-party regulatory body is currently                                                  sent model and the Regulatory Sandbox, are
not planned.                                                                                      coming directly from the UK Open Banking
                                                                                                  Standard. Currently, an API standard does
                                                                                                  not yet exist but, given these developments,
                                                                                                  it can be assumed its scope will be based on
                                                                                                  the UK Open Banking Standard.

Overview Brazil                                                                                                                                                                                    Canada

Score .....................................   39,5/100                                                                                              Canada is also classified as a Converter (3) in
Status ...................................    Follower (2)                                                                                          Open Banking. Currently, RBC is the only local
Open APIs ..........................          Widely used                                                                                           bank that offers third-party vendors access to
Regulator............................         Planned                                                                                               Open APIs through a developer portal. Its use
Initiatives ............................      Early stage                                                                                           cases differ greatly from those required by
TPP regulation .................              No                                                                                                    PSD2.

                                                                                                                                                    Although the country does not have an over-
                                                                                                                                                    arching and legally required Open Banking
                                                                                                                                                    standard, there are banking and regulatory
                                                                                                                                                    efforts to design an API standard. The Depart-
                                                                                                                                                    ment of Finance convened an Open Banking
                                                                                                                                                    consultancy committee in 2018 which result-
                                                                                                                                                    ed in the January 2019 publication of the Re-
                                                                                                                                                    view into the Merits of Open Banking, whose

26        Open Banking APIs worldwide                   Brazil                                                                                        Open Banking APIs worldwide                        Mexico     27
aim was to help derive a comprehensive Open
Banking strategy for the whole country.
                                                                                                    USA
It’s certain that this will include the strength-                Example: Royal Bank                Despite its many existing digital players, the
ening of user rights through a customer-con-                     of Canada (RBC)                    US remains an Open Banking Beginner (5).
sent model for data transfer, risk minimisation                  In 2018, the RBC was the first     None of its states has a legally prescribed
through common security standards and the                        Bank in Canada to provide an       Open Banking regulation. Instead, the mar-           Overview USA
relevance of data-sharing policies in the con-                   API developer portal. The portal   ket itself is driving efforts to roll out Open
text of Open Banking.                                            comprises five API packages        APIs across the board. Individual banks now
                                                                 with end-to-end business           provide APIs on their developer portals. How-        Score .....................................   8,5/100
                                                                 processes for the following use    ever, most continue to rely on bilaterally used      Status ...................................    Beginner (5)
                                                                 cases: credit card catalogue;      APIs in collaboration with FinTechs.                 Open APIs ..........................          Some spread
                                                                 settlement finder; amortisation,                                                        Regulator............................         No
                                                                 minimum deposit rate and           In 2017, the National Automated Clearing-            Initiatives ............................      Early stage
                                                                 vault deposit calculators.         house Association (NACHA), in collaboration          TPP regulation .................              No
                                                                                                    with the API Standardization Industry Group
                                                                                                    (ASIG), announced the development of sev-
                                                                                                    eral API Use Cases. In July 2018, together with
                                                                                                    the IFX Forum (now Afinis), they published
                                                                                                    an implementation concept for RESTful APIs.
                                                                                                    Afinis continues to explore the definition of     banks, the US could be considered as a leader
                                                                                                    standardized APIs - for transaction status re-    in digital banking. However, with no current
                                                                                                    trieval, B2B billing interoperability, and pay-   legally binding requirements for Open Bank-
                                                                                                    ment initiation - and has already deployed a      ing, its development remains strongly linked
                                                                                                    sandbox including a developer portal.             to the readiness of banks to open their data
                                                                                                                                                      for third-party providers. This has resulted in
                                                                                                    With its wide range of FinTech offerings, as      its downgrading in our assessment and sub-
                                                                                                    well as the large number of new challenger        sequent ranking.

Overview Canada

Score .....................................   21/100
Status ...................................    Converter (3)
Open APIs ..........................          Some spread
Regulator............................         No
Initiatives ............................      Early stage
TPP regulation .................              No

28        Open Banking APIs worldwide                   Canada                                                                                            Open Banking APIs worldwide                       USA       29
Chile
With its current Open Banking development,
                                                                                                              Asia                                                                 63                                                                    70

Chile is lagging behind the Latin American                                                                                                                                                                                                               60

pioneers Brazil and Mexico and is among the                                                                   Within Asia, the Open Banking progress of
Beginners (5) in international comparison.       Overview Chile                                               each market is very different. The introduc-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   46

Currently, only Banco BCI has an Open Bank-                                                                   tion of Open APIs is being promoted at the                                                                                                 50

ing platform.                                                                                                 local level, which significantly increases the
                                                 Score .....................................   8,5/100        risk of fragmentation compared to Europe                                                                             39
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         40
Together with fintech group FinTechile, it is    Status ...................................    Beginner (5)   or other regions that embrace trans-national
                                                                                                                                                                                                      33
also trying to drive a nationwide Open Bank-     Open APIs ..........................          Some spread    Open Banking initiatives.
                                                                                                                                                                  28
ing strategy. This would aim to position Chile   Regulator............................         No
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         30
as a Latin American Open Banking pioneer by      Initiatives ............................      Early stage
actively initiating cooperation between banks    TPP regulation .................              No
and FinTechs.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         20

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Open Banking Status
                                                                                                                                                                                   Market Standards
                                                                                                                                                                  TPP-Regulation
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         10

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Distribution
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Regulators
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         0

      Example: Banco BCI
      In 2017, Banco BCI was
      the first and only one on
      the market to launch its
      own API portal, providing
      a selection of third-party
      APIs covering branches,
      ATM localisation, loans,
      mortgages, account access,
      benefits such as discounts
      and promotions and daily
      economic indicators. The
      BCI contributes positively to
      financial inclusion through
      its open portal and the
      resulting digital solutions.

30   Open Banking APIs worldwide      Chile                                                                                                                    Open Banking APIs worldwide                                        Asia                   31
Hong Kong                                                                                                         Japan
Although Hong Kong is clearly a pioneer in                                                                        Like Hong Kong, Japan is one of the Follow-        the Legislation on Electronic Payment Inter-
Asia Open Banking, in the international con-                                                                      ers (2) in the field of Open APIs. Here, too, we   mediate Service Providers. These provisions
text, we have ranked it as a Follower (2). To-                                                                    found various Open Banking services provid-        cover the introduction of a Financial Services
day, its range of Open Banking APIs is very          Overview                                                     ed by banks, which will continue to increase       Authority (FSA) registration system and the
large, with many delivering a much higher                                                                         until 2020 through regulatory measures. At         monitoring of registered FinTechs, as well as
level of service than PSD2 prescribed APIs. In       Hong Kong                                                    the same time, there is full regulation of TTPs    requirements for promoting cooperation be-
early 2018, the Hong Kong Monetary Author-                                                                        on the market, as well as other initiatives to     tween banks and FinTechs. In March 2019, 40
ity (HKMA), which is the national regulator,                                                                      create a common Open API standard.                 TPPs were already registered in Japan.
released an Open API Framework. It includes          Score .....................................   80,5/100
functionality and deployment time for APIs;          Status ...................................    Follower (2)   In 2017, the Japan Banking Association (JBA)
architectural standards, security and scope          Open APIs ..........................          Widely used    was commissioned via the ‘Promotion of
of the Open APIs; a third-party control mod-         Regulator............................         Yes            Open Innovation’ report to make recommen-
el; and Open API support and development.            Initiatives ............................      Established    dations that included an API standard for
                                                     TPP regulation .................              Planned        Open Banking as well as an API Connection
In a four-phase model, banks will provide                                                                         List to help banks familiarise themselves with
product information (Phase 1), customer                                                                           Open APIs and give guidance on evaluating
onboarding (Phase 2), account information                                                                         third-party APIs.
(Phase 3), and payment initiation services
(Phase 4) through Open APIs. The framework                                                                        As an amendment to the Banking Act, which
                                                                                                                                                                         Overview Japan
is influenced by both PSD2 and UK Open                                                                            came into force on 1 June 2018, it released
Banking, but is unique in its overall form. In
Hong Kong the movement is referred to be-                                                                                                                                Score .....................................   63/100
ing the initial step in the „new era of smart                                                                                                                            Status ...................................    Follower (2)
banking“.                                                                                                                                                                Open APIs ..........................          Widely used
                                                                                                                                                                         Regulator............................         No
                                                                                                                                                                         Initiatives ............................      Advanced
                                                                                                                                                                         TPP regulation .................              Yes

                                                                                                                  South Korea
                                                                                                                  In South Korea, there have been strong efforts
                                                                                                                  in Open Banking since 2016. At that time, the
                                                                                                                  Financial Services Commission (FSC) initiat-
                                                                                                                  ed the FinTech Open Platform. Forty financial
                                                                                                                  institutions, including 16 banks, supported
                                                                                                                  the initiative, which allowed FinTechs to ac-
                                                                                                                  cess Open APIs through a common inter-
       Example: Standard Chartered                                                                                face, but at a comparatively high cost. The
       In 2017, Standard Chartered introduced a developer portal, which now has                                   South Korean government believed these
       over 100 APIs for Hong Kong, South Korea, UK, France and Germany. There                                    conditions were inhibiting market growth so
       are currently 8 APIs available in Hong Kong covering Product Information,                                  began developing a framework for nation-
       Customer Onboarding for Loans, ATM Localization and FX Rates.                                              wide Open Banking that would ensure low
                                                                                                                  costs for market participants. It adopted the
                                                                                                                  Financial Innovation Support Act and intro-

32   Open Banking APIs worldwide    Hong Kong                                                                                                                           Open Banking APIs worldwide                       Japan       33
duced a Regulatory Sandbox in March 2019.
                                                                  In parallel, the FSC provided frameworks
                                                                                                                                   Singapore
                                                                  for Open Banking under the Electronic Fi-
Overview South                                                    nancial Transaction Act: standardised Open                       Singapore has experienced the widespread
                                                                  Banking APIs and third-party regulation. By                      use of Open Banking APIs, with many banks
Korea                                                             October 2019, a central API standard should                      offering them nationwide. However, in our
                                                                  also be defined. This activity has propelled                     comparison it falls short of a being a Follow-        Overview Singapore
Score .....................................   59,5/100            South Korea to a leadership role within of                       er and is ranked as a Converter (3) due to its
Status ...................................    Follower (2)        the Asian Open Banking movement and is                           lack of legal guidelines.
Open APIs ..........................          Very little         reflected in its position as Follower (2) in our
Regulator............................         Planned             international comparison.                                        The largest bank in Singapore, the DBS                Score .....................................   31,5/100
Initiatives ............................      Fortgeschritten                                                                      Group Holding, published its platform in              Status ...................................    Converter (3)
TPP regulation .................              Planned                                                                              2017 and, with its Open API Offering, is con-         Open APIs ..........................          Widely used
                                                                                                                                   sidered to be an absolute pioneer worldwide.          Regulator............................         No
                                                                                                                                   While the implementation of open interfac-            Initiatives ............................      Established
                                                                                                                                   es in Singapore is not mandatory, there are           TPP regulation .................              No
                                                                                                                                   government-led initiatives to introduce stan-
                                                                                                                                   dards. The Monetary Authority Singapore
                                                                                                                                   (MAS), in cooperation with the Association of
                                                                                                                                   Banks in Singapore (ABS), launched an API
                                                                                                                                   Playbook in 2016, which provides an overview
Bahrain                                                                                                                            of 411 recommended APIs covering more
                                                                                                                                   than 700 business processes. It includes APIs
                                                                                                                                   for banks, insurance companies, asset man-
In the Arab world, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are                                                                                         agement and government organisations.
beginning their efforts to open the banks,                                                                                         Adoption of the recommendations is volun-
but only Bahrain is showing a sustainable de-                                                                                      tary, however, it has been well received and
velopment towards Open Banking. Thanks                                                                                             interest in the market is great.
to these developments, the state can be
classed as a Follower (2). In November 2018,                                                                                       In early 2017, the MAS also launched the
                                                                                                                                                                                           Example: DBS Group
the Bahraini Central Bank adopted the regu-                                                                                        AFIN, a FinTech innovation network, involv-
                                                                                                                                                                                           The DBS refers to its
latory framework Open Banking Modules for                                                                                          ing the International Finance Corporation
                                                                                                                                                                                           platform, launched in 2017,
banks and TPPs in payments. Retail banks                                                                                           (IFC) and the Bankers Association. Part of its
                                                                                                                                                                                           as „the largest API Developer
were given a tight deadline and had to sub-                                                                                        remit includes providing a sandbox to facil-
                                                                                                                                                                                           platform in the world“.
mit implementation plans by January 2019.                                                                                          itate service development between banks
                                                                                                                                                                                           From the beginning 155
                                                                                                                                   and FinTechs.
The Open Banking Module defines both                                  Overview Bahrain                                                                                                     APIs were available, which
                                                                                                                                                                                           made it possible to integrate
the interfaces and the requirements for the
                                                                                                                                                                                           innovative functionalities
technical standards of Strong Customer
                                                                                                                                                                                           such as real-time payments.
Authentication (SCA) and Common Secure                                Score .....................................   67/100
                                                                                                                                                                                           In 2018, DBS added to this
Communication (CSC). It is based in the                               Status ...................................    Follower (2)
                                                                                                                                                                                           with the launch of various
broadest sense on PSD2 but goes beyond                                Open APIs ..........................          Very little
                                                                                                                                                                                           marketplaces including a
it with a requirement for 3-factor authenti-                          Regulator............................         Yes
                                                                                                                                                                                           real estate marketplace, a car
cation. The catalogue of measures, with its                           Initiatives ............................      Developing
                                                                                                                                                                                           marketplace and an electricity
clear sanctions for failure to meet deadlines                         TPP regulation .................              No
                                                                                                                                                                                           marketplace.
or requirements, also shows how serious the
Kingdom is about advancing and benefiting

                                                                                                                                           2017
from Open Banking.

                                                                                                                                             in this year the MAS also
                                                                                                                                                launched the AFIN
34        Open Banking APIs worldwide                   Bahrain                                                                                                                     Open Banking APIs worldwide                        Singapore       35
Thailand                                                                                            Malaysia
We have classed Thailand as a Converter (3).                                                        Malaysia‘s Open Banking development clas-               Overview Malaysia
Although there is no legal regulation at pres-                                                      sifies it as a Converter (3). The emergence of
ent, the three big banks have already pro-                                                          Open APIs is primarily driven by the govern-
vided developer portals with Open Banking                          Example: Siam Commercial         ment and is now well advanced with various              Score .....................................   30,5/100
APIs. These include Siam Commercial Bank,                          Bank (SCB)                       banks already providing open interfaces and             Status ...................................    Converter (3)
Kasikorn Bank and Bangkog Bank. The scope                          Siam Commercial Bank             a planned central registry for TPPs. Since 2015,        Open APIs ..........................          Widely used
of the interfaces provided differs significantly                   relies on ecosystems with        banks have used a joint FinTech incubator               Regulator............................         No
from the services required under PSD2.                             digital partners and FinTechs.   programme to self-initiated Open Banking. In            Initiatives ............................      Established
                                                                   Together with the Mall Group,    June 2016, the Central Bank of Malaysia and             TPP regulation .................              Planned
In December 2015, the government launched                          it has launched a range of       the regulator Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)
the Thailand 4.0 drive project. As part of                         new services. It also offers     jointly launched the Financial Technology En-
this, the central bank called Bank of Thai-                        Open Banking APIs for loans,     abler Group.
land (BOT) provided a regulatory sandbox                           payments and customer
in 2016, enabling emerging FinTechs to test                        information in its developer     Supporting regulatory policies for Open
their services. One year later, the country’s                      portal.                          Banking, this created a regulatory sandbox
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),                                                           base, which was launched in 2017.
launched additional sandboxing on topics                                                                                                               ary 2019, it released API specifications, which
such as collateral, derivatives, clearing hous-                                                     In 2018, the Central Bank of Malaysia initiated    included scope, deadlines and recommen-
es and e-commerce.                                                                                  the Open API Implementation Group to de-           dations for standardisation and the planned
                                                                                                    velop standards and regulate TPPs. In Janu-        regulation of TTPs.
In 2018, they released an API portal, with ac-
cess to product information, exchange rates,
and more.

                                                                                                                                                                             In China Open
                                                                                                    China                                                                 Banking is heavily
                                                                                                                                                                         followed by Tecent‘s
                                                                                                                                                                          WeBank (WeChat)
                                                                                                    Despite its pioneering role in other techni-                          and Ant Financial
                                                                                                    cal disciplines, China is lagging behind in its                             (Alibaba).
Overview Thailand                                                                                   Open Banking development and so has been
                                                                                                    ranked as a Riser (4). Open Banking is heavily
                                                                                                    followed by Tecent‘s WeBank (WeChat) and
Score .....................................   19,5/100                                              Ant Financial (Alibaba).
Status ...................................    Converter (3)
Open APIs ..........................          Some                                                  In March 2019, Tecent and WeBank an-
Regulator............................         No                                                    nounced the implementation of a new                driven by PSD2 and other regulations proba-
Initiatives ............................      Established                                           FinTech Research Lab with the goal of de-          bly by the influence of tech giants.
TPP regulation .................              No                                                    veloping an Open Banking Framework to
                                                                                                    support banks in Open Banking implemen-            So far, the country’s financial services and
                                                                                                    tation. Where Chinese banks currently offer        data protection regulation has been limited
                                                                                                    Open APIs, the range is bigger than those          but privacy guidelines, based on GDPR, are

36        Open Banking APIs worldwide                   Thailand                                                                                       Open Banking APIs worldwide                        Malaysia        37
now in planning. Nonetheless, there are still
no concrete plans for an Open Banking reg-
                                                                                                                     India
ulation, so the emergence of Open APIs will
continue to be driven by market participants
                                                         Overview China                                              India also has the status of Riser (4). Despite
and customer needs.                                                                                                  the absence of regulatory requirements,
                                                                                                                     banks have already implemented Open
                                                         Score .....................................
                                                         Status ...................................
                                                                                                       11/100
                                                                                                       Riser (4)
                                                                                                                     Banking APIs. Disclosed interfaces main-
                                                                                                                     ly cover payment initiation and loans ser-
                                                                                                                                                                                  Overview India
                                                         Open APIs ..........................          Very little   vices. A central TPP register is currently not
                                                         Regulator............................         No            planned and initiatives for Open Banking
                                                         Initiatives ............................      Developing    have so far been driven mainly by banks.                     Score .....................................   14,5/100
                                                         TPP regulation .................              No                                                                         Status ...................................    Riser (4)
                                                                                                                     For example, YES Bank, RBL, DCB, Kotak and                   Open APIs ..........................          Relatively strong
                                                                                                                     the Federal Bank have already implement-                     Regulator............................         No
                                                                                                                     ed Open API platforms, increasing pressure                   Initiatives ............................      Early stage
                                                                                                                     on other local banks to follow suit.                         TPP regulation .................              No

Indonesia
Indonesia has not published any regulatory
guidelines so far. That said, thanks to current
bank and government initiatives, the coun-              Overview Indonesia
try is still ranked as a Riser (4). Some banks                                                                            Example: DCB Bank
already offer Open Banking APIs through                                                                                   In February this year, DCB Bank announced the launch of its developer portal.
developer portals, giving FinTechs access to            Score .....................................   13,5/100            Together with its own APIs, this is enabling more than 20 third-party providers to offer
their data and affiliate ecosystem partners.            Status ...................................    Riser (4)           its innovative and customer-centric products. Use cases include PAN verifications,
                                                        Open APIs ..........................          Very little         account and customer inquiries, fund transfers and remittances.
In December 2016, the Bank Sentral Repub-               Regulator............................         No
lik (BSR) set up the FinTech Office to moni-            Initiatives ............................      Developing
tor FinTechs and serve as a consultancy for             TPP regulation .................              Planned
them. Recently it announced the establish-
ment of a Regulatory Sandbox. At the time
of publishing this paper, this had not been
launched.                                           developer portal with 19 APIs that could serve
                                                    as the basis for further standardisation initia-
In 2017, the Bank of Central Asia released its      tives.

     Example: Madiri Bank
     As early as 2015, Madiri Bank made an API available, which gives third-party providers
     access to its electronic money system. It also helped building FinTech and third-party
     partnerships that provide online payment system services e.g. Cashlez.

38    Open Banking APIs worldwide   Indonesia                                                                                                                                 Open Banking APIs worldwide                       India     39
70
                                                                               63
                                                                                                                                                         Australia
Australia &                                                                                                                                         60

New Zealand
                                                              50                                  50                                                     Australia is one of the new Pioneers (1) in
                                                                                                                              48                         Open Banking, as it has both a set of rules for
                                                                                                                                                    50   opening bank data and a central regulator of
                                                                                                               40                                        TPPs. However the Open Banking coverage
                                                                                                                                                         in the market is still relatively low. It’s worth
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Overview Australia
                                                                                                                                                    40   noting that the requirements of Australia’s
Although geographically close together, Aus-                                                                                                             Open API based services is much larger than
tralia and New Zealand could not be more                                                                                                                 those of PSD2.                                            Score .....................................   88/100
different in their Open Banking development.                                                                                                        30                                                             Status ...................................    Pioneer (1)
Australia is one of the top countries in our                                                                                                             As with PSD2, Australian regulators see data              Open APIs ..........................          Relatively strong
ranking, while New Zealand, together with                                                                                                                sovereignty in the hands of consumers. This               Regulator............................         Yes
the USA, Kenya, Nigeria, Chile and South Afri-                                                                                                      20   data sovereignty is not regulated in a dedi-              Initiatives ............................      Advanced

                                                                                                                              Open Banking Status
ca, is at the back of the pack.                                                                                                                          cated Payment Directive, but in the Data                  TPP regulation .................              Yes

                                                                               Market Standards
                                                                                                                                                         Protection Act called Consumer Data Right t.

                                                              TPP-Regulation
                                                                                                                                                         Specifically, the law provides that consumers

                                                                                                               Distribution
                                                                                                                                                    10

                                                                                                  Regulators
                                                                                                                                                         themselves can decide which of their accu-
                                                                                                                                                         mulated data to share and with which out-
                                                                                                                                                    0    side party. The banking sector is only the first
                                                                                                                                                         industry in which the law will take effect. It
                                                                                                                                                         also foresees the introduction of Open APIs         Scope of Required Services*1
                                                                                                                                                         into other sectors and will be extended to             Savings accounts
                                                                                                                                                         them in due course.                                    Call accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Term deposits
                                                                                                                                                         By July 1, 2019, the four largest banks in Aus-        Current accounts
                                                                                                                                                         tralia had to provide Open APIs on credit and          Cheque accounts
                                                                                                                                                         debit cards, prepayment and transaction                Debit card accounts
                                                                                                                                                         data as part of a pilot test. Within 12 months         Transaction accounts
                                                                                                                                                         all banks should follow their lead and provide         Personal basic accounts
                                                                                                                                                         the full planned functionality.                        GST and tax accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Cash management accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Farm management accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pensioner deeming accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Mortgages
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Business finance
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Personal loans
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Lines of credit
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Overdrafts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Consumer leases
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Credit and charge cards
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Asset finance and leases
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Mortgage offset accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Trust accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Retirement savings accounts
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Foreign currency accounts

                                                                                                                                                         *1
                                                                                                                                                              Source: finder.com.au/open-banking

40   Open Banking APIs worldwide    Australia & New Zealand                                                                                                                                                  Open Banking APIs worldwide                     Australia       41
New Zealand
                                                                                                                      Africa
New Zealand is one of the Beginners (5) in                             Last year, this community worked on a com-
Open Banking. Only the Bank of New Zea-                                mon Open Banking API and ecosystem                                                                                                                                                       30

land (BNZ) currently provides Open Banking                             standard that would simplify cooperation       Overall, Africa is one of the Beginners (5) in                       25
APIs, which are currently limited to payment                           between different organisations and pro-       the field of Open Banking although isolated
initiation. In New Zealand, the Open Bank-                             mote innovation in the financial sector.       initiatives can be seen in the market. Due to
ing movement is driven primarily by the                                                                               a high proportion of its population having no
government Payments NZ. In March 2018,                                 The standard is expected to be based on UK     access to financial systems and its relatively
it launched an API pilot programme to test                             Open Banking of the Open Banking Imple-        weak infrastructure, Africa’s digital service
Open Banking APIs with account informa-                                mentation Entity (OBIE). At time of publica-   development is primarily focused on finan-                                                                                                20

tion and payment services. Six banks and                               tion of this paper, the standard was not yet   cial inclusion. Telecommunications providers                                                         16
third-party vendors participated in the test:                          published.                                     such as M-Pesa have had a lot of influence on
ASB, BNZ, Datacom, Paymark, Trade Me and                                                                              the digital banking market. They are increa-
Westpac.                                                                                                              sing the pressure on banks to innovate their
                                                                                                                      services through digital payment offerings.                                                                         10
                                                                                                                                                                            0
                                                                                                                      M-Pesa not only offers users the ability to                                                                                               10
                                                                                                                      upload funds to the SIM card in order to
                                                                                                                      make payments, but also allows employers

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Open Banking Status
                                                                                                                                                                                                                5
     Overview New Zealand

                                                                                                                                                                                           Market Standards
                                                                                                                      to pay directly to their employees phones.

                                                                                                                                                                          TPP-Regulation
                                                                                                                      In 2018 M-Pesa already had 27 million custo-

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Distribution
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Regulators
                                                                                                                      mers in 10 countries.

     Score .....................................   8,5/100                                                                                                                                                                                                      0
     Status ...................................    Beginner (5)
     Open APIs ..........................          Very little
     Regulator............................         No
     Initiatives ............................      Early stage
     TPP regulation .................              No

42     Open Banking APIs worldwide                       New Zealand                                                                                                   Open Banking APIs worldwide                                        Africa                43
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