Banking cooperative Swift has published a new API standard for the pre-authorisation of funds in its latest bid to bring more efficiency to open banking in Europe.
The open banking initiative, facilitated by the EU's PSD II, is heavily reliant on the use of APIs to link banks' payment systems with third party providers.
API standards play an important role in open banking because they help speed the rollout of new services while reducing incremental investment. If each bank offers a distinct API, merchants and Fintechs have to adapt to different data structures, workflows and security considerations for each one – adding complexity, cost and time for implementation.
Source: SWIFT News
