Standard Chartered has launched an Open Banking Marketplace for clients to explore, identify and test APIs suited to their business goals in a sandbox environment.
The marketplace aims to streamline business-to-bank collaboration, offering corporates seeking digital transformation a shorter discovery and implementation processes, allowing developers to begin coding and plugging into the bank’s open banking ecosystem, simulating the experience almost instantly.
Mark Willis, Global Head of API & Open Banking Ecosystems at Standard Chartered, said: “Open banking has been a transformative force over the last decade, with APIs playing an important role in enabling corporates to build future-proof propositions that meet the needs of the evolving digital economy.
“What is needed to further its adoption is a shift in focus towards a better user experience – one that is less technically focused and offers simple, plug-and-play solutions.”
Standard Chartered has recently been “embracing the future of banking”, focusing on enhancing its open banking capabilities through the sharing and use of APIs. The Open Banking Marketplace builds on an earlier iteration of the Bank’s aXess platform that was launched in 2019 – which was part of a broader initiative targeted at the developer community to boost its open banking capabilities.
In addition to accessing over 100 pre-built API products spanning cash, FX, trade, and securities, platform users will be able to benefit from unique features. One of these features is the ability to browse and filter solutions tailored to their industry across 33 global markets, such as manufacturing, fintech, technology and e-commerce.
Users will also be able to create project spaces, conduct testing with their teams in an enhanced simulator environment. Additionally, they can also explore new developer guides, including API technology documents and tutorials on the bank’s security protocols and authentication.
Willis concluded: “Accelerating on our commitment to drive innovation by partnering with developers, corporates and fintechs to embark on this transformation journey, we are excited to introduce our new and revamped Open Banking Marketplace that provides a comprehensive, user-friendly interface to help them make informed and timely decisions when assessing and implementing the use of APIs within their business environment.
“The initial feedback from our clients and partners have been extremely positive – through the various resources available on the platform, we hope that more of them can draw inspiration from the other organisations who have successfully tapped into our suite of API products to realise their business objectives.”
Open Banking has had a positive impact on the financial industry, specifically increasing the usage of enhanced APIs, which has allowed financial entities the ability to transform their product offerings. Huw Davies, Co-CEO of Ozone API, explored the impact it has had in markets that have typically been underserved on Payment Expert this week.
