Based on interviews with business and IT executives, the study titled Banking APIs: The State of the Market, found that 88 percent of banks surveyed believe internal APIs are essential for regulation and compliance, backoffice systems management, and for leveraging big data.

Digital technologies such as API Management are transforming every aspect of the financial services industry. Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are linkages that offer a set of tools and protocols to describe how one software program communicates with another. The definition has broadened recently as new channels, processes and customer expectations emerge to refer to not just the specifics of the API itself, but to networked collaborative services. This is forcing financial services organizations to rethink established business models. According to the survey, financial services organizations are increasingly seeing APIs play an integral role in enabling digital business by providing innovative, customer-centric products and services.

Furthermore, the majority of those interviewed for the study believed in an open platform future for banks, in which 60 percent of a bank’s APIs would be made available to partners and third party providers. As a result, financial services organizations should closely consider API Management initiatives to build an effective digital strategy. This strategy should be designed to meet traditional performance and regulatory demands while opening and integrating their ecosystem with the ultimate objective of offering the flexibility to support digitally-savvy, empowered customers.

“Our focus is always on the customer and our customers have understandably high expectations when it comes to the services that they expect us to deliver. In order to meet those expectations, we need to implement the underlying technologies that make those offerings possible,” said James Bligh, Senior Manager, Channel Development, National Australia Bank. “As a result, we devised and implemented a robust API strategy in order to support the connected experience that provide our customers with the information they need whenever they needed it. Axway 5 Suite for API Management was the perfect vehicle for enabling us to deliver this strategy. It’s enabled us to be agile, innovative, competitive and cater to the needs of today’s connected, always on, customer.”

“Organizations are increasingly looking to transform and embrace digital business in order to stay competitive, but oftentimes don’t have a clear roadmap outlining the best approach to take,” said Bruno Cambounet VP Finance Services and Insurance, Axway. “The shift to digital is less about a transformation but rather a journey. The key to success in our changing landscape is to secure, manage and control all aspects of interactions they have with customers and their digital partner ecosystem. It starts with a comprehensive API management strategy.”