BIAN’s API Exchange, developed collaboratively by a group including Virtusa, BIAN member banks, and IT businesses, is an open, flexible, enterprise-grade computing platform built on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. The exchange currently features over 65 standardized API definitions that allow banks to reduce the complexity of building and delivering open banking capabilities by providing clear guidance on how to implement innovative and intuitive digital services across both back-end and customer-facing functions.

“We are privileged to support BIAN’s Open Source ecosystem using our strong experience and expertise in building digital innovation platforms for banks and supporting Open Source products and communities in general,” said Senthilkumar Ravindran, executive vice president and global head of Innovation Labs, Virtusa. “We strongly believe that BIAN is moving in the right direction to introduce and apply their standards in the form of Open Source APIs and microservices. Not only will it help realize the benefits of standardization, but it will also achieve rapid acceleration in integration, quality assurance, and partnerships within the banking industry.”

The BIAN API Exchange was built on Virtusa’s Open Innovation Platform and features gamification to boost the right community behaviors. The gamified environment is designed to promote healthy and measurable meritocracy to enhance collaboration and contribution amongst the BIAN community. Further, the API Exchange will allow banks to modernize their critical legacy infrastructure and adopt standardized frameworks to facilitate more open and easy collaboration with FinTechs and RegTechs. BIAN’s API Exchange also consists of community-building collaboration tools such as wikis, forums, and ideation billboards where API and microservice creators and consumers can collaborate dynamically to create and use BIAN-based API implementations.

“BIAN and its members have been working for over a decade to build standardized banking frameworks that make it easier for banks to overcome the wide array of complexities that come with modernizing services,” said Hans Tesselaar, executive director at BIAN. “With the launch of the API Exchange, we are convinced that we make it easier than ever for banks to deliver innovative and high-quality services that meet customers’ increasing expectations. We are incredibly grateful to Virtusa for the critical role they have played in creating the API Exchange. Without the input of member organizations such as them, our quest for driving the modernization of the banking industry would be out of reach.”