This webinar examines the possibilities and opportunities found in harnessing open APIs to gain a competitive edge in the open banking landscape.

There may be a lingering feeling that open APIs’ main function is a regulatory one, rather than embracing the opportunity to innovate, leveraging new services for their clients.

This means that two distinct camps have emerged in the industry. Some, perhaps those more digitally focused and with more pronounced strategies, have been pushing ahead, while others have not worked as hard to collaborate with others to create value or overlay services.

This is perhaps understandable. Considering the amount of money spent in meeting compliance with open banking regulation, banks may be reticent to invest further in gaining a competitive edge when the likely return is unclear.

Such institutions still with this mindset, therefore, should be aware of the possibilities of the ‘open API economy’ that will take hold in the years ahead.

Similarly, other stakeholders in the space should be analysing what is stopping these banks from pushing ahead with an API economy, whether there is a certain type of bank that is most prone and whether it be lack of vision, lack of strategy etc.

This brings us to the eternal question of legacy systems and highlights the long-term process that will need to be undertaken. No bank is going to open up their APIs and find themselves part of a digital economy with a huge interwoven ecosystem overnight.

One of the first tasks that may need to be undertaken is informing the customers accordingly. It is well known that only a minority of consumers are even aware of what open banking is, never mind what implications it holds for them.

This raises the question of to what extent the customers need to know what open banking is or whether they simply need to be met with a very different looking proposition from their providers to implicitly understand that things are changing.

This argument flows to and fro, but the common question posed by corporates is what they need to do to take advantage. Not all banks are ready to have that discussion. This is one of the reasons that open banking is not progressing as rapidly as many in the industry hoped it would do.

The key then is to look at the banks that are advancing the conversation, how they are doing it and how their peers can catch up.

It will be important as well to recognise the opportunities in bringing new value to customers and what strategies should be adopted to implement open banking to get to the point where one can see a commercial return.

Join this Finextra webinar, in association with Redhat, to hear experts discuss:

• The opportunities in the next generation of APIs – what is the best experience that can be offered to customers harnessing the API economy?
• What is the strategic path that institutions may take to get there?

Speakers:

• Gary Wright - Head of Research, Finextra [Moderator]
• Vilmos Lorincz - Managing Director - Data, API and Working Capital Propositions, Global Transaction Banking, Lloyds Banking Group
• Guido Greber - Business Group Lead DACH, Accenture
• Alfonso Navío - FSI Business Strategist, Red Hat EMEA

> Watch the webinar now