US electronics payments association Nacha is hoping to nudge along the industry's adoption of APIs by setting up a standardisation working group.
While the use of APIs by financial services firms has begun to pick up in Europe, adoption continues to be slow in the US.
With a quarter of developers citing standardisation as the biggest challenge they want to see the API industry fix in the coming years, Nacha has created a dedicated working group, which had its first meeting in May.
Composed of leaders from across the FS industry, the group has been tasked with creating an 'API Playbook' that can serve as a tool to help banks, businesses and fintech firms create a standardised API ecosystem.
The playbook will be made up of API standards but also a library of use cases and corresponding APIs, with an initial focus on three areas: payment access, fraud and risk reduction, and data sharing.
"API standardisation can have a transformative effect on the financial services industry," says George Throckmorton, MD, network development, Nacha, and API Standardisation Industry Group lead. "Our work is really just beginning, but we are excited to share the outcomes of the inaugural meeting."