Nordea has already been working with Open Banking and APIs for some time. What are the lessons learned and challenges so far?
It is very important to accept, understand and embrace the changing customer behaviour and business landscape brought about by new technology to be able to see the benefits. There is an untapped potential to open a wide array of API services that exceed the ones mandated by PSD2, bringing a whole new meaning to both customers and the banks business.
While dealing with the challenges of the Open Banking ecosystem, it is essential for banks to look for trusted partners to support them in their journey and help them identify customers’ needs and solutions that meet those needs via APIs.
For customers, be they corporates, SMEs or consumers, the focus shouldn’t be on Open Banking itself; it should be on the problems that are solved and the new value that is created. As previously mentioned, Open Banking for us is about a short-term focus on compliance as well as a longer-term focus on enabling commercial opportunities. Already from the beginning, we designed our platform to also become part of a new interface for offering commercial services, which is a long-term commitment within the bank.
Are consumers aware of Open Banking? Do you think this prevents the success of Open Banking? And what would be the best ways to address consumer education?
Generally, banking customers are not aware what the banks technical environments look like and how they work. They don’t know how banks transfer money between each other or how the clearing systems work. Therefore, as banks ensure that customers can access their data in the bank using third-party applications, they also have a responsibility to educate customers about how data is shared, about data permission and privacy.
Financial services are typically enablers or components of the primary service or customer demand. Consumers should experience the benefits that Open Banking brings, but also be informed of how their data is used and what they approve when signing up for a service. Great services with great user experiences are something we as consumers easily start to use, adapt our behaviours to and eventually take for granted.