Russia's Central Bank develops, adopts, launches open banking API standard
MOSCOW. July 8 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has developed, adopted and launched a standard for open banking interfaces, Application Programming Interface (API), as per the CBR order dated July 5, 2021, the regulator said in a statement.
Organizations are recommended to utilize open banking API when exchanging messages related to obtaining lists of credit institutions, devices of credit institutions and attracted bank payment agents and subagents, and offices for servicing credit institutions.
Participants are to use the order to obtain public information on credit institutions and/or their clients, and developers to receive information on data ware and software as well as IT systems.
By applying the standard, financial market participants are able to create new services for clients that they could especially demand and require when traveling. For example, when in another city, a client would be able quickly and conveniently to find information on the closest ATMs or bank branches for currency exchange. Clients may also utilize the services via mobile financial assistant apps and various lifestyle apps, the CBR said in the statement.
The order supplements the set of open banking API standards and is advisory in nature. The regulator and market participants developed it jointly at the FinTech site.
API is a technology for exchanging data between companies' information systems via standard interaction protocols. The technology is already being applied in order to create partner services, for example, when connecting a restaurant to a delivery service, and creating aggregators for buying tickets.
The CBR launched the first open banking API standards on October 23, 2020. The standards establish uniform rules for interaction between market participants when implementing the technology, thereby allowing banks and fintech companies to establish the seamless exchange of a customer's data with said customer's consent, the regulator posted on its website.