Standard Chartered Launches Banking API Portal

Standard Chartered is hoping to fuel innovation by giving developers access to banking technology.

The bank announced late last week that it is rolling out the Open Banking API Developer Portal that will enable developers to play around with banking technologies, first with a focus on transaction banking and cash management. Standard Chartered said it will look to wield the solutions created by developers on the platform for the bank’s own businesses.

The portal comes with a developer toolkit for easy creation of banking applications that can integrate directly into existing Standard Chartered services, reports said.

“As the industry moves towards open platforms, we believe that API banking will become essential in providing value to our clients and partners, while encouraging collaboration between financial institutions and developer communities,” said Standard Chartered’s Gautam Jain, global head of digitization and client access for transaction banking. “This has the potential to fundamentally change how we deliver the bank to our clients.”

He added that he believes Standard Chartered is the first bank to create an API platform for cash management, trade and securities financial services. The bank isn’t the first to roll out an API platform, however. Last year, Citigroup rolled out its own API platform, for instance, ranging across account management, money transfer, P2P payments, Citi rewards, investment and account authorization.

Standard Chartered has initiated efforts to promote payments innovation in other ways recently. Late last year, the bank said it had completed a cross-border transaction in less than 10 seconds using Ripple’s enterprise blockchain technology. Standard Chartered is looking to use blockchain for real-time payments and greater transparency of FX and fees, the bank said.

“Digitization is a priority for the bank to better serve our clients by connecting business communities in a more efficient way. Payments innovation is a key area of focus in order to bank our clients’ ecosystem and make it more cohesive, reduce risk and increase transparency,” said the bank’s global head of transaction banking, Alex Manson, in a statement at the time.