Open banking shows no sign of diminishing in 2019. Several countries are already enacting open banking legislation, and the trend is even growing in the U.S. market, where FIs aren’t required to share their customer data.
This could have sizeable impacts on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which typically do not have their own treasury departments, and as such stand to benefit from real-time insights on their cash flow and liquidity positions.
But even major players are seeking better access to banking data, including SWIFT, which recently launched the pilot of an API-based solution intended to tackle the problem of payments delayed due to banking errors.
In the January “B2B API Tracker™,” PYMNTS examines the latest uses of APIs to bring greater access to data and speed up payments.
From B2B retail purchases to employer payroll, APIs are helping businesses accelerate all kinds of payments.
One recent move came from business commerce platform Tradeshift. The company acquired cloud integration technology provider Babelway, and is now providing the latter’s technology 
under the name Tradeshift Link. The technology is designed to support faster, simpler integration of the various systems involved in B2B buying, selling and payments.
New integrations are also helping companies handle payroll payments more easily. Human capital management solutions provider Paychex, for one, recently integrated with Intuit’s QuickBooks Online. The integration aims to let payroll transaction data flow in real time from the Paychex General Ledger Service into a company’s QuickBooks Online journal entry.
Employers can also turn to APIs to help assess solutions for disbursing workers’ compensation. Oyster Insurance, an insurance technology company, recently expanded operations into California, where it aims to support small businesses and startups with workers’ compensation services. The company provides an API that employers can use to receive a services quote, at near-instant speeds.
Find the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker’s News and Trends section.
APIs are also helping banks better serve corporate clients. When it comes to developing or adopting new payments systems, many turn to their banks for help. However, corporates often want these solutions to be tailored to their specific needs and existing systems. That can be a big hassle for banks, which have to create customized solutions for each corporate client and then manage all of those disparate solutions.
In this month’s feature story, YES BANK Chief Digital Officer Ritesh Pai discusses how banks can take an API-first approach to offering and supporting tailored solutions for all of their clients, while reaching more customers faster and giving corporate clients more control.
The “B2B API Tracker™” serves as a monthly framework for the space, providing coverage of the most recent news and trends, along with a provider directory highlighting the key players contributing across the segments that comprise the B2B API ecosystem.