Xero, Nedbank Team On API-Enabled Bank Feed For SMBs

Xero, a global small business cloud accounting platform, is working with South Africa’s Nedbank to give small- to medium-size business (SMB) clients a digital, application programming interface (API)-enabled bank feed to access financial data, according to an ITWeb report.

The companies said this is a “first” for the South African banking sector, and the new program will allow SMB bank transactions imported directly and securely from Nedbank accounts into the Xero cloud accounting platform, the report stated.

That will get rid of the need for third parties, as well as cut time for manually importing data, according to the report.

Business clients will be able to reconcile statements; create smart and shareable reports, online statements and invoices; and then review real-time cash flow, the report stated.

SMBs will get an up-to-date view of their bank account cash flow this way, the report stated, and will be better equipped to grasp business performance and make better decisions.

Colin Timmis, Xero South Africa country manager, said the process of accounting and creating financial records is “not the core competence of many business owners, so using bank feeds as a consequence of frameworks like ‘open banking’ has become more prevalent, providing secure, customer consent-driven journeys which ultimately put ownership of data back into the customer’s hands,” according to the report.

He said in the report that the idea is to help support small businesses.

“Bank feeds are one of the greatest innovations in accounting, and their impact for small businesses in other markets has been incredible — reducing the amount of data entry and giving them better visibility and control over finances,” he said, according to the report.

The increasing reliance on APIs will depend on how resilient the tech is, according to PYMNTS. The latest B2B API Tracker said APIs are important for efficient B2B transactions, giving all payment processors the tools that they need.