Open Banking

Open Banking is one of the trends driving the digital transformation of the banking industry. It allows third-party services to connect to bank databases and process user information on the user's behalf.

It all started in 2015 with the adoption of PSD2 (the second Payment Services Directive), which pushed banks to open up to third-party providers rather than remain closed systems. The shift was expected to deliver better service to users and keep European banks aligned with global digital trends in the industry.

Before Open Banking: users could only use the infrastructure their banks provided — mobile apps, for example. After Open Banking: users can pick services from a wide range of third-party apps. A whole new industry has emerged, offering different services to users and competing on user experience. It also rapidly adopts new

technologies to stay ahead and satisfy customers — driving a renovation of the banking industry and making it more flexible and competitive globally.

Open Banking requires clear rules for managing and transferring user information, plus strong security controls. The security

implications are mostly linked to its cloud deployment. Industry professionals are actively working to minimise these risks.

Open Banking is a system in which the bank's API is open to communication with third-party services. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of methods that lets different systems talk to each other.

In Open Banking, third-party services interact with banking databases through the API the bank exposes.

At Vantino, we built a gateway for the SIX eBills SOAP API for a new bank in the thriving Swiss fintech sector. SIX (Swiss Infrastructure and Exchange) operates the infrastructure of the Swiss financial centre, provides security and processing services, and is also responsible for building a digital infrastructure

for Swiss banks. Our gateway acts as an intermediary between the customer's internal system (REST microservices) and the external SIX SOAP API.

Open Banking has contributed to the emergence of many fintech startups in Europe. It's a trend we believe will keep evolving and growing, because Open Banking brings innovation

to national banking systems and delivers a better experience to users.