Brankas Blog

It can be challenging for banks and financial establishments to attract new customers, especially using the traditional account opening process. Many people simply do not have the time or patience to drive to the nearest bank, wait in line to talk to a representative, and fill out a bunch of forms to open a bank account.

Convenience is crucial in today’s fast-paced world. Here, technology has made financial transactions more seamless than they were a few decades ago and nowhere is it more evident than in digital banking. Formerly time-consuming, you can now manage bank accounts in the palm of your hand with little to no delay.

Open finance leader Brankas has announced that it has acquired both the Payment Service Provider (PJP) Category 3 License from Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Operator of Payment Systems (OPS) Registration from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The certifications confirm that Brankas meets all local regulatory and security standards for its Open Finance payment solutions.

In some parts of the world, financial institutions and their customers are transitioning from open banking to open finance. Businesses use this innovation to improve their company’s offerings, while consumers leverage the technology to make sound financial decisions.

Many organizations and individuals face inadequate financial services. This inadequacy can have severe implications as it can hinder financial literacy for individuals and business growth for companies. On the other hand, financial inclusion can result in a more productive economy. But what is financial inclusion?

Convenience is critical in today’s fast-paced world. Customers may find it taxing to manage their finances over different services when transacting with a brand, impacting their customer journey albeit rather unpleasantly. Fortunately, rising consumer expectations encourage the digitization of most banking processes to make customer transactions seamless.

With so many financial developments today, it’s not easy to keep up with such innovations. Then again, staying on top of digital transformation can help secure your spot in your industry. In addition, the right approach can improve your business’s financial stability. Here, open banking and open finance are driving the financial technology industry.

With so many financial developments today, it’s not easy to keep up with such innovations. Then again, staying on top of digital transformation can help secure your spot in your industry. In addition, the right approach can improve your business’s financial stability. Here, open banking and open finance are driving the financial technology industry.

Manama, 13 February 2023 — Brankas, a Singapore-based fintech, today announced that it has been appointed by Arab Financial Services (AFS), the leading digital payment solutions provider and fintech enabler in the Middle East and Africa, to provide new and improved open finance infrastructure in the region.

The synergy will be able to ensure the MSME businesses in Indonesia get paid on time and efficiently manage cashflow through automation for financial and business tools.

Nowadays, many people use an app for online financial transactions, like paying bills or sending money to friends and loved ones. But what if you can use the same app not just for simple transactions but also for more complex ones, like investing in the stock market, adjusting your insurance, or even managing your pension?

Like most sectors, the finance industry is seeing increased demand for digitalization to improve the customer experience. A 2021 study found that banking customers now prefer personalized and digitally-driven services. They value text alerts, opportunities to transact more efficiently, and the ability to track multiple accounts using a single dashboard.

From business process management and payment solutions to cloud computing and automated enhancements, the Financial Technology scene in the Philippines is definitely making noise.

Amid economic uncertainty worldwide, Brankas continued to cement itself as a global leader in Open Finance by announcing exclusive product partnerships, launching a one-of-a-kind software license, and continuing to serve the community by hosting the first accelerator program for Open Finance in this region.

26 January 2023 - Brankas, the leading global open finance technology provider, and Element Inc, the privacy-led, modern AI pioneer in digital identity services, today announced a strategic partnership to introduce an additional layer of security to detect potential frauds.

According to McKinsey & Company, Asia-Pacific (APAC), customers will likely demand more financial services, given the growing population joining the consuming class. Breakthroughs in digitalized financial services, including open banking and open finance, are making them increasingly popular worldwide, such that emerging countries in Southeast Asia are finding benefits from them.

PERA HUB by PETNET, a top financial service provider in the Philippines, partnered with Brankas in 2021 to launch a Digital Remittance Platform that allows the financial institution to share its API to banks, remittance companies, wallets, and fintech partners, enabling faster, cheaper, safer, and more accessible financial services.

Brankas joined hands with Kaya Founders to launch Open PHinance Challenge for early-stage startups in the Philippines. The Open PHinance Challenge was an 8-week accelerator programme to generate innovative, high-value Open Finance products for early-stage startups in the Philippines to creatively solve the needs for consumers to have more financial inclusion and accessibility.

SINGAPORE – Brankas, the premiere Southeast Asia provider of Open Banking and Open Finance API products and services, has today announced its “Brankas Open” software license covering its “Open Finance Suite” and “Open Core” products. The innovative license is designed to support a new generation of open finance and open banking applications, and is available at: https://www.brankas.com/open-license

Oct 27, 2022 — Brankas, a leading Open Finance technology provider, has today announced that it has gone live with Visa to unveil a new Open Finance solution to increase financial inclusion across Southeast Asia, citing TrustDecision (Tongdun) and IziData as two of the pilot customers already using the joint solutions.

Brankas, the leading open finance technology provider in Southeast Asia and CRIF, a global leader in credit bureau, business information, and credit risk solutions, announced today a strategic partnership to launch the APAC region’s first open finance credit score product, ‘New Evaluation Open Suite’ (N.E.O.S). The N.E.O.S credit scoring system analyzes alternative data sources to provide more accurate assessments of potential borrowers and improved credit risk management for financial institutions.

In 2021, the BSP issued the Open Finance Framework providing the guidelines for enabling Open Finance in the Philippines and setting the standard across Southeast Asia. The regulatory framework is aligned with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP’s) Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, which aims to strengthen customer preference for digital payments and promote more innovative and responsive digital financial services.

Today, technology is advancing faster than ever before. There are 1.35 million tech startups innovating across various fields, more than 4,383 million internet users, and 5 billion people that own mobile devices. These advancements affect nearly every aspect of our lives, with banking certainly not excluded. Banking evolves just as fast as technology does, with technological advancement driving the growth and innovation of banking services.

According to the World Bank’s 2021 Global Findex Database, 1.4 billion adults globally do not have access to formal financial services (unbanked). The main reasons are lack of money, the distance to the nearest financial institution, and insufficient documentation. These challenges are precisely what open banking is trying to address.

In 2021, Indonesia’s population was estimated to have reached 275 million, according to the US International Trade Administration. This makes the archipelago nation the fourth most populous in the world. However, Indonesia’s healthcare system is having trouble keeping up with its population and economic growth. In particular, small clinics and independent healthcare facilities are facing a tough battle when it comes to accessibility and modernization.

Since receiving the award, we are now more than excited to introduce Brankas Open Core: an integrated, cloud-based CBS designed to streamline your operations, allowing you to build a suite of financial products for your customers’ needs.

The payments industry has found a dynamic and fast-paced market in Asia in recent years. According to consultancy firm McKinsey, payments revenue growth in the region is forecast to increase 7 percent between 2021 and 2025, driven by rapid developments in digital infrastructure, the surge in B2B activity, and the increasing appetite for digital wallets and real-time payments. Now is the best time to explore how an IPG can support Asia’s increasingly complex demands for payments.

Southeast Asia has emerged as a hub for startups, thriving with opportunities for innovation. Embracing open finance is a crucial way for banks and financial institutions to stay ahead of the curve and serve currently unmet customer needs, opening up avenues to serve the underbanked.

Traditionally, consumer lending has been a long and tedious process. To apply for a credit card, you would have to provide your proof of income, bank statement history, and other documents to verify that you are able to repay your credit, often requiring trips to your bank branch. The underwriting process may also take weeks or months before the approval of a loan. They merit a high amount of effort on the part of both the borrower and the lender.

Brankas is pleased to announce that we have passed the certification audit carried out by the QSA (Qualified Security Assessor) certified by PCI Security Standard Council (PCI SSC). We successfully hold the PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certificate as of 31 December 2021 with PCI Compliant Level 1.

When people read “decentralized” and “open,” the first question they ask is: is it safe? As a pioneer of open finance in Southeast Asia, we at Brankas consider it our responsibility to give a clear picture of the industry’s cybersecurity developments in the region.

There’s no doubt that cryptocurrency’s relevance in the financial industry will remain significant over the coming years. Growth of cryptocurrency adoption among emerging economies accelerated at the beginning of the pandemic. According to research firm Oxford Business Group, the top-three developing countries that had the highest growth in cryptocurrency activity in 2020 were Nigeria, Vietnam, and the Philippines, driven by remittance payments.

The meteoric rise in popularity of e-commerce has been due to its convenience, one of which is having a wide variety of payment options available. The global pandemic has forced individuals to turn to digital means of conducting transactions, but this shift in consumer behavior is here to stay.

In the first half of 2021, we hit more than 10 million monthly API calls. By the end of the year, we reached 33.7M API calls per month, showcasing how much our close collaboration with our partners has paid off.

[5th Jan 2022] - Brankas, Southeast Asia’s leading Open Finance technology company, announced the close of its US$20m Series B investment round led by Insignia Ventures Partners with participation from existing investors Beenext and Integra Partners.

Brankas is excited to announce that we were awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof-of-Concept (POC) grant on 11 November 2021. The FTSI POC grant provides funding support for experimentation, development, and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial sector.

Earlier this month, we joined the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) in a webinar panel, in which we discussed the current business climate and investment opportunities for tech companies in the Philippines.

For a limited time only, receive USD 10,000 worth of credits or an equivalent of 40,000 statement retrievals when you go live any time before 31st January 2022.

At Brankas, Arvin’s expertise will strengthen the firm’s data protection strategies and controls, ensuring the secure handling of customers’ consented data across the region. While Simo itself will leverage his years of experience as an APAC business expansion specialist to spearhead the next phase of Brankas’ growth in transforming financial services in Southeast Asia. With this announcement, Brankas is set to amplify the open banking and compliant protecting consumers data in 2022.

Brankas is proud to announce that we have been selected as part of Inclusive Fintech 50’s 2021 cohort, an annual competition to identify 50 top technology startups committed to drive financial inclusion and resilience. Brankas was chosen out of hundreds of applicants around the world for driving innovation for underbanked, underserved customers, especially in emerging markets.

Indonesia is known for its beautiful nature - from beautiful beaches, idyllic sceneries, incredible marine life and dive spots to friendly and welcoming people. However, it is unknown to many that the nation has a whopping 63 million entrepreneurs or Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which is equivalent to 22.5% of the country’s almost 280 million-strong population.

Open finance enables banks to expand access to underserved customers by lowering the cost of customer acquisition and onboarding. However, it is often costly to service customers in developing economies due to limited data for verification, high operational costs due to manual processes, and prohibitive cost barriers in rural areas with weak infrastructure.

You’ve got your brief and you’ve decided you’re going to do a user interview (or In-Depth Interview as some may call it). Now what? For seasoned UX researchers the next steps might seem clerical, but it’s not without its own strategies to make sure you’ll end up with rich findings. Here are some things that we need to prepare before a user interview.

You may or may not have heard about open finance but unknowingly, you must have experienced it, especially during this pandemic. Financial transactions have to be done during lockdowns and quarantines. Whilst staying home, you may realise that you are still utilising ride-hailing applications such as Grab or Gojek for other services like meal deliveries, groceries, courier services and even financial management like purchasing insurance and investment. Those applications now serve as an embedded finance that is powered by open finance! Let’s dive deeper on how we’ve transitioned to open finance and what it means for end users like you and me.

Identify the commercial opportunities for banks in open finance and explore how banks and other financial service providers can overcome challenges to open finance adoption.

This pandemic has taught us to be resilient and adaptable in how we live our days. As we look forward to an endemic, our resident Product Manager, Marco Palinar shares how his team tackles the challenges faced to launch a product during the pandemic by leveraging on design.

Open banking and open finance are buzzwords in fintech but what is it? We invite you to experience open finance on Brankas Dashboard. We listed 5 easy steps to get you started and testing on Brankas APIs.

Sometimes, completing payments on different apps and platforms can be confusing. With a plethora of available shopping, bills payments, and financial apps, who knows what the real steps are? As online consumers, we’re all just trying to follow the breadcrumbs to be able to complete a transaction. And in some cases, those breadcrumbs are vague.

In the modern world, software application development has changed tremendously, which leads to the complex deployment of applications in production. This eventually leads us to hundreds and thousands of services to keep the large-scale applications running. So how do we understand the journey of an API request?

Brankas, Southeast Asia’s Leading Open Finance technology company, recently surpassed 10 million monthly API calls with over 80 network partners. Led by a vision to make modern financial services available to everyone, Brankas now operates in more than six countries and has partnered with more than 30 financial institutions to bring Open Finance to the region.

Robocash and Unapay enable bank transfers as a repayment option

From being a Marine to a high-caliber Systems Engineer, Chad Kunde has come a long way from his humble beginnings on his family’s farm in Iowa. Growing up with 3 sisters, you can only imagine the chaos!

Accepting online payments from customers through your platforms might be one of the most important things to consider. Fortunately, there are plenty of online payment providers - ranging from card payment, eWallets, to virtual accounts. But how do you know which is right for your business needs? In this article, we are introducing Brankas Direct. A seamless, faster, cheaper, and secured payment solution for your business. Fully powered by Open Banking technology.

Originally from Bangladesh, Anik came to Singapore for his undergrad studies at the National University of Singapore. A Biomedical Engineering graduate, passionate about academic research, and has vast experience in areas like 3D printing, cancer cell study; even co-authored papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals! With a career path set in scientific research, how did this young achiever end up at Brankas, his takeaways from working for a fintech startup, and some life lessons for his peers.

This article aims to explore some misconceptions that are commonly encountered in the field of Design and User Experience, as well as philosophies the Brankas team uses to achieve our ultimate north star.

Asia’s leading full-suite payments platform has partnered with Brankas to enable API-enabled direct bank transfer payments for Southeast Asian businesses of all sizes. Launching first in Indonesia and soon, the Philippines, 2C2P and Brankas plan to introduce their modern Open Banking solution across the region.

ALIA offers personalised financial advice based on banking Application Programming Interface (API) provided by Brankas to help users manage their money better.

The Brankas community is ecstatic to have Hanny lead our Human Resources team! We had a chance to catch her bubbly and confident personality for this feature. In this month’s HuBs spotlight, we give her a warm Brankas virtual hug and get to know her, her quirks, her insights, and her plans for Brankas a little bit more.

Proxtera is a new global trading network for the connected age: empowering wholesale marketplaces to discover new buyers and sellers around the world, transact securely, and access a range of financial and logistics services to support a successful trade. With support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)’s Business Sans Borders (BSB) initiative, Proxtera is creating a new online economy for global trade.

Open Banking has been chief among FinTech buzzwords since at least 2015. And, more recently, with COVID-19 shutting down branches and forcing retail and corporate customers to shift operations online, banks have been hard-pressed to meet customers’ demand for Open Banking APIs. As such, banks and other financial institutions have announced efforts to build new Open Banking APIs and systems for the “touch-less” world created by COVID.

This month, we feature Krizelle Lazatin, our go-getter Human of Brankas (HuB) who is responsible for leading and pushing our Sales and Business Development efforts to new heights.

For millions of employees globally, working from home is the new normal. Our biannual Performance Review is one of our tried-and-tested techniques for ensuring that our colleagues are aligned with our vision to make modern financial services available to everyone.

This month, we recognize the complex world of Tech and Coding, and one Brankas lady who powers through this chaos gracefully. Ria Cataquian grew up wanting to become a medical professional or take up Conservatory of Music. It wasn’t too long until she realized she needed to put that dream to the side, and think of a more sensible path.

Last September 17, Brankas and the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP) hosted a first-of-its-kind event to educate financial services professionals on the opportunity of Open Banking. Titled “The State of Open Banking in the Philippines and Lessons from the Global Market”, the event was well-attended by over 200 members of FMAP.

Marco Palinar is proof of how sometimes, life sends you on a path, different from what you set out for yourself. The Brankas spotlight turns on for our resident UI/UX guy, all-around-design-master, Pay Product Manager, rockstar, and sneakerhead- Marco. He gets candid about his beginnings, his career evolution, and his Brankas baby - Pay.

In recent years, there has been a push for tighter Open Banking regulations in Indonesia, and the government has unveiled the Indonesia Payment System Vision 2025 that opens up countless opportunities to weave Open Banking practices into the business model of many companies.There is a need to provide services that are accessible, low cost, and reliable, allowing any business to easily integrate technologically-reliant services into their platforms.

HuB Spotlight: Avani Ajmera Shares How Passion Meets Vocation in Her Role as Finance Director

Open Banking might be a hard pill to swallow, but it can bring about many benefits that are not met with today’s financial system, including improving customers' financial health by allowing them to view their financials in one place, to gain insights on their spending habits, to make payments efficiently from one place, etc. To realize this vision, participation from regulators, banks, and startups is a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

Michelle Christine: Next Generation People Operations Associate - She talks about her beginnings, her love for people and culture, and where she’s taking the future of Brankas recruitment.

We have been operating as a remote-first company from our founding in 2016 and we have learned some remote-work best practices over the years. Outlined below are what worked for us and what we are still working on when it comes to remote-working.

Brankas Statement provides a verified, accurate, secure, and instant statement retrieval. Lenders can instantly access customers' financial transaction data, identity data, and real-time account balances. Brankas Statement integrates seamlessly with a lender’s mobile application or website, eliminating the need for paperwork, branch visits, or manual data entry.

On June 8th, we held our virtual GoManila meetup for developers interested to learn more about Golang.

Randy Cahyana: Coding Sparks Joy - Randy shares his adventures starting out, the joy of coding, lessons learned, and what’s next at Brankas.

Open banking initiatives are sprouting globally, as more banks recognize the commercial and product innovation opportunity. Banks are thinking differently.

Working from home over the last two months created a new reality where most transactions have to be done remotely via an app or website. Enter Brankas Direct - Direct was built to simplify bank-to-bank payments.

Mike joined Brankas this year and is leading the team full steam ahead. He grew up in Indonesia and Australia and believes his diverse background contributes greatly to how he breaks down and solves problems. Mike has always been passionate about finding solutions that help people. That’s his philosophy and CPO mission.

Banks in Southeast Asia rely on retail branches to serve existing customers and bring in new ones. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, banks have scaled down their branch networks to protect their employees, comply with local restrictions, and simplify logistics like cash collection. At the same time, retail and corporate customers are counting on digital banking services more than ever. How are banks addressing the sudden change in demand?