Brankas Is First Company in Indonesia To Be Awarded Open Banking Data License

Brankas is the first company to secure the PJP Category 2 License for Account Information (AInS) from Bank Indonesia, marking an open banking data milestone for Indonesia and giving businesses added visibility on payment transactions.

Brankas today announced that it is the first company in Indonesia to be licensed for Account Information Services (AInS) after the company secured the Payment Service Provider (PJP) Category 2 license by Bank Indonesia (BI). Customers can now use Brankas to securely share their bank account balance during payments, allowing for real-time payment verification and automated prompts for insufficient funds. Under the PJP Category 2, Brankas also obtained the license for Payment Initiation and/or Acquiring Services (PIAS).

BI has approved the official use of Brankas Direct API as an integrated pay-by-bank solution with account balance visibility. Today, Brankas Direct is one of the only pay-by-bank solutions that offers real-time settlement, meaning money is moved instantly without the risks of fraud and lost funds associated with traditional escrow methods. It also enables customers to conveniently make digital payments without the need to own or carry a physical credit or debit card.

Bank Indonesia’s PJP licensing system supervises payment service providers based on the activities they undertake. The PJP Category 2 license specifically grants Brankas permission to operate within the two areas of AInS and PIAS:

Account Information Services (AInS)

Fintechs, retail, and online companies will be able to use Brankas Direct API to securely access their customer’s linked bank account information. The added read-only visibility unlocks real-time verification of fund transfers for refunds and payments. This provides added customer assurance for successful refunds and payments while mitigating the risk of fraudulent transactions in the event of unauthorized activity. Businesses on a recurring payment model can also notify customers early in the event of low or insufficient account balances, reducing service disruptions or extra fees from failed payments.

Payment Initiation and/or Acquiring Services (PIAS)

Brankas is now permitted to initiate payments on behalf of a customer or act as an acquiring service for businesses to receive payments. These payments can include insurance premiums, loan repayments, e-commerce transactions, e-wallet top-ups, recurring online subscriptions, and payment gateway virtual accounts.

“We appreciate the trust that Bank Indonesia has in Brankas as we become the first company in Indonesia to be licensed for AInS. Solving the problems of our customers’ is our top priority, and we are excited that our payment APIs are helping to accelerate reconciliation, reduce payment defaults, and enable an embedded finance experience.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas.

Sign up for Brankas Direct today to start offering this integrated solution to your customers.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Empowering Finance: The Rise of Financial Data Aggregators

Empowering Finance: The Rise of Financial Data Aggregators

A new player has emerged in modern finance that is shaping the way we manage and understand our financial lives – Financial Data Aggregators. What are financial data aggregators, and why do they matter in an increasingly digital financial landscape?

Many people are not familiar with what data aggregators are or how they impact their financial behaviors. Financial institutions, likewise, often lack sufficient knowledge about data aggregators, making it challenging to communicate the risks and benefits to their customers.

Individuals and financial institutions must grasp how these entities function to unlock the advantages offered by data aggregators and steer clear of security risks. A better understanding empowers consumers to make the most of these benefits and helps financial institutions navigate new grounds and inform their customers effectively.

Understanding Financial Data Aggregation

Financial data aggregators skillfully bring diverse threads of financial data into a cohesive picture. These entities use sophisticated algorithms to retrieve and merge information from various financial sources, such as bank accounts, credit cards, and investments. The result is a comprehensive overview of an individual’s or a business’s financial position.

By unlocking access to consumers' financial data, financial data aggregators have paved the way for the emergence of open banking and open finance. The solutions offered by data aggregators encompass both business-to-business and direct-to-consumer services. For instance, FinTechs and financial institutions can leverage payroll data for purposes such as income and employment verification or paycheck-linked lending.

How Financial Data Aggregators Work

Financial data aggregators establish secure connections with various financial institutions and platforms. They access and retrieve financial data in real-time through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) or other secure methods. These aggregators are designed to handle the intricacies of multiple formats, ensuring seamless integration of data from different sources. Once obtained, the data is processed, cleaned, and organized, ready to be presented in a user-friendly format.

Types of Financial Data Aggregated

The scope of financial data aggregation is extensive. It encompasses traditional banking data such as account balances, transaction histories, and credit card statements. However, it does not stop there. Modern aggregators can also pull in data from investment accounts, providing a consolidated view of stocks, bonds, and other holdings. Credit scores, a pivotal piece of financial health, are often included. The integration does not exclude emerging financial trends; cryptocurrency transactions are increasingly becoming part of the aggregated picture.

Benefits and Applications

Financial data aggregators play a crucial role in transforming the landscape of personal and business finance by making financial information more accessible, insightful, and actionable.

A. Streamlines personal finance

Financial data aggregators provide individuals with a consolidated view of their financial accounts. These aggregators gather data from various sources, such as bank accounts, credit cards, investments, and more. This integrated view enables users to track their spending, analyze financial trends, and manage budgets more effectively. Individuals can make informed decisions about their money by having all financial information in one place, leading to improved financial wellness.

B. Enhances business financial management

Financial data aggregators offer valuable tools for businesses to enhance their financial management processes. These aggregators enable companies to collect and analyze financial data from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive overview of their financial health. This is particularly beneficial for cash flow management, expense tracking, and financial planning. By leveraging these insights, businesses can make data-driven decisions, identify areas for cost optimization, and maintain better control over their financial operations.

C. Maximizes business success of banks and financial institutions

Beyond ensuring the satisfaction and loyalty of existing clients, simplifying options holds the key to attracting new customers and maintaining a competitive edge. Satisfied clients are not only likely to stay with your business, but they also become advocates, drawing in others.

Banks can elevate their service standards by consolidating data, offering enhanced wealth management, efficient payment processing, and personalized financial guidance. This holds whether it is an internal application, service, or an external fintech application. This unified approach positions financial institutions to provide superior services, fostering a positive customer experience and maintaining a leading position.

D. Supports FinTech startups

The advent of financial data aggregators has significantly contributed to the growth of FinTech startups. These startups often rely on access to financial data to develop innovative solutions, such as personal finance apps, investment platforms, and lending services. Financial data aggregators act as a bridge, facilitating secure and streamlined access to the necessary financial information for these startups. This accelerates the pace of innovation in the financial technology sector, fostering the creation of diverse and user-centric financial services.

Challenges and Concerns

Financial data aggregation, while powerful, is not without its challenges, presenting hurdles that require careful consideration.

A. Data security and privacy issues

One of the foremost concerns revolves around safeguarding the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive financial information. The aggregation process involves handling vast amounts of personal and financial data. Ensuring robust encryption, adopting advanced cybersecurity measures, and adhering to industry best practices are imperative to protect against potential breaches and unauthorized access.

B. Regulatory challenges

Navigating complex regulations is a persistent challenge. Financial institutions and data aggregators must comply with a myriad of regulations to ensure lawful data sharing. Staying abreast of evolving compliance requirements, such as GDPR, PSD2, or other regional frameworks, demands a proactive and adaptive approach. Failure to comply not only poses legal risks but can erode trust among users.

C. Consumer awareness and trust

Building and maintaining consumer trust is a delicate task. Many individuals may not fully grasp how financial data aggregators operate and the security measures in place. Heightened awareness campaigns, transparent communication regarding data usage policies, and robust consent mechanisms are vital in establishing trust. Ensuring that users are well-informed about the benefits and risks of data aggregation contributes to a more informed and trusting user base.

Key Technologies Driving Financial Data Aggregation

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and open banking play pivotal roles in reshaping the financial landscape. APIs facilitate seamless communication between diverse financial systems, enabling the secure exchange of data. Open banking initiatives, mandated by regulations like PSD2, propel financial institutions to share customer data with authorized third-party providers through standardized APIs. This collaboration enhances the efficiency of financial data aggregation, fostering innovation and improving customer experiences.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have revolutionized how financial data is processed and analyzed. AI algorithms can sift through vast datasets, discern patterns, and generate actionable insights. In financial data aggregation, AI and ML enhance accuracy in categorizing transactions, detect anomalies for fraud prevention, and provide personalized financial recommendations. These technologies streamline the aggregation process and contribute to more informed decision-making.

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) introduce an additional layer of security and transparency to financial data aggregation. The decentralized nature of blockchain ensures that data is not stored in a single location, reducing the risk of a single point of failure or unauthorized access. Smart contracts, a feature of blockchain, can automate and enforce predefined rules in data-sharing agreements. This not only enhances security but also fosters trust among stakeholders in the financial ecosystem.

Choosing the Right Financial Data Aggregator

Selecting an appropriate financial data aggregator is a critical decision for businesses. Factors to consider include:

1. Aggregator’s reputation

Evaluating the reputation of a financial data aggregator is crucial. Businesses should consider factors such as the aggregator’s track record, how long they have been in the industry, and feedback from other businesses that have used their services. A reputable aggregator is more likely to adhere to ethical practices and deliver reliable services.

2. Security protocols

The security protocols employed by an aggregator are central to protecting sensitive financial data. Businesses should assess the measures in place, such as encryption during data transmission and storage, access controls, and vulnerability management. A robust security framework minimizes the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

3. Compliance with regulations

Adherence to financial regulations is non-negotiable. Businesses must ensure that the chosen aggregator complies with industry-specific regulations governing the handling and storage of financial data. This includes data protection laws, privacy regulations, and any other relevant standards.

4. Comprehensiveness of the aggregated data

The effectiveness of financial data aggregation depends on the breadth and depth of the data collected. Businesses should assess whether the aggregator can consolidate data from various sources comprehensively. The more extensive the coverage, the more valuable the insights derived. This includes evaluating the types of financial accounts covered, such as bank accounts, credit cards, investments, and more.

Businesses should assess the compatibility of the aggregator with their existing systems and evaluate the ease of integration. A thorough understanding of the aggregator’s capabilities and limitations is essential for making an informed choice.

Best Practices for Data Security

Robust data security practices are paramount in financial data aggregation. Businesses must prioritize encryption protocols, secure data storage, and stringent access controls. Compliance with data protection regulations is non-negotiable, and regular security audits are advisable. Employing multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection. Consumers should be informed about the security measures in place and educated on best practices for safeguarding their credentials.

Educating Consumers on the Benefits and Risks

Building consumer trust begins with transparent communication. Businesses should educate consumers on the benefits of financial data aggregation, such as personalized financial insights and streamlined services. They should be transparent about the potential risks, including data breaches and privacy concerns. Providing clear opt-in mechanisms and allowing users to control the extent of data shared instills confidence. Ongoing consumer education programs can empower users to make informed decisions about their financial data.

The Future of Financial Data Aggregation

Continuous advancements in technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are expected to enhance the accuracy and predictive capabilities of data aggregation systems. The integration of data analytics and real-time processing is likely to provide more actionable insights for businesses and consumers alike.

As businesses increasingly rely on aggregated data for decision-making, we can anticipate a shift in how financial services are offered. This may lead to new entrants in the finance industry, increased competition, and the development of innovative products and services driven by data-driven insights.

Anticipated changes in data protection laws, privacy regulations, and industry-specific compliance requirements may shape how businesses and aggregators operate. Regulations will likely continue to adapt to the growing importance of data in the financial sector, addressing concerns related to security, privacy, and ethical use of data.

Don’t Get Left Behind

Financial data aggregators have emerged as indispensable players in the modern financial landscape. They empower individuals and businesses with comprehensive insights into their financial standing. The ability to streamline personal finance, enhance business management, and support the growth of FinTech startups highlights the transformative role of financial data aggregators.

Businesses and consumers must embrace the opportunities presented by financial data aggregators. Choosing the right aggregator, prioritizing data security, and educating consumers on the benefits and risks are crucial steps in this journey. Encouraging innovation in the financial sector through the responsible use of aggregated data can foster a more dynamic, efficient, and customer-centric finance industry.

Banking Strategy Reshaped: Maximizing Growth Opportunities in 2024

Banking Strategy Reshaped: Maximizing Growth Opportunities in 2024

The world of banking stands on the cusp of transformational change. The financial landscape, once characterized by tradition and stability, has now become a dynamic arena where digitalization, shifting customer expectations, and disruptive forces propel the industry forward. In an era of unprecedented innovation, banking institutions are rewriting their strategies to maximize growth opportunities in 2024.

The importance of an adaptive banking strategy cannot be overstated. What was effective yesterday may not suffice tomorrow as technology, regulation, and market dynamics evolve. The banking sector must reevaluate its very core to remain agile, competitive, and customer-focused. Strategies need to be as fluid as the data-driven decision-making that now powers the financial world.

Financial institutions are now standing on the threshold of substantial opportunity. There are numerous pathways to achieve remarkable and exponential growth despite the challenges. Technology, customer-centricity, sustainability, and ethics are becoming pivotal factors. Finance companies will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and how they can successfully adapt and strategize in this dynamic environment.

Current State of the Banking Industry

The banking industry today is characterized by heightened competition, rapidly evolving customer expectations, and an influx of innovative technologies. Traditional banking models, long reliant on brick-and-mortar branches and manual processes, are now confronted with the imperative to transform. While the industry continues to serve as the backbone of the global economy, it is no longer business as usual. Regulatory changes and societal shifts, accelerated by the pandemic, have further accentuated the need for banking institutions to adapt swiftly.

Trends and Challenges Shaping the Industry

Several key trends and challenges are reshaping the banking sector. First, digitalization is no longer optional; it is a necessity. Consumers now expect seamless online and mobile banking experiences. Simultaneously, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and open banking are revolutionizing how banks operate. The digital evolution also brings forth concerns about data privacy and security requiring financial institutions to strike a delicate balance. Moreover, the industry faces a global challenge of addressing issues of financial inclusion and sustainability as the world grows more interconnected.

Elements of an Effective Banking Strategy

A comprehensive plan involves several vital elements, each contributing to the overall success of financial institutions:

A. Setting clear goals and objectives

Defining specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals is the cornerstone of any effective banking strategy. Banks must meticulously outline their objectives, whether it is enhancing market share, expanding their product portfolio, or fortifying customer relationships. Clear objectives provide a roadmap for all subsequent strategies and ensure that every action aligns with overarching goals. Banks should also continuously monitor progress, allowing for agile adjustments as market dynamics change.

B. Segmenting and targeting the right markets

Banks need to categorize their customer base based on factors like demographics, behavior, and needs. With these segmented groups in mind, banks can tailor their products and services to cater to the unique requirements of each category. Effective segmentation facilitates targeted marketing, personalized customer experiences, and increased customer retention rates. By focusing on the right markets, banks can optimize their marketing efforts and allocate resources where they are most impactful.

C. Leveraging data and analytics

Data is the currency of growth today. Banks must harness the enormous volume of data they collect to gain deep insights into customer behavior, preferences, and market trends. Advanced analytics and artificial intelligence tools can transform this data into actionable intelligence. By using predictive analytics, banks can foresee customer needs, identify growth opportunities, and mitigate risks effectively.

D. Innovation as a driver of strategy

Innovation is the engine of banking growth in 2024. Banks can enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and introduce novel financial products and services by embracing innovative technologies. This innovation-driven strategy positions banks to meet evolving customer expectations and respond proactively to changes in the market. Collaborations with fintech startups and leveraging the power of emerging technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and open banking, offer banks the potential to remain at the forefront of the industry.

Financial institutions can steer through the complex and dynamic landscape of modern banking by weaving these fundamental elements into their banking strategy for 2024. With clear goals, well-defined market segments, data-driven insights, and an innovative mindset, banks are poised to maximize growth opportunities and ensure their enduring relevance in a rapidly changing world.

Strategic Recommendations for the Road Ahead

Finance companies must proactively address challenges to thrive in this new era of banking. These insights cover a range of key challenges and provide tangible strategies to ensure growth and success while fulfilling the evolving needs of customers and the broader financial ecosystem.

A. Technological advancements and their impact

Cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain continue to reshape the industry. AI-driven algorithms are optimizing customer service, automating financial advice, and enhancing fraud detection. Blockchain is altering the way banks handle payments and verify customer identities. Mobile banking apps and digital wallets are commonplace, providing customers with convenient, on-the-go access to their accounts.

Challenge: Banks must continuously adapt to technological advancements to stay competitive and relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Recommendations:

1. Invest in digital transformation.

Prioritize the digitization of your banking services and operations. Develop or acquire user-friendly mobile apps, implement AI-driven chatbots for customer support, and explore blockchain technology for secure and transparent transactions.

2. Cybersecurity is non-negotiable.

With increased technological integration comes higher cyber risks. Invest in robust cybersecurity measures to protect your institution and customer data. Update your cybersecurity protocols regularly and conduct thorough audits to ensure compliance.

3. Stay informed.

Continuously monitor tech trends to identify opportunities that can give your bank a competitive edge. Implement emerging technologies like machine learning for credit risk assessment or blockchain for efficient cross-border transactions.

B. Regulatory changes and compliance challenges

The banking sector’s regulatory environment remains intricate. Banking institutions face an array of evolving regulations that encompass data privacy, cybersecurity, and financial crime prevention. Compliance challenges are compounded by the rise of global, cross-border transactions and the need for standardized reporting.

Challenge: The ever-evolving regulatory landscape demands strict compliance and poses a considerable challenge for banks.

Recommendations:

1. Compliance training

Conduct regular training sessions for your staff to keep them informed about changing regulations. Develop a culture of compliance and emphasize the importance of adhering to laws and regulations.

2. Leverage regulatory technology.

Reg Tech solutions can greatly assist in ensuring compliance. Invest in compliance management systems and tools that offer real-time monitoring, and reporting, and help automate compliance processes.

3. Collaborate with regulators.

Maintain open communication with regulatory authorities. Engage in regular discussions to stay informed about upcoming changes. Collaborative relationships can provide insights into the regulatory environment and help in proactively addressing challenges.

C. Customer expectations in the digital age

2024 places tremendous power in the hands of customers. With the convenience of mobile banking, they can easily switch between providers to find the services that best meet their needs. Today’s customers seek personalized, data-driven recommendations. They want immediate, around-the-clock access to their accounts and transactions.

Challenge: Modern customers expect convenience, personalization, and real-time services in the digital age, challenging banks to meet these demands.

Recommendations:

1. Seamless omnichannel experience

Ensure customers can access your services via various channels, seamlessly transitioning from web to mobile or in-branch. Consistency in service and personalization across these channels is key.

2. Data-driven personalization

Leverage data analytics to understand your customers better and offer personalized services. Use AI to analyze customer behaviors and preferences and tailor your offerings accordingly.

3. Real-time transactions

Invest in systems that enable real-time transactions, including fund transfers, loan approvals, and credit scoring. Speed and efficiency in service delivery will boost customer satisfaction.

D. The rise of sustainable and ethical banking

The call for sustainable and ethical banking practices will grow louder in 2024. Customers are becoming more conscious of the social and environmental impact of their financial choices. They expect banks to invest in green and socially responsible initiatives, and they favor institutions that demonstrate a commitment to ethical financial practices. As a result, sustainable banking practices are no longer an optional bonus but a fundamental component of a bank’s strategy.

Challenge: Customers increasingly expect banks to uphold sustainability and ethical principles in their operations and investments.

Recommendations:

1. Implement ESG principles.

Integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria into your banking strategy. Offer financial products that support sustainable practices and ethical investments.

2. Community engagement

Engage in philanthropic and community-based initiatives to exhibit your commitment to ethical banking. This can include supporting local charities or participating in green initiatives.

3. Transparency and reporting

Maintain transparency in your banking practices. Regularly report your adherence to ethical principles and sustainability goals, and publish annual ESG reports for stakeholders.

4. Green financing

Explore green financing options, such as green bonds or sustainable loan products. Partner with organizations committed to green energy and eco-friendly practices to provide customers with sustainable financial solutions.

Maximizing Growth Opportunities

The actionable insights detailed above are integral components of a strategic approach to leverage the following growth opportunities. Financial institutions can confidently establish themselves as thriving entities in the financial landscape by aligning these insights with the prospective avenues for expansion. This alignment helps secure their market share and allows them to consistently deliver valuable services to a wider and more diverse customer base.

1. Digital lending and credit innovation

The digital era has revolutionized lending. Banks can expand their portfolio by embracing digital lending solutions, such as peer-to-peer lending, online personal loans, and small business loans. This approach enables banks to reach a broader market, cater to tech-savvy borrowers, and expedite loan approval processes, all while maintaining risk management practices.

2. Expansion into emerging markets

As developed markets reach saturation, emerging markets present compelling growth prospects. In regions like Asia, Latin America, and Africa, banks can tap into the unbanked and underbanked populations by providing accessible, low-cost financial services. By extending their reach to these untapped markets, banks can build a loyal customer base that will grow with the increasing financial literacy in these regions.

3. Sustainable banking

The growing trend of sustainable and ethical banking offers significant growth potential. Banks can align their services with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles to attract ethically conscious consumers. Sustainable investments, green loans, and green bonds present lucrative opportunities for banks to contribute positively to the planet while expanding their business.

4. Advanced analytics and personalization

Customer data will be a goldmine for banks in 2024. With advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, banks can create personalized financial products and services. By understanding individual customer needs and preferences, banks can offer tailor-made solutions, strengthening customer loyalty and generating additional revenue through cross-selling.

5. Mortgage and real estate finance

The housing market continues to be a focal point for financial growth. Banks can explore opportunities in mortgage lending, property financing, and real estate investment services. These sectors provide steady sources of revenue in regions experiencing real estate booms.

6. Wealth management and retirement planning

The aging population in many parts of the world presents an opening for banks to offer comprehensive wealth management and retirement planning services. Banks can build long-lasting relationships and open doors to significant investment opportunities by helping clients secure their financial future.

7. Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)

Offering BaaS to non-banking companies is an evolving strategy in 2024. By allowing other companies to access banking services, banks can broaden their customer base and generate revenue through service fees.

8. Fintech collaboration

Collaboration with fintech companies continues to be a potent avenue for growth. By partnering with agile fintech startups, traditional banks can access innovative technologies and expand their service offerings. These partnerships enhance the customer experience, offer new financial products, and help banks adapt to changing customer preferences swiftly.

Partnerships and Collaborations

One of the key strategies banks need to employ in 2024 is to embrace fintech partnerships and collaborations. These alliances are becoming pivotal in redefining the banking landscape and fostering innovation. Collaborations:

• Accelerate digital innovation.
• Expand service offerings.
• Enhance customer experience.
• Leverage big data and analytics.
• Provide solutions to regulatory challenges and compliance.

Fintech partnerships and collaborations offer traditional banks an avenue to stay competitive, relevant, and resilient in the evolving financial sector. These strategic alliances are poised to be a significant driver of growth in 2024 enabling banks to adapt to changing customer expectations, foster innovation, and expand their service offerings. Finance companies can harness the full potential of digital transformation to secure their market share and provide exceptional value to a diverse customer base by embracing these partnerships.

In a testament to the transformative power of fintech partnerships, Brankas and Konsentus have come together to forge an innovative alliance that exemplifies the future of financial services. Brankas, a leading open finance technology provider, and Konsentus, a UK-based Reg Tech company, have united their strengths to create a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform. This platform showcases the potential of such collaborations, offering banks and financial institutions a one-stop solution to navigate regulatory complexities and harness the opportunities of open banking. By fusing Brankas' cutting-edge technology with Konsentus' expertise in consent management, the partnership enables banks to streamline compliance, provide secure and seamless customer experiences, and unlock growth opportunities within the evolving financial landscape. This union underscores the importance of fintech partnerships in reshaping the future of banking.

The reshaped banking strategy for 2024 is not merely an adaptation to the changing times; it is a proactive step toward unlocking the full potential of the financial landscape. By embracing technological advancements, adapting to regulatory changes, meeting digital-age customer expectations, and incorporating sustainable and ethical banking practices, financial institutions are poised for growth and success. This strategy underscores the essential role that adaptability and innovation play in securing market share and sustaining valuable services for an increasingly diverse customer base. The banking industry can shape a brighter, more inclusive, and sustainable future for the customers it serves through agile strategies and a commitment to progress.

A Comprehensive Guide for Merchants: Chargeback vs. Refund

A Comprehensive Guide for Merchants: Chargeback vs. Refund

Understanding the intricacies of chargebacks and refunds is paramount for merchants. Chargebacks and refunds play crucial roles in customer satisfaction and maintaining a positive business image. Merchants need a comprehensive understanding of these processes to navigate potential challenges, reduce disputes, and foster a healthy relationship with their customer base.

Chargebacks Explained

A chargeback occurs when a customer disputes a transaction and requests a refund directly from their bank. These disputes can arise due to various reasons:

· Unauthorized transactions- Customers may claim they did not authorize a purchase.

· Product/service issues- Dissatisfaction with the received product or service.

· Billing discrepancies- Confusion or errors in billing statements.

· Fraudulent activity- Cases where the cardholder did not make the transaction due to fraud.

Chargebacks can have significant consequences for merchants. Beyond the immediate loss of revenue, merchants may face additional fees, damaged reputation, and increased scrutiny from payment processors. A high number of chargebacks can even lead to the termination of merchant accounts. Understanding and effectively managing chargebacks are crucial for merchants to protect their business and customer relationships.

Navigating the Chargeback Process

These are the steps in a chargeback procedure:

1. The customer identifies a transaction issue and contacts their bank.

2. The bank investigates the claim, considering evidence from both parties.

3. If the dispute is valid, the customer receives a provisional credit.

4. Merchants can respond to the chargeback with evidence.

5. The bank makes a final decision, either upholding or overturning the chargeback.

Refunds Unveiled

Refunds are transactions initiated by merchants in response to customer requests for reimbursement. The most common reasons why buyers request refunds are:

• The purchased product is defective, malfunctioning, or fails to perform as advertised.
• The product does not meet their expectations, even if there is no defect.
• Delays or non-delivery of products beyond the promised timeframe.
• Customers may change their minds or cancel orders shortly after making a purchase.
• Customers might notice discrepancies in billing, such as double charges or overbilling.
• Dissatisfied customers may seek refunds due to poor service experiences.
• Customers may realize they do not need or want a product after purchase.

Understanding Refund Dynamics

Initiating a refund follows these steps:

1. A customer contacts the merchant to request a refund via customer support, email, or an online platform.

2. Merchants verify the customer’s purchase by cross-referencing the details provided with their records.

3. Merchants confirm whether the customer’s request aligns with the terms and conditions outlined in their refund policy.

4. The merchant decides whether to approve or deny the refund request, based on the verification and policy review.

5. If approved, the actual refund processing begins. Merchants initiate the transaction to return the funds to the customer.

6. The merchant should promptly notify the customer once the refund is processed.

How Chargebacks Differ from Refunds

Chargebacks occur when customers dispute a charge directly with their issuing bank, bypassing the merchant. They are typically initiated for reasons such as unauthorized transactions, fraud, or dissatisfaction with the merchant’s response to a refund request.

Refunds involve the return of funds from the merchant to the customer. They are often initiated by customer requests due to reasons such as product defects, unmet expectations, or other customer-centric issues. Merchants usually have control over refund policies and determining conditions under which they offer reimbursements. Costs to merchants include the value of the product or service refunded, along with potential processing fees associated with payment gateways or financial institutions.

Chargebacks involve higher costs for merchants compared to refunds. Merchants may incur chargeback fees imposed by banks and payment processors in addition to refunding the purchase amount. Excessive chargebacks can have severe consequences, including increased processing fees, restrictions on merchant accounts, and even the termination of the account. Merchants may also incur costs associated with implementing fraud prevention measures to reduce the risk of chargebacks.

Chargebacks involve the intervention of financial institutions to resolve disputes, while refunds involve a cooperative process between the customer and the merchant. Each process has its own set of rules, timelines, and implications for merchants and customers.

Are Refunds Better than Chargebacks for Merchants?

Refunds are considered a more favorable option for merchants. A customer initiating a refund indicates a voluntary return of funds due to dissatisfaction or a change of mind. Merchants typically have more control over the refund process, which allows them to manage customer relations and potentially salvage the customer-business relationship.

Chargebacks are initiated by customers through their credit card issuer, often without direct involvement or consent from the merchant. Chargebacks are typically associated with higher costs for merchants, including chargeback fees imposed by banks and payment processors. Frequent chargebacks can lead to reputational damage, increased processing fees, and, in severe cases, the termination of the merchant account.

Refunds offer a more transparent and predictable process for merchants. Merchants can handle refunds more proactively with a well-defined refund policy and efficient processing mechanisms, contributing to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Chargebacks introduce a level of uncertainty and financial risk that can be challenging for merchants to manage effectively. Merchants prefer to handle customer concerns through a refund process rather than dealing with the complexities and potential drawbacks of chargebacks.

Why Some Customers Prefer Chargebacks to Refunds

Some customers may prefer chargebacks over refunds due to several factors:

1. Chargebacks typically offer a faster resolution process compared to refunds. Customers might opt for chargebacks when they seek a swift resolution to their dispute, especially if the traditional refund process is perceived as time-consuming.

2. Some customers may believe that chargebacks provide an extra layer of protection. They see the chargeback process as a way to involve their issuing bank in the dispute, assuming it offers a higher chance of success or a more favorable outcome compared to dealing directly with the merchant.

3. Customers might choose chargebacks to bypass the merchant’s refund policies or restrictions. Chargebacks are often seen as a more direct means of dispute resolution, allowing customers to contest a transaction without adhering to the merchant’s terms.

4. Customers may not be fully aware of the distinction between chargebacks and refunds. In cases where consumers are unfamiliar with the nuances of the two processes, they might opt for chargebacks simply because it seems like the more straightforward path.

5. Some customers might view a chargeback as a more impactful way to express dissatisfaction. They may perceive it as a stronger signal to the merchant that the service or product did not meet expectations, potentially prompting a quicker response from the merchant.

Understanding these factors can help merchants tailor their dispute resolution strategies and communication to address customer concerns effectively. It also emphasizes the importance of clear communication and transparent refund policies to minimize the likelihood of customers resorting to chargebacks.

Encourage Customers to Request Refunds

Encouraging customers to request refunds rather than initiating chargebacks is crucial for maintaining a positive relationship and avoiding unnecessary complications.

Merchants should streamline the refund process, making it easily accessible and straightforward. Communicate the refund policy clearly to ensure customers are aware of the procedures and timelines for requesting refunds. Providing excellent customer service is essential; promptly address customer inquiries, concerns, and dissatisfaction.

Merchants should consider implementing a satisfaction guarantee or a hassle-free refund policy to instill confidence in customers. Offering incentives for choosing refunds, such as discounts on future purchases, can further motivate customers to opt for this resolution. Seeking feedback regularly and addressing customer grievances actively can enhance the overall customer experience and reduce the likelihood of chargebacks.

Educating customers on the potential drawbacks of chargebacks, such as longer resolution times and potential fees, can also be effective. Merchants can encourage customers to choose refunds over chargebacks by fostering a customer-centric approach and emphasizing the convenience and fairness of the refund process, contributing to a more positive and collaborative relationship.

Double Refund Chargebacks

Double refund chargebacks occur when a customer receives a refund from a merchant for a particular transaction and subsequently files a chargeback with their issuing bank. The customer is seeking a refund twice for the same transaction.

This scenario is a concerning challenge for merchants as it represents a potential avenue for exploitation by unscrupulous customers. It can arise due to various reasons, including genuine confusion on the part of the customer, technical glitches, or intentional attempts to exploit the chargeback system for financial gain.

Double refund chargebacks underscore the complexities and challenges that merchants face in managing transaction disputes. Merchants need to implement robust systems for tracking and documenting refunds, ensuring that they can provide clear evidence to refute unjustified chargeback claims.

Mitigating the risk of double refund chargebacks involves not only streamlining internal refund processes but also fostering transparent communication with customers. Clear and easily accessible records of transactions and refund procedures can help in resolving disputes promptly and prevent instances of customers erroneously or fraudulently seeking double refunds through chargebacks.

The Merchant’s Role in Preventing Chargebacks and Refunds

Merchants face the challenge of minimizing chargebacks and refund requests. Adopting a proactive approach to prevent these issues is beneficial for the merchant and contributes to a positive customer experience. Here are key strategies to help prevent chargebacks and refunds:

1. Communicate product descriptions, terms of service, and refund policies clearly on your website. Provide detailed information about products, including images, specifications, and any potential limitations.

2. Implement robust security measures to protect customer data, reducing the likelihood of unauthorized transactions and fraud. Utilize secure payment gateways and employ encryption technologies to safeguard sensitive information.

3. Ensure that billing descriptors on customers' statements reflect the business name and purpose of the transaction. Avoid vague or confusing descriptors that may lead to chargebacks due to unrecognized transactions.

4. Offer responsive and accessible customer support channels to address queries and concerns promptly. Resolve customer issues proactively to prevent disputes from escalating to chargebacks or refund requests.

5. Provide high-quality products and services to meet or exceed customer expectations. Update product information regularly to reflect any changes or improvements.

6. Optimize your website’s user interface to enhance the shopping experience. Simplify the checkout process and ensure that customers can easily navigate your site.

7. Display product prices, shipping costs, and any additional fees clearly during the checkout process. Avoid hidden charges that may lead to customer dissatisfaction and refund requests.

8. Issue detailed invoices and receipts for each transaction, including information on the purchased items, prices, and shipping details. Provide a reliable and easily accessible record of transactions for customers.

Implementing these preventive measures can significantly reduce the occurrence of chargebacks and refund requests, fostering a more secure and trustworthy relationship between merchants and customers.

Best Practices for Processing Chargebacks and Refunds Efficiently

Merchants will face the challenges of chargebacks and refunds. Here are key best practices for merchants when chargebacks or refunds are initiated:

1. Establish open lines of communication when dealing with chargebacks or refunds. Respond promptly to customer inquiries and be proactive in addressing concerns.

Benefits: Enhances customer satisfaction, demonstrates responsiveness, and fosters goodwill.

2. Communicate your refund policies clearly on your website. Ensure that customers are aware of the conditions under which refunds are granted to help manage expectations.

Benefits: Avoids misunderstandings, provides clarity, and minimizes disputes.

3. Maintain detailed transaction records, including invoices and receipts. Having a comprehensive record of each transaction can be crucial when responding to chargebacks or refund requests.

Benefits: Simplifies financial management, facilitates reporting, and ensures compliance.

4. Streamline the dispute resolution process. Provide customers with clear instructions on how to initiate disputes or request refunds through user-friendly channels.

Benefits: Enhances customer satisfaction, demonstrates responsiveness, and fosters goodwill.

5. Investigate each claim thoroughly before responding. Verify the legitimacy of the customer’s concerns, examining transaction details and supporting documentation.

Benefits: Maintains transparency and provides merchants with accurate information for a fair and informed resolution.

6. Implement automated systems for processing refunds to reduce manual workload and minimize errors.

Benefits: Enhances efficiency, speeds up the refund process, and reduces operational costs.

7. Use feedback from chargebacks and refunds to improve your products, services, and overall customer experience. Continuous improvement is a valuable outcome of these situations.

Benefits: Builds brand loyalty, encourages repeat business, and attracts new customers.

8. Ensure that your payment processing system is secure and compliant with industry standards. A secure payment gateway reduces the risk of fraud-related chargebacks.

Benefits: Mitigates fraud risks, maintains customer trust, and safeguards financial information.

9. Compile a comprehensive set of documents when responding to chargebacks. This may include order confirmations, shipping details, and any relevant correspondence with the customer.

Benefits: Shows merchant’s commitment to transparency and compliance.

10. Use chargeback and refund instances as learning opportunities. Adapt your business practices based on insights gained from these experiences to prevent future occurrences.

Benefits: Enhances operational efficiency, adapts to changing customer needs, and minimizes errors.

By adopting these best practices, merchants can efficiently process chargebacks and refunds, maintain a balance between customer satisfaction and financial stability, and build a reputation for reliability and professionalism.

Legal and Regulatory Considerations

Navigating legal and regulatory considerations is imperative for merchants when dealing with chargebacks and refunds. Understanding the overarching regulations governing these processes is crucial for compliance. Various jurisdictions may have specific rules regarding the conditions under which chargebacks or refunds can be initiated. Merchants need to stay informed about these regulations and tailor their policies accordingly.

Compliance requirements for merchants often include transparent communication of refund policies, timely processing of refunds, and providing necessary documentation during chargeback disputes. Failure to adhere to these requirements can lead to legal consequences, including financial penalties and potential damage to the merchant’s reputation.

Non-compliance may result in legal actions taken by both customers and regulatory bodies, emphasizing the need for merchants to prioritize adherence to applicable laws and regulations. By staying vigilant and ensuring alignment with legal standards, merchants can mitigate risks and maintain a trustworthy and lawful business environment.

Tools and Technologies for Effective Management

Leveraging advanced tools and technologies is essential for effective management of chargebacks and refunds. Merchants can benefit significantly from utilizing robust payment gateways and fraud detection tools. These tools play a crucial role in identifying and preventing fraudulent activities, helping merchants to minimize chargeback instances.

Integration of technology to streamline refund processes is equally important. Automated systems can enhance efficiency, reducing the time and effort involved in processing refunds. Implementing user-friendly interfaces and secure payment gateways not only improves the customer experience but also contributes to effective chargeback and refund management.

Staying abreast of industry innovations is a proactive approach that merchants should adopt. Continuous technological advancements introduce new tools and strategies to combat fraud and streamline financial transactions. By embracing these innovations, merchants can enhance their operational efficiency, strengthen security measures, and adapt to the evolving landscape of chargebacks and refunds effectively.

Understanding the intricacies of chargebacks and refunds is paramount for merchants navigating the complex world of e-commerce. This comprehensive guide has shed light on the definitions, processes, and implications of chargebacks and refunds. Merchants are encouraged to view these processes not as challenges but as opportunities to strengthen their business operations.

Merchants can safeguard their financial stability and ensure customer satisfaction by managing chargebacks and refunds proactively. Implementing preventive measures, such as fraud detection tools and efficient refund processes, can significantly reduce the occurrence of chargebacks. Maintaining transparent communication with customers and setting realistic expectations can contribute to a positive customer experience.

Staying informed about legal considerations and leveraging cutting-edge technologies are imperative. Merchants who navigate these waters with diligence and adaptability are better positioned to thrive in the competitive e-commerce ecosystem. The synergy between financial stability and customer satisfaction forms the bedrock of a successful and resilient business.

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Do you need to refund customers or settle payments with vendors? Brankas can help you create automated workflows that transfer funds directly to their bank accounts.

Screen Scraping Unveiled: The What and How

Screen Scraping Unveiled: The What and How

Data fuels innovation in a digital world, and accessibility is an overriding concern. Screen scraping is a technique to extract information from websites, applications, and online platforms with remarkable precision.

Imagine you are an avid online shopper. You frequently check multiple e-commerce websites to compare prices for the same product. It can be time-consuming to visit each site, find the product, and note the price. Here’s where screen scraping comes into play.

A screen scraping tool, like a web scraping application, can simplify this process. You provide the tool with a list of the websites and the specific product you are interested in. It then automatically navigates to each website, finds the product’s price, and compiles this information into a neat, easy-to-read list for you. Screen scraping is essentially your digital shopping assistant, helping you save time and make informed purchase decisions. It is like having a personal shopper who scours the web for the best deals, all thanks to screen scraping technology.

What is Screen Scraping?

Screen scraping is a data extraction technique that involves automatically collecting information or data from one computer program’s display (the output on your screen) and using it in another application. It mimics human interaction with software to retrieve, display, and organize data from various sources.

Screen scraping has been around for a while, dating back to the early days of computing. Initially, it was used for simple tasks such as data entry automation. It has evolved significantly over the years, becoming more sophisticated with the advent of powerful scripting languages and web technologies.

Typical Uses of Screen Scraping

Screen scraping serves several purposes, which can be categorized into two main groups. The first encompasses instances where users must share sensitive information, like login credentials, to facilitate the screen scraping process, commonly referred to as “credential sharing.”

The second group involves collecting publicly available data to power comparison websites, verify ad placements, or transfer information from older legacy systems to modern applications.

Common examples include:

1. Accessing and analyzing bank account information: Screen scraping is most associated with financial services. It involves extracting a customer’s bank account data, often requiring access to the customer’s bank account through shared credentials. This data can then be used outside the originating app.

2. Initiating payments: Businesses perform actions rather than merely collecting data. With customer consent, a provider may use screen scraping to access a bank account and initiate a payment to another account. For instance, a budgeting app might transfer funds to a different account owned by the customer to capitalize on a better interest rate.

3. Conducting affordability checks: Organizations seeking to assess your financial history and spending habits may request your consent to scrape your bank account for relevant information. For instance, a loan provider might use screen scraping to evaluate your loan affordability quickly.

4. Data storage for future use: Much of the credential sharing through screen scraping is about constructing a more comprehensive understanding of a customer’s financial activities. Companies may gather this data to store and employ it at a later stage.

5. Data theft: Although most of the screen scraping is conducted by legitimate businesses with customer consent, cybercriminals may also exploit this technique to steal data from unsuspecting online users.

These use cases underscore the dual nature of screen scraping, serving both legitimate business purposes and potentially nefarious activities. Users need to be aware of the context in which their data is shared and the security implications associated with it.

How Screen Scraping Works Step by Step

Screen scraping is a systematic process involving three key steps:

1. Data extraction: In the first step, screen scraping identifies and extracts data from the display. This process is typically initiated by a script or a program that interacts with the graphical user interface (GUI). The script scans the screen for specific information, such as text, numbers, or images, and captures this data.

Imagine you have a weather app on your smartphone. This app collects weather information from various websites. It “extracts” data such as temperature, wind speed, and precipitation forecasts from these sites to provide you with the most up-to-date and accurate weather information for your location.

2. Data processing: Once the data is extracted, the screen scraping tool processes it. This step can involve cleaning and formatting the data to make it usable. For instance, it might remove unnecessary characters, spaces, or formatting to present the data in a structured manner.

A common example of data processing is an e-commerce website. When you shop online and add items to your cart, the website processes this data in real-time, calculating the total cost, applying discounts, and updating the cart contents. It ensures you see the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding your shopping choices.

3. Data integration: Finally, the extracted and processed data is integrated into the desired application, database, or software. It can be used to update information, create reports, automate tasks, or perform various other operations within an organization’s workflow.

Consider an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system used by a large corporation. This system integrates data from various departments, such as finance, human resources, and supply chain management, into a single platform. It ensures that decision-makers have a comprehensive view of the organization’s data, enabling more informed choices across the business.

The Significance of Screen Scraping in Open Banking

Screen scraping in the context of banking is the practice of a third-party application or service extracting data from a user’s online banking interface. This process involves retrieving financial information from bank websites or mobile applications, often by mimicking user interactions. Screen scraping has been a longstanding method for fintech companies and third-party providers to access users' financial data with their consent. It enables the extraction of account balances, transaction history, and other banking-related information.

Financial institutions encounter both benefits and challenges in the context of screen scraping. The benefits include fostering innovation and competition in the banking industry. It encourages the development of a wide range of financial tools and services, creating more options for consumers.

Screen scraping also poses challenges. One of the primary concerns is security. When customers share their login credentials with third-party providers, it raises the risk of unauthorized access to their accounts. Screen scraping can lead to higher server loads on the bank’s systems and may affect the quality of online banking services.

Many financial institutions are transitioning toward open banking APIs to address these challenges. Open APIs offer a more secure, efficient, and regulated way for third parties to access customer data. This shift is expected to reduce the reliance on screen scraping while maintaining data security and privacy, ultimately benefiting financial institutions and their customers.

APIs are The Better Choice for Accessing Data

Data is the backbone of many online services and applications, and accessing data efficiently and securely is crucial. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and screen scraping are methods to gather data from websites or applications, but APIs have become the preferred choice for many businesses for several reasons:

1. Data accuracy and consistency

APIs provide structured, well-defined data, ensuring the information you receive is accurate and consistent. With APIs, data is delivered in a format that is ready for use, saving you the effort of sifting through unstructured data that screen scraping often provides.

2. Security and privacy

APIs offer a more secure way to access data. When you use an API, you are usually provided with a secure and authorized channel to access specific information, maintaining data privacy. In contrast, screen scraping may require sharing login credentials, which can pose security risks.

3. Reliability and consistency

APIs are designed for reliability. They provide a consistent way to interact with an application or website, ensuring your data retrieval process will not break or become inconsistent due to website changes. On the other hand, screen scraping can be more fragile because it relies on the visual structure of a website, which can change frequently.

4. Improved performance

APIs are efficient in terms of performance. They can handle many requests simultaneously and are optimized for speed. With screen scraping, you may encounter slower data retrieval processes, particularly when you are scraping large amounts of data from websites.

5. Compliance with regulations

APIs allow businesses to ensure they are compliant with data regulations. Many modern APIs are designed with built-in data privacy and security measures, which is essential for businesses dealing with sensitive data.

6. Developer-friendly

For businesses looking to develop applications or integrate data into their systems, APIs provide well-documented and developer-friendly tools, making it easier and quicker to access and utilize data.

7. Long-term stability

Using APIs is a more sustainable approach. With screen scraping, your data retrieval methods may become obsolete if a website or application undergoes significant changes. APIs, on the other hand, offer long-term stability, ensuring your data access remains reliable.

Elevate your clients’ user experience with cutting-edge banking APIs from Brankas for a seamless digital journey.

Everything Businesses Need to Know About Payment Reversal

Everything Businesses Need to Know About Payment Reversal

Understanding the intricacies of payment transactions is crucial for enterprises aiming for sustained success. At the heart of these transactions lies a concept that every merchant should be well-versed in–payment reversals. Payment reversals encompass a spectrum of scenarios. And each carries distinct implications for merchants. This article aims to equip business owners with the knowledge needed to proactively manage and mitigate the impact of payment reversals on their operations.

Understanding Payment Reversals

Payment reversals refer to the cancellation or alteration of a prior authorized transaction. They come in different forms, each serving a distinct purpose for merchants and consumers.

1. Authorization reversal

Authorization reversal, also known as voiding or canceling an authorization, is the process of revoking a hold on funds before the actual transaction is completed or settled. It occurs when a customer decides not to proceed with the purchase or if an issue is detected during the authorization phase.

Imagine a customer using their credit card to make a hotel reservation, and they decide to cancel the reservation before the check-in date. The hotel initiates an authorization reversal to release the initially held funds.

Reversing an authorization is better for businesses because they do not have to pay certain fees linked to refunds, making things more cost-effective. It also means merchants do not need to deal with any problems related to returning an order since the transaction has not been finalized yet.

2. Payment refund

A payment refund involves the return of funds to the customer after a successful transaction. Refunds are typically initiated by the merchant and are often associated with product returns, cancellations, or situations where the customer is owed a reimbursement.

If a customer purchases a defective product online and requests a refund, the merchant processes a payment refund to credit the customer’s account.

Payment refunds take time compared to authorization reversals. Your payment processor treats it as a distinct transaction, essentially reversing the original payment. They deduct the money from your account and return it to the customer’s original payment method. This procedure typically takes anywhere from three to 10 business days. The additional expenses of payment refunds include lost sales, interchange fees, return shipping costs, and so on. These costs can add up over time.

3. Chargeback

Chargeback is a forced reversal of a transaction initiated by the customer through their bank or credit card issuer. Chargebacks are typically associated with disputes, fraud, unauthorized transactions, or dissatisfaction with the product or service.

A customer notices a charge on their credit card statement that they did not authorize. They contact their bank, which investigates the claim. If found valid, the bank initiates a chargeback, reversing the transaction and crediting the customer.

Chargebacks bring considerable challenges, such as chargeback fees, revenue and merchandise losses, sales cannibalization, shipping costs, interchange fees, and potentially other penalties depending on the specific circumstances and your chargeback rate. Credit card chargebacks follow a rigorous process and strict timelines. Failure to adhere to these strict procedures can spell trouble for your business.

How Payment Reversals Differ from Chargebacks

Payment reversals, including authorization reversals and refunds, are typically initiated by the merchant or customer and are part of standard transaction processes. Chargebacks involve a dispute initiated by the customer, often due to fraud, errors, or dissatisfaction.

Common Causes of Payment Reversals

Understanding these common causes allows entrepreneurs to implement preventive measures and minimize the risk of payment reversals.

1. Disputes and chargebacks

Customer disputes, often resulting in chargebacks, can occur for various reasons, including dissatisfaction with a product or service, billing errors, or misunderstandings.

A customer might dispute a charge if they receive a damaged product or if they believe they were billed incorrectly. Chargebacks initiated by the cardholder or the issuing bank can lead to a reversal of the payment, and merchants need to address these disputes effectively.

2. Technical and processing issues

Technical glitches, errors in processing, or system malfunctions can also contribute to payment reversals.

A merchant may need to reverse one of the transactions if a customer’s payment is processed twice due to a system error. Technical issues can lead to unintended double charges, making it crucial for businesses to monitor and address such errors promptly.

3. Fraudulent transactions

When unauthorized individuals gain access to sensitive payment information, they can make purchases without the card holder’s consent. Merchants may later discover these unauthorized transactions and initiate chargebacks to reverse the payment.

If a fraudster obtains someone’s credit card details and makes online purchases, the legitimate cardholder might dispute these charges, leading to a reversal.

Why Payment Reversals Matter to Businesses

Understanding the implications of payment reversals allows companies to implement strategies to minimize their occurrence and effectively manage the aftermath.

Impact on cash flow

When a transaction is reversed, the funds that were initially received are deducted from the merchant’s account. This sudden reduction in cash inflow can disrupt the company’s financial stability and affect its ability to meet immediate financial obligations. For example, if a business experiences a high volume of chargebacks, it may face cash flow challenges, making it harder to cover operational expenses.

Repercussions for merchants

Merchants face various repercussions due to payment reversals, including financial losses, additional fees, and potential damage to their reputation. For instance, chargebacks often come with fees imposed by payment processors and banks. Merchants may face higher processing fees or even the suspension of their merchant accounts if the number of chargebacks exceeds a certain threshold. This can be particularly challenging for small businesses operating on tight profit margins.

Relationship with customer satisfaction

Payment reversals can have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. If a customer experiences difficulties obtaining a refund for a defective product, it can lead to dissatisfaction and harm the business’s reputation. On the other hand, prompt and hassle-free refunds can enhance customer trust and satisfaction. Striking the right balance between addressing payment issues and maintaining positive customer relationships is crucial for long-term success.

Technology and Payment Reversals

Technology plays a pivotal role in mitigating payment reversals by enhancing the security, efficiency, and accuracy of financial transactions. Secure payment gateways and advanced encryption technologies protect sensitive customer information, reducing the risk of fraudulent transactions. Real-time monitoring and fraud detection tools enable businesses to identify and address potential issues promptly.

Automation and machine learning contribute significantly to minimizing payment reversals. Automated systems can flag suspicious transactions, trigger authentication processes, and even prevent certain transactions based on predefined criteria. Machine learning (ML) algorithms analyze vast amounts of transaction data to identify patterns indicative of fraud or potential disputes. This proactive approach allows businesses to intervene before reversals occur.

Numerous businesses have successfully implemented technology-driven solutions to reduce payment reversals. Major e-commerce platforms Amazon, Alibaba, and Shopify leverage machine learning (ML) algorithms. These fraud detection algorithms can identify anomalies and automatically block or flag transactions for further review, preventing potential chargebacks. JP Morgan Chase and Citibank adopted real-time transaction monitoring, which has proven effective in identifying and preventing fraudulent activities, and reducing instances of unauthorized chargebacks.

The Human Element in Payment Reversals

The human element in payment reversals involves not only addressing issues when they arise but also proactively equipping customer service teams and educating customers.

Training customer service teams

One crucial aspect of managing payment reversals involves training customer service teams. These teams serve as the frontline in resolving disputes and addressing customer concerns. Comprehensive training equips customer service representatives with the knowledge and skills to navigate complex payment issues. This includes understanding the intricacies of different payment reversal scenarios, the company’s policies, and effective communication strategies.

Empathy in resolving disputes

Empathy plays a pivotal role in resolving payment disputes. Customers experiencing issues, whether due to fraud concerns, billing discrepancies, or other reasons, seek understanding and support. Customer service representatives trained to approach disputes with empathy can defuse tense situations, build rapport, and collaboratively work toward a resolution. Empathy fosters a positive customer experience, even in challenging situations, which can contribute to customer retention.

Customer education initiatives

Proactive customer education is an essential component of mitigating payment reversals. Many disputes arise from misunderstandings or lack of awareness regarding transaction processes, billing cycles, or security measures. Businesses can implement initiatives to educate customers on how transactions work, what to expect in various scenarios, and steps to take if they encounter issues. This preemptive education can significantly reduce confusion and the likelihood of disputes.

Merging Technology and the Human Element

Integrating technology and the human element is paramount for minimizing payment reversals. Technological advancements play a pivotal role in identifying and preventing potential issues that could lead to reversals. Automated systems equipped with machine learning algorithms can swiftly detect anomalies, suspicious transactions, or patterns indicative of fraudulent activities, thereby providing a proactive defense against payment reversals.

The human element is essential for nuanced decision-making and addressing complex customer issues. While technology can handle routine tasks efficiently, human intervention becomes crucial in situations requiring empathy, understanding, and personalized solutions. Customer service teams, trained to navigate disputes with empathy and professionalism, contribute to a positive customer experience even in challenging circumstances. Businesses can create a comprehensive approach to prevent and manage payment reversals effectively by combining the efficiency of technology with the human touch. This integrated strategy enhances the efficiency of operations and fosters trust and loyalty among customers.

Preventing Payment Reversals

Implementing these actionable insights together contributes to a comprehensive strategy for preventing payment reversals. Businesses can significantly reduce the risks associated with payment reversals by combining technology-driven measures with clear communication and proactive fraud prevention.

1. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)- Introduce additional layers of authentication, such as OTPs or biometrics, to fortify the security of user accounts and deter unauthorized access.

2. Update fraud prevention protocols regularly- Keep fraud prevention systems current by routinely updating protocols and leveraging the latest technologies to stay ahead of evolving fraud tactics.

3. Provide clear transaction descriptions- Ensure transaction descriptors are concise and recognizable to customers, preventing confusion that could lead to disputes.

4. Enable real-time transaction monitoring- Implement real-time transaction monitoring systems for prompt identification and response to suspicious activities, minimizing potential losses.

5. Set clear refund policies- Communicate refund policies clearly to manage customer expectations, reduce disputes, and enhance transparency in financial transactions.

6. Educate customers on transaction processes- Develop educational content to guide customers through transaction processes, reducing misunderstandings and the likelihood of disputes.

7. Leverage Address Verification Systems (AVS)- Employ AVS to verify billing addresses provided during transactions, adding an extra layer of security against unauthorized transactions.

8. Train customer service teams regularly- Conduct frequent training sessions for customer service teams to keep them informed about the latest fraud trends, transaction processes, and dispute resolution techniques.

9. Use AI-based fraud detection tools- Deploy AI-driven tools to analyze transaction patterns, detect anomalies, and proactively identify potentially fraudulent activities.

10. Monitor industry compliance standards- Stay informed about and adhere to industry compliance standards, ensuring that payment processes align with regulatory requirements and best practices.

Best Practices in Dealing with Payment Reversals

Businesses can enhance their ability to manage payment reversals effectively, maintain positive customer relationships, and mitigate the impact of disputes on their operations by implementing these:

1. Foster open communication with customers by providing clear and concise transaction details, refund policies, and contact information, reducing the likelihood of disputes arising from misunderstandings.

2. Establish streamlined and efficient dispute resolution processes to address customer concerns promptly, demonstrating a commitment to customer satisfaction.

3. Clearly outline escalation procedures in case of disputes, empowering customers to follow a defined path for issue resolution and reducing frustration.

4. Leverage advanced customer support technologies, like chatbots or AI-driven systems, to enhance responsiveness and provide real-time assistance during dispute resolution.

5. Collaborate with payment processors to leverage their expertise, gain insights into transaction details, and facilitate smoother dispute resolution processes.

6. Stay informed about legal considerations related to payment reversals, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, and having a legal framework in place for dispute resolution.

7. Create channels for customers to provide feedback on transaction experiences, enabling businesses to identify areas for improvement and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

8. Keep customer terms of service up-to-date, reflecting changes in policies, procedures, and industry regulations to maintain clarity and transparency.

9. Simplify refund processes to expedite the resolution of legitimate disputes, demonstrating a commitment to fair and prompt financial transactions.

10. Conduct ongoing training sessions for customer support teams to keep them well-versed in dispute resolution techniques, customer communication, and the latest industry standards.

11. Actively seek feedback from customers on the dispute resolution process, using insights to refine and improve procedures for future incidents.

12. Keep detailed records of transactions, including communications with customers, to provide a comprehensive overview in case of disputes or escalations.

13. Introduce incentives for customers to opt for amicable resolutions, fostering a positive relationship and minimizing the negative impact of disputes on business reputation.

14. Review and update escalation procedures regularly to align with evolving business needs, customer expectations, and regulatory changes.

Looking Ahead: Future Trends in Payment Reversals

Several trends are poised to shape the landscape of payment reversals, influencing how businesses navigate this critical aspect of financial transactions.

Technological innovations

The continuous evolution of technology will bring more sophisticated tools for detecting and preventing payment reversals. Advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation will play pivotal roles in creating real-time, adaptive systems capable of swiftly responding to emerging threats. Enhanced security measures and authentication protocols may become standard features, providing an additional layer of protection against fraudulent activities that often lead to payment reversals.

Regulatory changes

The financial industry is subject to dynamic regulatory environments, and changes in regulations can significantly impact how payment reversals are managed. Businesses will need to stay abreast of these changes. Compliance with new regulations, particularly those aimed at enhancing consumer protection and security, will likely become a focal point for businesses seeking to minimize payment reversals.

Evolving customer expectations

Customer expectations around the payment process will continue to evolve. As consumers become more digitally savvy, they may demand seamless and secure payment experiences. Companies will need to align their processes with these expectations, ensuring user-friendly interfaces, transparent communication, and quick dispute-resolution mechanisms. The emphasis on customer-centric approaches will likely influence how businesses structure their payment systems to prevent issues that could lead to reversals.

Brankas Can Help

Brankas is a valuable ally for entrepreneurs facing the challenges of payment reversals. We leverage cutting-edge technology to provide robust payment solutions that can significantly reduce the likelihood of reversals. Businesses can trust us to enhance the security of their payment ecosystem. The platform’s real-time monitoring capabilities empower enterprises to detect and address potential issues swiftly, minimizing the impact of fraudulent activities and disputes. Brankas prioritizes transparency and clear communication, essential elements in preventing misunderstandings that may lead to payment reversals. Entrepreneurs can rely on Brankas to fortify their payment infrastructure, fostering trust with customers and ensuring a smoother financial journey for their ventures.

Boosting Customer Experience and Sales with Omnichannel Payment Strategies

Boosting Customer Experience and Sales with Omnichannel Payment Strategies

Omnichannel payment strategies are vital in today’s retail sector, where consumers seamlessly transition between physical stores and digital platforms. These strategies redefine the customer experience and play a significant role in driving sales. Integrating diverse channels, from in-store to online and mobile platforms, offers customers a cohesive and convenient journey.

Explore these illuminating statistics that underscore the importance and effectiveness of omnichannel strategies.

• Customers who engage through omnichannel shopping spend up to 300% more than those shopping through a single channel. (WorldPay)
• Customers who utilized four or more channels spent 9% more on average in the store than those who used just a single channel. (Harvard Business Review)
• Omnichannel marketplace sales contribute to 60% of all global digital payments in 2023. (McKinsey Global Payments Report)
• 87% of retail leaders acknowledge that an omnichannel strategy is crucial for business success. (Research Live)
• Failure to adopt an omnichannel approach comes with a 10% opportunity cost in lost revenue. (Porch Group Media)

What is Omnichannel Payment?

Omnichannel payment is a unified and integrated approach to payment processing that connects various channels and touchpoints seamlessly within a business. This strategy aims to provide a cohesive and consistent payment experience for customers across different platforms, such as online websites, mobile apps, brick-and-mortar stores, and other digital channels. Omnichannel payment systems have become instrumental in meeting the growing expectations of consumers for a convenient shopping experience, whether they purchase online or in-store. Customers are presented with a range of payment options customized to their preferences when they are ready to pay. These options may encompass credit cards, digital wallets, and instant bank transfers, providing flexibility to choose the method that best suits their needs.

The Channels in Omnichannel Payment

These channels ensure businesses can cater to diverse customer preferences and provide a seamless payment experience across various touchpoints.

1. Card payments - payments using credit and debit cards through card readers, POS systems, or through virtual terminals
2. Bank transfers - manual bank transfers or instant bank transfers facilitated by open banking
3. Direct debit payments - automated payments directly withdrawn from the customer’s bank account; used commonly for recurring subscription payments.
4. Mobile wallets - payments made through mobile wallet applications on smartphones
5. Invoicing by text or email - invoices sent via text or email with secure payment links. Customers can click on the link to make secure online payments.
6. Keyed transactions - phone orders where payment information is entered manually into a secure webpage.
7. E-commerce payments - transactions made on a company’s website or third-party platforms like PayPal.

Main Components of Omnichannel Payment Systems

The key elements of omnichannel payment systems include:

• A centralized payment gateway that facilitates transactions across various channels,
• A robust inventory management system that synchronizes product availability across platforms, and
• A unified customer database that enables businesses to provide personalized and consistent interactions.

This approach ensures that customers can initiate and complete transactions using their preferred payment methods, whether online, in-store or through mobile devices, fostering a cohesive and efficient payment experience.

Benefits of Omnichannel Payments

Omnichannel payments provide a competitive advantage in the market and directly impact the bottom line by increasing sales opportunities and elevating the customer experience.

A. Enhanced Sales Opportunities

Increased conversion rates - Omnichannel payments create a smooth experience, reducing friction in the buying process. This increased ease of transaction contributes to higher conversion rates. Customers are more likely to complete their purchases when they have a choice from various payment methods.

Higher average transaction values - Offering diverse payment options tends to positively impact the average transaction value. Customers may be inclined to spend more when provided with convenient payment methods that suit their preferences. For example, the availability of buy-now-pay-later options or loyalty program integrations can encourage more transactions

B. Improved Customer Experience

Seamless shopping experience - Omnichannel payments ensure a consistent and integrated experience across all channels—whether online, in-store, or through mobile apps. Customers can start a transaction on one channel and seamlessly complete it on another. This continuity fosters a sense of ease and reliability, contributing to an overall positive shopping experience.

Convenience and flexibility - The flexibility offered by omnichannel payments enhances convenience. Customers appreciate having choices, whether it is credit cards, digital wallets, or other emerging payment options. This flexibility adapts to diverse customer preferences, ultimately improving satisfaction and loyalty.

Merchants also experience advantages with the consistency provided by an omnichannel payment solution. This solution:

• Integrates various payment methods into a unified system, streamlining the checkout process.
• Provides all-in-one reporting for simplified accounts reconciliation, facilitating efficient financial management.
• Simplifies the monitoring of sales and inventory, enhancing visibility and control.
• Consolidates customer purchase journeys across multiple channels, ensuring a cohesive and integrated experience.
• Reduces management and maintenance time, contributing to overall operational efficiency.

Implementing Omnichannel Payment Strategies

Implementing these strategies requires a comprehensive approach to technology integration, payment processing systems, and a deep understanding of customer preferences. Businesses can create a truly omnichannel payment environment that enhances customer satisfaction and drives sales by blending in-store and online experiences and providing a variety of payment options.

Integration Across Platforms

1. In-store and online integration

• Ensure a seamless experience for customers whether they buy in physical stores or online.
• Implement systems that allow for easy transition between in-store and online shopping carts.
• Centralize inventory management to avoid discrepancies between online and in-store stock levels.

2. Mobile and e-commerce integration

• Optimize mobile platforms for easy navigation and transactions.
• Integrate e-commerce platforms with mobile applications for a consistent user experience.
• Implement responsive design to adapt to various devices, providing a uniform look and feel.

Utilizing Multiple Payment Options

1. Credit and debit cards

• Offer secure and efficient credit and debit card transactions both in-store and online.
• Implement card readers for in-person transactions and integrate secure payment gateways for online purchases.

2. Mobile wallets

• Facilitate transactions through popular mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
• Ensure compatibility with various mobile devices to accommodate a broad user base.

3. Buy Now, Pay Later options

• Integrate “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) services for customers who prefer deferred payment options.
• Collaborate with BNPL providers to offer flexible payment plans, enhancing customer affordability.

Choosing the Right Payment Providers

Selecting the appropriate payment provider is a critical decision that directly impacts the security, compliance, and efficiency of your omnichannel payment system. Here is a breakdown of key considerations:

1. Choose payment providers that offer well-documented and versatile Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
2. Opt for providers that offer real-time processing capabilities, reducing payment delays and enhancing the overall customer experience.
3. Ensure the chosen payment provider complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements.
4. Prioritize payment providers that employ advanced encryption protocols to secure customer data during transactions.
5. Partner with payment providers committed to regular security audits and assessments.

Adopting omnichannel payment strategies presents numerous benefits that significantly impact customer experience and sales for businesses. The enhanced sales opportunities, increased conversion rates, and improved customer experience underscore the importance of providing seamless, flexible payment options across various channels. This strategy is not merely a trend but a fundamental shift in how businesses engage with their customers.

Businesses are encouraged to embrace omnichannel payments. Companies can position themselves at the forefront of a dynamic and competitive market by integrating across platforms, utilizing multiple payment options, and addressing security concerns. The future of commerce is undeniably intertwined with omnichannel approaches, offering businesses the opportunity to thrive in an ecosystem where convenience, efficiency, and customer-centricity reign supreme.

Companies that embrace and optimize omnichannel payments will stay relevant and lead the way in providing unparalleled customer experiences. The call to action is clear: embrace omnichannel strategies, adapt to changing consumer behaviors, and position your business for sustained success in the digital age.

Brankas and PeekUp Forge Partnership for Instant Driver Ride Earnings

Manila, [6 Mar, 2024] – Brankas and PeekUp Pay have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) under which Brankas will support PeekUp Pay with instant disbursement capabilities in the PeekUp Driver app, now available on the Google Play Store and App Store.

PeekUp Pay will integrate Brankas Disburse API into the PeekUp Driver app that PeekUp driver partners will use to pick up ride-hailing customers, receive earnings, and clock rewards. Brankas Disburse API, which enables bulk disbursements of loans, salary, payouts, and insurance, will enable PeekUp Pay to instantly deposit ride earnings into each driver partner’s bank account.

PeekUp announced in January 2024 that it is set to enter the Philippines market with a promise of better customer experience. The app aims to address ride cancellations, priority bookings, and compete with Grab, the sole operator since Uber’s exit in 2018.

Dave Almarinez, Founder and CEO of PeekUp Pay, an affiliate of A Force Ventures Inc, said “Ensuring our drivers are paid on time while keeping platform fees low are among our biggest concerns. Brankas is one of the few payment platforms to offer real-time settlement with an incredibly easy onboarding process, aligning perfectly with our commitment to providing the best experience for both our drivers partners and customers.”

Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas, said. “In the mobility industry, reliable real-time payments are critical for getting people and shipments to their destinations on time without the hassle of delays, app errors, or fraud. Our partnership with PeekUp Pay reinforces our commitment to delivering best-in-class payment solutions that contribute to the efficiency of our transport ecosystem.”

About PeekUp Pay

PeekUp Pay is the official payment platform for PeekUp Mobility, which aims to redefine the transportation landscape for Filipino commuters by offering more affordable, reliable and convenient mobility solutions for both passengers and driver partners.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Exploring the Importance of Payment Rails in Today’s Digital Economy

Exploring the Importance of Payment Rails in Today’s Digital Economy

The role of payment rails cannot be overstated in our increasingly interconnected world. As businesses expand globally, consumers demand instant gratification and financial innovation surges. Payment rails serve as the linchpin that holds the digital economy together. They enable e-commerce giants to process millions of transactions daily, empower individuals to send remittances across borders with ease, and underpin the rise of cutting-edge financial technologies. Understanding the inner workings of payment rails is crucial not only for financial professionals but for anyone navigating the complexities of the modern financial landscape.

Businesses of all sizes need to unravel the intricacies of payment networks and processing as commerce continues its digital and global transformation. Companies are under mounting pressure to adapt to the ever-changing expectations of their customers. Offering an intuitive, effortless, and secure payment experience is no longer a mere option; it is a fundamental necessity. This knowledge is crucial for retaining customer loyalty, staying competitive, and thriving in a marketplace that demands nothing less than excellence.

What are Payment Rails?

Payment rails refer to the intricate networks and protocols that enable the transmission of money from one party to another. These rails act as the conduits through which financial transactions flow, encompassing various methods and technologies that power our financial interactions. They serve as the unseen conduits through which funds flow when you make a payment, whether it is swiping a credit card at a store, transferring money to a friend via a mobile app, or making an online purchase. These rails can take various forms, including digital networks, clearinghouses, and settlement systems, but their primary purpose remains consistent: facilitating the secure and efficient transfer of funds.

How do Payment Rails Fit in Modern Payment Ecosystems?

Payment rails play a pivotal role in enabling businesses and consumers to engage in financial transactions seamlessly. These networks ensure that funds are routed accurately, securely, and swiftly, laying the foundation for various payment methods such as credit card transactions, Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers, wire transfers, and more. Payment rails serve as the invisible scaffolding upon which the financial infrastructure of the digital age is built, connecting financial institutions, businesses, and individuals while ensuring that payments comply with regulatory and security standards.

Common Payment Rails

These payment rails cater to various payment scenarios, from everyday consumer purchases to complex international transactions. Understanding how they work is crucial for businesses, financial institutions, and consumers to choose the most appropriate rail for each transaction.

1. ACH (Automated Clearing House)

ACH is a payment rail used primarily in the United States for electronic fund transfers. It facilitates various types of transactions, including direct deposits, bill payments, and business-to-business payments. ACH payments are processed in batches that involve electronic clearing and funds settlement between banks. Payers initiate ACH transfers, which can take the form of ACH credits (money moving out of an account) or ACH debits (money moving into an account).

2. Credit and debit cards

Credit and debit cards are widely used payment rails that enable consumers to buy online and in physical stores. When a cardholder makes a payment, the card information is transmitted to the merchant’s payment processor. The processor communicates with the card network (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) to verify the transaction’s legitimacy. If approved, the card network facilitates the transfer of funds from the cardholder’s issuing bank to the merchant’s acquiring bank.

3. Digital wallets

Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal store payment card details and offer additional security. When a user pays with a digital wallet, the app generates a token or a unique code representing the transaction. This token is sent to the merchant’s payment processor, not the card details. The processor then decrypts the token, verifies the transaction, and processes the payment, adding an extra security layer by preventing card data exposure.

4. RTP (Real-Time Payments)

RTP systems enable real-time fund transfers between bank accounts, often within seconds, 24/7. RTP is gaining popularity worldwide for its speed and accessibility. When a payer initiates an RTP payment, the instruction is sent through the RTP network, which processes and verifies the transaction. The recipient’s bank is notified promptly, and the funds are made available in the recipient’s account in real-time, even outside traditional banking hours.

5. SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication)

SWIFT is a global payment network that connects thousands of banks and financial institutions worldwide. It is used for international wire transfers and cross-border transactions. When a bank initiates a SWIFT payment on behalf of a customer, it sends payment instructions through the SWIFT network. These instructions include the recipient’s bank details and the transfer amount. The SWIFT network then ensures the secure and standardized exchange of information between banks, allowing for the movement of funds across borders.

6. CHIPS (Clearing House Interbank Payments System)

CHIPS is a primary payment rail in the United States, specializing in large-value, time-sensitive interbank transfers. It primarily handles transactions between financial institutions rather than consumer payments. Banks send batches of payment instructions to CHIPS for processing. CHIPS then settles these payments, ensuring efficient fund transfer between banks. It plays a crucial role in facilitating large financial transactions, such as securities settlements.

7. INTERAC

INTERAC is a Canadian payment rail that offers two primary methods: INTERAC e-Transfer and INTERAC Debit. e-Transfer users initiate transfers by specifying the recipient’s email or mobile number and the amount. The sender’s bank debits the funds and sends a notification to the recipient, who authenticates themselves to receive the funds securely. Customers using Debit cards insert their card and enter their PIN. The payment is processed in real-time, debiting funds from their bank account.

8. SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area)

SEPA is a payment integration initiative in the European Union (EU) that simplifies and standardizes euro-denominated bank transfers across SEPA member countries. SEPA payments work similarly to domestic bank transfers, but they can be executed cross-border without additional charges. When a payer initiates a SEPA credit transfer or direct debit, the funds are routed through the SEPA payment network to the recipient’s bank, ensuring a seamless euro payment experience within the SEPA region.

9. FPS (Faster Payments Service)

FPS is a UK-based payment rail designed to enable near-instantaneous fund transfers between UK bank accounts, 24/7. When a payer initiates an FPS payment, the instruction is processed through the FPS network, which connects participating banks. FPS payments are typically credited to the recipient’s account within seconds.

Emergent Payment Rails

These emerging payment rails reflect the evolving digital commerce and finance landscape, offering diverse options for consumers and businesses.

1. Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency payment rails involve digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others. Users store their cryptocurrency in digital wallets and make peer-to-peer transactions on blockchain networks. When making a payment, the sender initiates a transaction by signing it with their private key, which is then validated by network nodes. Once confirmed, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring transparency and security.

2. FedNow

The Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service is an emerging real-time payment system in the U.S. It allows individuals and businesses to make instant payments, enabling money to move between accounts within seconds, 24/7. Users initiate payments through their financial institutions, which are processed by the FedNow Service, ensuring near-instant fund transfers.

3. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)

BNPL payment rails enable consumers to make purchases and spread payments over time, typically interest-free if paid within a specified period. Users select BNPL as a payment option during checkout. The purchase amount is divided into installments, and the user pays these installments according to the BNPL provider’s terms.

4. Store cards

Store cards are issued by retailers for exclusive use within their respective stores. Users apply for these cards and receive credit limits. Users present their card when shopping at the associated store or use it for online transactions. The store bills the user, who then makes payments according to the card’s terms, including interest rates if the balance is not paid in full each month.

The Importance of Payment Rails in the Digital Economy

Payment rails provide the infrastructure that underpins online commerce, global trade, financial inclusion, innovation, and efficient B2B transactions. They empower businesses and consumers alike to participate fully in the digital age by:

a. Facilitating e-commerce - They enable consumers to make online purchases swiftly and securely. Businesses can accept various payment methods through payment rails to provide customers convenience and flexibility. E-commerce would be hindered without robust payment rails, and companies would struggle to tap into the vast online marketplace.

b. Enabling cross-border transactions - Payment rails are crucial in a globalized digital economy. They make it possible for businesses to expand internationally and reach customers worldwide.

c. Contributing to financial inclusion - They provide access to banking and financial services for individuals who may not have had it otherwise. Through digital payment methods and mobile banking, payment rails extend financial services to unbanked or underbanked populations, allowing them to receive wages, make purchases, and save money digitally. This inclusion is crucial for economic development and reducing inequalities.

d. Streamlining business-to-business (B2B) payments - They simplify the process of paying suppliers, vendors, and partners. Companies can automate payments, reduce administrative costs, and enhance transparency in financial transactions. This efficiency is essential for the smooth operation of supply chains and corporate financial management.

Businesses will Gain from a Multi-Rail Approach

Leveraging multiple payment rails processing and managing financial transactions offers several benefits. It allows businesses to broaden their spectrum of payment options, catering to the diverse preferences of their customer base. This versatility is crucial in meeting the varying payment methods that different customers prefer, thus granting enterprises a distinct competitive edge.

Relying solely on a single payment rail can pose risks. Technical glitches, system outages, or regulatory shifts may disrupt payment processes. A multi-rail strategy works like a safety net, offering alternative transaction pathways to mitigate such risks. Additionally, this approach empowers businesses to furnish customers with expeditious payment alternatives, which are invaluable when swift transactions are paramount.

For businesses looking to expand globally, different regions may have their preferred payment rails. Companies can cater to local payment methods, currencies, and regulatory requirements by adopting a multi-rail approach. This adaptability proves particularly beneficial when dealing with cross-border transactions and cultivating an international customer base.

The payment landscape is continually evolving with new technologies and payment methods emerging. A multi-rail strategy allows businesses to adapt to these changes easily. They can integrate new payment rails as they become popular and retire less-used ones.

How Brankas Can Help

Brankas offers an Open Finance Suite and a Direct solution. Both provide businesses with powerful tools to implement a multi-strategy payment rail approach effectively. The Open Finance Suite facilitates secure and seamless access to multiple financial institutions, enabling enterprises to integrate various payment rails, including traditional and emerging methods. This comprehensive suite streamlines payment processing, minimizes technical complexities, and enhances transaction efficiency. Brankas Direct offers a simplified and direct connection to banks and financial institutions, making it easier for businesses to access diverse payment rails, thus increasing flexibility and resilience in their financial operations. Together, these solutions empower companies to harness the advantages of multi-rail payment strategies, offering customers a range of payment options while mitigating risks and enhancing cross-border capabilities.

Payment rails serve as the lifeblood of financial transactions in the digital economy, underpinning customer satisfaction, global expansion, and financial inclusion. A strategic approach that embraces multi-rail strategies is crucial. Enterprises must leverage the diverse array of payment rails available, tapping into the potential of traditional, emerging, and regional methods to cater to varied customer preferences, mitigate risks, and unlock new growth avenues. Businesses can cement their position in the digital economy by harnessing the power of payment rails within a comprehensive and adaptable framework, ensuring they remain agile and responsive to the ever-evolving demands of the modern consumer.

Defining Embedded Payments: A Game-Changer in Modern Commerce

Defining Embedded Payments: A Game-Changer in Modern Commerce

Subtle yet significant changes are reshaping how we engage in transactions. Gone are the days of laborious payment processes; today, we take seamless, effortless transactions for granted. But have you ever wondered about what makes this possible? It is called embedded payments. It is a part of the daily lives of almost everyone, and it is worth exploring how this unassuming technology has quietly transformed business.

From ordering your favorite coffee to booking a dream vacation, embedded payments are quietly reshaping how we interact with businesses. They enhance the customer experience and revolutionize the bottom line. Embedded payments hold immense potential and offer substantial benefits to consumers and businesses.

What Are Embedded Payments?

Embedded payments are a fundamental component of embedded finance, which integrates financial transactions. They seamlessly blend payment processing with various touch points within a broader ecosystem. Instead of the conventional, disjointed payment methods that require users to switch between applications or input payment details repeatedly, embedded payments become a seamless part of the user experience.

Amazon was a trailblazer in embedded payment tech when it introduced the “Buy Now” button. Amazon shoppers log into their accounts with saved payment and shipping details. They breeze through purchases by simply clicking “Buy Now.” No tedious data entry is required. Just a quick payment confirmation, and voila! The transaction was completed in seconds. This user-friendly approach has since spread to apps like Uber, GrubHub, and more.

Characteristics of Embedded Payments

1. Seamless integration

Embedded payments effortlessly become a part of everyday interactions, making it possible to complete transactions without leaving the platform. Whether you are shopping online, using a mobile app, or even engaging with Internet of Things (IoT) devices, embedded payments ensure the payment process is swift and intuitive.

2. In-context transactions

Embedded payments thrive in the realm of “in-context” transactions. You can make payments directly within the environment where the purchase decision is made. For instance, when shopping online, you can select and pay for items without being redirected to external payment gateways. This eliminates friction, reduces cart abandonment rates, and enhances the overall shopping experience.

3. Enhanced customer experience

Embedded payments prioritize the customer experience. They streamline the payment journey, making it hassle-free and enjoyable. Whether it is the convenience of single-click payments or the ability to pay with a simple voice command to a smart device, these innovations are designed to delight customers and keep them coming back for more.

Embedded payments prioritize the customer experience. They streamline the payment journey, making it hassle-free and enjoyable. Whether it is the convenience of single-click payments or the ability to pay with a simple voice command to a smart device, these innovations are designed to delight customers and keep them coming back for more.

How Embedded Payments Differ from Traditional Payments

Embedded payments mark a noteworthy departure from traditional payment methods. Making a payment conventionally means leaving the current website or app, being redirected to an external payment gateway, and tediously entering extensive payment details, including card numbers, CVVs, and billing addresses. This process can feel disjointed and occasionally raise security concerns, especially when sensitive financial data is shared across multiple platforms.

On the flip side, embedded payments provide an entirely different experience. They seamlessly integrate the payment process within the context of your current activity, be it shopping, ordering food, or booking a ride. Users can complete transactions without leaving the app or website they are on, making the process smoother, faster, and more secure. Embedded payments fundamentally redefine how we interact with financial transactions, prioritizing user convenience and safety over the complexities of traditional payment norms.

Benefits of Embedded Payments

Embedded payments offer a range of benefits. These advantages provide businesses a competitive edge while offering customers a more convenient and secure way to transact.

One of the most significant advantages of embedded payments is their ability to boost conversion rates. By streamlining the payment process and reducing friction, embedded payments make users more likely to complete their transactions. When customers do not have to navigate away to a separate payment gateway, they are less likely to abandon their shopping carts or drop out of the purchase journey. This translates into higher sales and revenue for businesses.

Embedded payments prioritize the user experience. They eliminate the need for users to switch between apps or websites, creating a seamless and user-friendly process. Customers appreciate the convenience of embedded payments, which can result in increased customer loyalty and positive reviews. Users are more likely to return to platforms that offer smooth and hassle-free experiences.

Traditional checkout processes can be time-consuming, involving multiple steps and data entry. Embedded payments streamline this by allowing users to make payments within the same app or website where they initiated the purchase. This not only saves time but also reduces the chances of errors in entering payment information.

Security is a top concern for both businesses and customers. Embedded payments often incorporate advanced security measures to protect sensitive financial data. Since users do not have to enter their payment details repeatedly, there are fewer opportunities for data breaches or interception. This heightened security builds trust with customers, which is crucial for businesses.

Embedded payment solutions collect valuable data on user behavior and transaction patterns. This data can be analyzed to gain insights into customer preferences and habits. Businesses can use these insights to tailor their offerings, personalize marketing strategies, and optimize their product or service offerings. Data-driven decision-making becomes a powerful tool for growth and innovation.

Case Studies of Companies Implementing Embedded Payments

Starbucks

The Starbucks loyalty app “My Starbucks” exemplifies the power of embedded payments through its highly effective in-app mobile payment system. This program rewards customers with ‘stars’ or points for their purchases, which can later be redeemed for complimentary coffee, bakery items, or retail merchandise. Users earn one star for every $1 spent through the app. If they preload money onto the Starbucks app and use it for payment, they earn two stars. This strategic approach was remarkably successful, with Starbucks accumulating a staggering $1.628 billion in free lending – a figure that outperforms 85% of U.S. banks.

Uber

Uber users are spared the typical journey to a separate payment screen to authorize the transaction; the entire process unfolds seamlessly within the Uber app. This streamlined payment process is achieved through embedded payments infrastructure. With the user’s consent, Uber securely stores their card details, enabling automatic payment when a ride is booked. This entire transaction occurs seamlessly, fully preserving the Uber brand identity, and can be completed with a single fingerprint press, enhancing both convenience and user satisfaction.

Amazon

Amazon is a standout example of a company leveraging data-driven insights from embedded payments. By analyzing customers' purchasing behavior through its “1-Click” payment feature, Amazon can provide tailored product recommendations and streamline the shopping experience, resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay stands out as one of the most recognized and widely embraced digital wallets. With Apple Pay, users can seamlessly link their debit or credit cards to their Apple devices. This integration empowers users to make secure and convenient payments online and at various purchase points. A key hallmark of Apple Pay is its steadfast commitment to security. The platform employs advanced security measures like tokenization and biometric authentication, including fingerprint recognition and Face ID. These safeguards ensure that transactions are conducted with the utmost security. Apple Pay prioritizes user data protection by never disclosing actual card details to merchants, thus significantly mitigating the risk of data breaches and enhancing overall user trust.

Target

Target RedCard stands at the forefront of the embedded payments arena, extending a trio of versatile payment choices: credit, debit, and reloadable. The credit alternative encompasses Target’s proprietary credit card, while the debit avenue seamlessly links to a customer’s existing bank account. The RedCard Reloadable option serves as a full-fledged depository account, facilitating paycheck direct deposits and universal acceptance wherever Visa is recognized. Each of these alternatives offers a compelling 5% savings on any purchase made at Target, whether within their physical stores or through online shopping. Each payment avenue is accompanied by its own set of distinctive advantages.

SmartPay Rewards

SmartPay Rewards is among the pioneers of gas station applications providing exclusive discounts and incentives. It encourages patrons to link with their bank accounts, facilitating payments via the app directly at the fuel pump. Users enjoy a cost reduction of $0.10 per gallon and accumulate valuable fuel rewards, which can subsequently be redeemed at affiliated convenience stores.

Airbnb

Airbnb implemented a feature that allows users to pay for accommodations within their platform seamlessly. By eliminating the need to redirect users to external payment gateways, Airbnb saw a significant increase in completed bookings, ultimately boosting conversion rates. Klarna from Sweden joined with Airbnb to introduce flexible payment choices for guests in the United States and Canada when reserving their accommodations. Guests can opt to split their payments into four interest-free installments over six weeks. For bookings exceeding USD 500 in the United States, guests have the option to apply for monthly payments. This collaboration is set to expand to additional markets throughout 2023.

Technologies Behind Embedded Payments

Embedded payments rely on a sophisticated technological framework to ensure their functionality and security. Understanding this underlying technology is crucial in comprehending the transformative power of embedded payments. These technological foundations enable benefits such as improved conversion rates, enhanced user experiences, streamlined checkout processes, and data-driven insights, making embedded payments a game-changer in finance and business.

1. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are at the core of embedded payments. APIs act as bridges between different software systems, allowing them to communicate and share data. They integrate payment processing into various touch points, creating a unified and frictionless user experience. Businesses can seamlessly connect with payment providers, banks, and other financial institutions, facilitating secure and efficient transactions through well-designed APIs.

2. Cloud-based solutions

Cloud-based solutions provide the infrastructure needed to store and manage payment data securely. They offer scalability and accessibility, ensuring that payment services adapt to varying workloads and remain available to users anytime, anywhere. Cloud-based payment systems are integral to the real-time processing and data storage essential for embedded payments' convenience and reliability.

3. Mobile wallet integration

Embedded payments often intersect with mobile wallet platforms. Mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet allow users to store their payment information securely on their smartphones. These wallets use tokenization and biometric authentication to enhance security during transactions. By integrating with these mobile wallet systems, businesses can offer users a convenient, one-tap payment experience that enhances customer satisfaction.

4. Security measures

Robust encryption, authentication protocols, and fraud detection mechanisms are essential components of secure payment processing. Furthermore, the tokenization of payment data ensures that sensitive information remains protected during transactions. The continuous evolution of security measures is essential to stay ahead of emerging threats and provide users with peace of mind when using embedded payment systems.

How Embedded Payments Improve Business Operations

Businesses are continually seeking ways to stay competitive and enhance their operations. Embedded payments offer a multitude of compelling reasons for businesses to embrace this transformative technology wholeheartedly.

Unlocks revenue growth

Embedded payments increase conversion rates, translating into heightened revenue generation.

They enable platforms and marketplaces to explore additional income sources, such as transaction fees, revenue-sharing models, and diversified services like instant payouts and lending. This versatility broadens the financial horizons of businesses.

Empowers customer-centric experiences and efficiency

Embedded payments provide businesses with unprecedented control over the customer experience. Companies can fine-tune and optimize the customer journey, fostering user satisfaction and loyalty by seamlessly integrating native payment processing into websites and mobile apps. Efficiency in troubleshooting is another significant benefit. By consolidating payment processes, businesses can resolve issues swiftly, avoiding the complexities and delays associated with managing multiple third-party providers.

Cost-efficient implementation and scalability

Embedded payments offer a cost-effective alternative to building an entire payment infrastructure from scratch. Solutions streamline the implementation process, reducing operational complexities and development resources. This enables businesses to go live faster while minimizing costs. Embedded payments enhance scalability. They position platforms and marketplaces to expand globally, providing support for numerous currencies and payment methods through a single integration, thereby broadening their reach to a global audience.

Compliance, data insights, and consolidation

Embedded payments simplify compliance management, navigating the intricate requirements of payment facilitation across different regions and transaction types. Businesses can grow faster while reducing operational overhead. Embedded payments unlock a wealth of data and analytics. These insights empower data-driven product development, optimization, and fine-tuning of offerings. By gathering comprehensive information on customer behavior, fraud detection, and market preferences, businesses can make informed decisions to strengthen their market position.

Effortless Onboarding and Comprehensive Payments Management

Embedded payments encompass the entire payment experience, including onboarding. Brankas, for example, streamlines the process, offering prebuilt, user-friendly interfaces. It simplifies Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations and other compliance requirements, expediting user onboarding. Embedded payments provide consolidated payment management, offering comprehensive tools to track and manage transactions. This includes maintaining transaction records, tracking and reconciling payments, issuing refunds, generating custom reports and tax forms, and facilitating fund transfers, making financial management more efficient and effective for businesses.

Embedded payments emerge as a pivotal enabler of modern business success where convenience, efficiency, and innovation are paramount. They offer numerous benefits, from revenue amplification and seamless customer experiences to enhanced data insights and global scalability. The adoption of embedded payments emerges not merely as an option but as a strategic necessity for businesses aspiring to thrive and innovate in the digital era.

A2A Payments Explained: Shaping the Future of Business Transactions

A2A Payments Explained: Shaping the Future of Business Transactions

Business payments have experienced a significant transformation in recent years. A 2022 study conducted by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) in partnership with J.P. Morgan unveiled a compelling shift within organizations in the United States. Large and small businesses are steering their payment methods away from traditional checks towards a digital frontier, marked by the remarkable rise of Account-to-Account (A2A) payments. This shift is not limited to businesses; even their suppliers are adopting this evolution. And the trend shows no sign of abating. The ascent of A2A payments has emerged as a game-changer, overtaking traditional checks as the method of choice for businesses and suppliers alike. As enterprises steer toward the digital age, understanding A2A payments is not merely an option. It is imperative to maintain a competitive edge and meet the ever-evolving demands of the modern business world.

What are A2A Payments?

A2A (Account-to-account) payments or bank account payments are a direct method of transferring funds from one account to another without intermediaries or payment instruments like cards. Historically, A2A payments were closely associated with bank transfers or direct debits for bill payments. A2A payments today encompass a broader spectrum, including transactions conducted via traditional bank accounts and digital wallets. This mechanism operates via digital tools on dedicated payment rails, ensuring a rapid and often instantaneous transfer. Technology and digital innovation have revitalized these payment systems, making them more versatile and adaptable to the evolving demands of modern financial transactions.

The Mechanics of A2A Payments

A2A payments are initiated through a digital platform or application commonly designed by financial institutions or payment service providers. The payer initiates the transfer by specifying the recipient’s account details, such as account number and routing information. A2A transactions do not rely on payment cards or intermediary networks, unlike more traditional payment methods. This approach can lead to quicker and more efficient payment processing, often occurring in real-time or near-real-time.

A2A payments can take two forms: “push” or “pull,” depending on the party initiating the transaction. Push payments are launched by the payer, who pushes funds from their account to the recipient’s. Pull payments, on the other hand, are initiated by the payee, pulling funds from the sender’s account.

The A2A payment process involves several essential components. The payer and payee each possess an active account linked to their financial institution or digital wallet. A digital platform or application is the interface where payment requests are created and sent. This application must meet stringent security standards to safeguard sensitive financial data during the transaction. Various payment rails facilitate the transfer, including bank-specific systems and emerging digital payment networks. Data encryption and authentication methods play a crucial role in securing the transaction. These components work together to ensure that funds are moved between accounts securely and efficiently.

Solutions, such as Brankas Disburse, provide businesses with a robust platform for efficient disbursement operations. It simplifies and accelerates payment processes by seamlessly integrating with various banking systems and networks.

This enhances payment speed and security and reduces manual errors–leading to cost savings and improved financial operations for businesses.

Brankas Disburse is a valuable tool for any company looking to optimize their disbursement processes. It is user-friendly, efficient, and a reliable solution for disbursing payments across multiple channels and networks.

Benefits of A2A Payments

A2A payments differentiate themselves by their direct nature. They excel in situations that demand real-time transactions, such as bill payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and business-to-business transactions. This approach provides an attractive alternative for businesses and individuals because of these benefits:

1. Speed and efficiency

A2A payments occur directly between the payer’s and payee’s accounts without the need for intermediaries or complex networks. They often take place in real-time or near-real-time, ensuring rapid funds transfer. This feature is invaluable in various scenarios, from paying bills promptly to facilitating swift business-to-business transactions. A2A payments eliminate the delays associated with traditional methods like check processing or multi-step card authorization.

2. Cost savings

A2A payments minimize the fees associated with intermediary processes, such as card network authorization or check handling. With fewer steps and entities involved, there are less fees to cover, leading to lower transaction costs. Moreover, the speed of A2A payments can generate cost savings by reducing the need for manual intervention or reconciliation efforts. Businesses can also experience reduced administrative expenses associated with managing payments, particularly when accounts payable and receivable are streamlined through A2A transfers.

3. Enhanced security

Security is paramount in financial transactions, and A2A payments excel here. Digital platforms that facilitate A2A transactions adhere to rigorous security standards to protect sensitive financial data. Robust encryption and authentication methods are employed to ensure the safety of transactions. The direct nature of A2A payments minimizes exposure to fraud or data breaches that can occur in more complex payment methods. By eliminating intermediaries, A2A payments reduce the risk of unauthorized access or tampering with transaction details.

4. Improved payment reconciliation

It is easier to track and match payments with fewer entities and steps involved. This attribute is particularly advantageous for businesses managing numerous transactions. Reconciliation efforts can be streamlined, reducing the need for manual intervention and the risk of errors. As a result, companies can enjoy smoother accounting processes, more accurate financial records, and quicker identification and resolution of discrepancies. Payment reconciliation becomes less resource-intensive and more reliable, contributing to overall operational efficiency.

5. Wider customer reach

A2A payments have the potential to extend a business’s customer reach significantly. By offering streamlined, easily accessible digital payment methods, companies can engage with a broader audience. This is particularly important in a globalized world where customers may prefer local or alternative payment options. A2A payments can transcend geographic boundaries and provide customers with convenient, secure, and familiar methods to make transactions, enhancing a company’s ability to connect with a diverse clientele.

6. Enhanced conversion rates

A2A payments are associated with improved conversion rates, especially in e-commerce. The efficiency, speed, and ease of transactions make them an attractive choice for online businesses. Customers are more likely to complete their purchases when presented with a straightforward and secure payment method. The reduction in friction during the payment process, often witnessed in traditional payment methods, can lead to a higher percentage of visitors converting into paying customers. This contributes to improved sales figures and revenue growth for businesses that implement A2A payment solutions.

How Businesses Utilize A2A Payments

Businesses across various sectors have embraced A2A payments due to their adaptability and numerous use cases:

Supplier payments

A2A payments streamline the process of paying suppliers and vendors. This is particularly valuable for businesses with extensive supply chains, as it ensures timely payments and strengthens supplier relationships.

Employee salaries

Many companies use A2A payments to transfer employee salaries directly into their bank accounts, reducing administrative overhead and ensuring prompt payments.

Subscription-based services

In subscription-based models, A2A payments facilitate recurring billing. This is common in industries like software as a service (SaaS), streaming services, and membership-based businesses.

E-commerce

A2A payments are widely used in e-commerce for customer transactions. It provides a secure and efficient payment method that can significantly boost conversion rates.

Cross-border transactions

Businesses engaging in international trade often rely on A2A payments to ensure seamless cross-border transactions.

Loan repayments

Financial institutions and lending platforms leverage A2A payments for loan repayments. Borrowers can transfer funds from their bank accounts effortlessly to meet their repayment obligations.

Real-World Examples of Successful A2A Payment Implementation

Leading e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce provide A2A payment options for their customers. This facilitates smooth, secure, and efficient payment processing.

Businesses like TransferWise (now Wise) have established themselves as key players in cross-border B2B payments. They offer A2A payment solutions tailored to businesses that engage in international trade.

Services such as Venmo and Cash App enable P2P transactions through A2A payments, simplifying the process of sending money between individuals.

Emirates Airlines enhanced their customers' checkout experience by implementing instant bank payments. This innovation simplifies what can often be a stressful process, offering a more convenient and efficient way for customers to complete their purchases.

The personal investment UK app Wealthify introduced a convenient feature for customers to effortlessly boost their savings and investment accounts through A2A payments. In the past, Wealthify clients had to go through the cumbersome process of setting up a manual bank transfer, ensuring they included a precise payment reference to allocate their funds to a specific investment plan. Customers can now seamlessly select their preferred plan, specify the top-up amount, and approve the transfer within their mobile banking application.

The Amazon and Venmo collaboration enables consumers to make payments directly through their bank accounts or debit card-linked Venmo accounts.

J.P. Morgan and Mastercard jointly introduced “Pay-by-Bank,” an ACH payment method that leverages open banking to streamline bill payments and other account-to-account transactions.

How A2A Payments Fare in the US

A2A payment methods have made remarkable inroads across the globe and achieved prominence in various markets. Central banks in Brazil, Peru, India, Thailand, and the Philippines have rolled out payment systems to facilitate A2A transactions. These methods are particularly transformative in emerging markets, such as Brazil and India, where the dominance of card-based transactions is limited, making significant strides in bolstering financial inclusion. However, an article by Phillip Zerbo states, “A2A has been less impactful in mature consumer markets where card culture is deeply entrenched, such as in Canada, Japan, U.S. and U.K.”

The US Federal Reserve recently launched FedNow to provide effective payment services. FedNow underscores the commitment of U.S. payment authorities to spur innovation in next-generation payment rails. A2A payments are poised to play a central role in the competitive landscape of payment methods, promising to bring change and innovation.

The Role of A2A Payments in Shaping Business Transactions

A2A payments have already had a significant impact on business transactions by offering swifter, cost-effective, and secure payment options. The effect is expected to amplify in the future. As more companies adopt A2A payments, traditional payment methods like checks and paper invoices will become less common. A2A payments are likely to facilitate cross-border business transactions, providing businesses access to a global customer base. The future may witness the emergence of new business models spurred by the convenience and efficiency of A2A payments.

Businesses need to prepare for the transformation to A2A payments to thrive in a changing financial ecosystem. This includes ensuring that their infrastructure is compatible with A2A payment systems and their staff is well-trained in utilizing these technologies. Companies should also focus on enhancing data security measures, as the rise of digital payments exposes them to new risks. By staying updated on emerging trends and making the necessary adaptations, businesses can harness the full potential of A2A payments to drive growth and financial success in the evolving digital economy.

Checks traditionally held sway in business transactions, but the era of A2A payments is upon us. This groundbreaking shift signifies more than just a change in payment method. It marks a revolution in how organizations conduct transactions by bringing speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. With A2A payments at the forefront, businesses will reap the benefits of modernization, facilitate cross-border transactions, and amplify their financial operations.

Incorporating A2A payments into your business strategy is becoming a necessity in modern commerce. It is crucial to consider their integration as part of your long-term strategy to take advantage of the many advantages of A2A payments. As A2A payments continue to shape the future of business transactions, companies that embrace this financial technology will find themselves better positioned to stay competitive, reduce costs, and meet the demands of a digitally-driven world.

The future of business transactions is intrinsically tied to A2A payments, presenting a powerful tool for success in an increasingly digital and interconnected global economy. A2A payments will continue to grow and evolve. Businesses should embrace A2A payments, keep an eye on emerging trends, and be prepared to adapt and optimize their operations for the ongoing transformation of financial transactions.

Breaking Down the Basics of Push Payment and Pull Payment

Breaking Down the Basics of Push Payment and Pull Payment

The terms “push payment” and “pull payment” in financial transactions are fundamental dynamics that dictate how money moves between entities. Understanding these payment mechanisms is a concern for financial professionals, individuals, and businesses navigating the modern financial landscape. The ACH (Automated Clearing House) system plays a significant role in facilitating both push and pull payments in the United States. ACH empowers individuals and businesses to initiate direct deposits, where employers push funds to employees' accounts, or set up recurring bill payments, allowing service providers to pull funds from customers' accounts.

Push and pull payments shape how businesses and individuals engage in transactions. Understanding the differences between these two transaction types and their significance is crucial for selecting the optimal payment method that aligns with your needs and purposes.

Push Payment: In-Depth Exploration

Push payments involve the proactive initiation of transactions, where the payer takes the lead in sending or pushing funds to the recipient.

How Push Payments Work

There are five key steps in a push payment process:

1. The payer starts the transaction by providing the necessary details via a website, payment platform, or banking app.

2. The payer authorizes the fund transfer by confirming the amount, payee, and other details.

3. Once authorized, the payment service provider deducts the amount and prepares to transfer it to the recipient.

4. The payment service provider moves the funds from the payer’s account to the recipient’s account instantly or within a specified time frame.

5. The payer and payee receive confirmation of the successful transaction through SMS notifications, emailed receipts, or updates in their transaction history.

Examples of Push Payments

Push payments find applications in various scenarios. Understanding these real-life examples demonstrates the versatility and convenience that push payments bring to everyday financial interactions.

1. Peer-to-peer transactions

a. Splitting bills - Friends sharing expenses can use push payments to settle bills instantly. For instance, after a dinner outing, one person can push their share of the bill directly to the friend who covered it.

b. Repayment of personal loans- Individuals lending or borrowing money among friends or family can facilitate repayments through push payments, ensuring a straightforward and timely settlement.

2. Merchant payments

a. Retail purchases- Customers can use push payments at the point of sale. For example, they use mobile payment apps to send funds directly from their accounts to complete a purchase without physical cards or cash.

b. Online shopping- E-commerce transactions often leverage push payments. Customers can swiftly complete their purchases by initiating direct transfers from their bank accounts or using digital wallets.

3. Direct deposits

Bank deposits, such as paychecks or tax refunds, represent a push payment. They were initiated by your employer or the government

4. Bank transfers and cash payments

Bank transfers conducted through online or mobile banking and cash payments are also examples of push payments. You initiate the transfer by specifying the amount and triggering the transaction.

5. Bill payments

a. Utilities and services- Customers can initiate direct transfers to settle bills for electricity, water, internet, and other services.

b. Subscription payments- Subscription-based services, such as streaming platforms, utilize push payments for seamless and automated monthly or periodic debits from the customer’s account.

However, when customers establish recurring automatic payments for bills, it involves using pull payments.

Advantages of Push Payments

Speed and efficiency- Push payments are known for their swiftness. Transactions happen in real-time or close to real-time, ensuring that funds are transferred rapidly.

Enhanced security features- Push payments often come with robust security features. The initiation of transactions is typically authenticated by the payer, adding an extra layer of security.

Reduced dependency on the recipient- the payer takes the lead in initiating transactions in push payments. This reduces reliance on the recipient to request funds, providing more control to the payer.

Convenience for payers- Push payments are convenient for payers who want to make quick transactions without the recipient’s active involvement.

Disadvantages of Push Payments

Limited recurring payments- Push payments are excellent for one-time transactions, but setting up and managing recurring payments can pose challenges as it necessitates the payer to initiate each transaction actively.

Possibility of errors- The responsibility lies with the payer to input the correct details. Mistakes in account numbers or other transaction details could lead to errors.

Risk of unauthorized transactions- There is a risk of unauthorized push payments when a payer’s account is compromised. Users must safeguard their account information.

Dependence on the payer’s initiative- The initiation of push payments relies entirely on the payer. This can be a disadvantage when the payer is unaware of the need for a payment or forgets to initiate it.

Pull Payment: In-Depth Exploration

It was not until the introduction of credit, debit, and ACH payments that genuine pull transactions emerged. The initiation of a pull payment comes from the recipient of the payment by “pulling” the funds from the payer’s account. This approach involves the payer sharing their account details with the payee. The payee employs this information to request funds from the payer’s bank or financial institution.

How Pull Payments Work

Steps and procedures for pull payments can vary based on the financial institution and chosen payment method, but these are the five general steps:

1. The payee acquires authorization from the payer, securing consent and payment details to initiate the payment.

2. Using the authorized payment information, the payee makes a payment instruction containing the amount, account details, and other pertinent transaction information.

3. The payee sends the payment instruction to the payment service provider or financial institution, kickstarting the payment process. This action leads to a deduction from the payer’s account and the transfer of money to the payee’s account.

4. The payer’s financial institution processes the transaction by deducting the funds from the payer’s account and transferring them to the recipient’s account, often facilitated through the ACH network.

5. The payer and recipient receive confirmation of the payment after the completion of the fund transfer. This confirmation can be in the form of transaction receipts, email notifications, or updates to payment history.

Examples of Pull Payments

These examples demonstrate how pull payments are utilized across different payment methods and scenarios, offering convenience and automation for businesses and consumers.

1. Direct debit payments

Direct debit involves pulling funds directly from a bank account. It is commonly used for recurring payments.

a. Monthly mortgage payments where the mortgage company pulls the installment from the homeowner’s bank account.

b. Some online retailers offer a direct debit option for purchases. The customer authorizes the retailer to pull the payment directly from their bank account when purchasing.

2. Automated card payments

Automated card payments involve pulling funds from a credit or debit card regularly.

a. Monthly subscription fees for streaming services, where the streaming platform automatically charges the user’s credit card.

3. Automated digital wallet payments

Some digital wallets allow users to set up automatic payments, pulling funds from a linked bank account or card.

a. A digital wallet is used for commuting expenses, automatically deducting the fare from the user’s linked payment method for each ride.

4. Automatic bill payments

This involves automatic payments for various bills where funds are pulled on a scheduled basis.

a. Monthly utility bills are automatically paid from a checking account, ensuring timely payments without manual intervention.

Advantages of Pull Payments

Convenience for consumers- Pull payments provide a convenient way for consumers to automate recurring payments, reducing the need for manual intervention each time a payment is due.

Automated payments- Pull payments are ideal for bills and subscriptions as they can be set up to automatically deduct the required amount from the payer’s account on specified dates, ensuring timely payments.

Reduced late payments- Pull payments help in avoiding late payments by automating the process. Payments are initiated by the payee, reducing the risk of oversight or forgetfulness on the part of the payer.

Streamlined cash flow management- Businesses benefit from pull payments as they can predict and manage their cash flow more effectively since payments are initiated by the payee.

Enhanced payment security- Pull payments often involve secure authentication processes, reducing the risk of unauthorized transactions. The payer provides consent for each transaction, ensuring security.

Better subscription management- Pull payments are commonly used for subscriptions, allowing businesses to manage and track recurring revenue more efficiently.

Improved relationship with customers- Businesses offering pull payment options can enhance customer satisfaction by providing a hassle-free and automated payment experience.

Lower processing costs- Pull payments can lead to lower processing costs for businesses as they have more control over the transaction initiation and can optimize the process.

Efficient debt collection- Pull payments are effective in debt collection scenarios where creditors can automatically collect owed amounts from debtors, reducing the effort required in chasing payments.

Flexibility in payment scheduling- Businesses can schedule pull payments according to their billing cycles, allowing for flexibility in payment timing and frequency.

Disadvantages of Pull Payments

Dependency on payer’s consent- Pull payments require the payer to provide their account information and explicit consent for each transaction. This dependency on the payer’s cooperation can sometimes lead to delays or complications.

Security concerns- Since pull payments involve sharing account details with the payee, there is a potential risk of unauthorized access or misuse of sensitive information, posing security concerns for the payer.

Inflexibility in payment timing- Pull payments are typically initiated by the payee, leaving the payer with less control over the timing of the transaction. This lack of flexibility may not align with the payer’s preferred schedule.

Complex refund process- If a payer needs a refund for a pull payment, the process might be more complex compared to push payments, where the payer has more control over the transaction.

Are There Push and Pull Payments in the ACH?

Push and pull payments operate not only within card networks but also in the ACH network. The ACH facilitates bank-to-bank transfers using checking account numbers and routing numbers—no checks, cards, or cash involved, just a network facilitating money transfers between banks.

Push payments in the ACH network might not be the first choice compared to cards or cash. Push payments, typically one-time transactions like paying for a service, are initiated by the payer.

Pull payments in ACH are perfect for a couple of reasons. Card transactions can cost between 2% to 4%, while the average ACH payment is less than three dimes. ACH uses stable banking information—checking account numbers and routing numbers—which does not change as frequently as card numbers that might get lost, stolen, or expire, ensuring a more consistent cash flow for merchants.

Push vs. Pull Payments

Let us delve into the comparative analysis of push and pull payments:

1. Transaction flow

Push Payments- the payer initiates and authorizes the transaction, leading to an immediate fund transfer from the payer’s account to the payee’s account.

Pull Payments- The payee initiates the transaction by requesting funds from the payer’s account, and upon authorization, the funds are transferred.

2. User experience

Push Payments- Payers have more control over the transaction, offering a seamless and straightforward experience. They decide when and how much to pay.

Pull Payments- Payers may find the process less intuitive as they need to share account details and rely on the payee to initiate transactions.

3. Security considerations

Push Payments- Payers have more control and can directly authorize transactions, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. However, they need to safeguard their authorization credentials.

Pull Payments- Involves sharing account details, which can pose security concerns. However, it may be considered secure if conducted through trusted channels.

When to Use Push Payments

Immediate transactions- Push payments are suitable for scenarios where instant fund transfer is crucial, such as online purchases or urgent payments.

Controlled by payer- When the payer wants more control over the timing and amount of the transaction, push payments are preferable.

When to Use Pull Payments

Recurring payments- Pull payments are convenient for recurring transactions, like subscription services or utility bills, where the payee consistently receives funds.

Initiated by payee- When the payee needs to control the transaction initiation, as in the case of regular billings or subscription renewals, pull payments are appropriate.

Technological Foundations

The technological underpinnings of push and pull payments in digital finance rely heavily on APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate seamless transactions. In push payments, APIs are instrumental in the initiation and real-time processing of transactions. Payment service providers leverage APIs to securely receive transaction requests from payer applications, ensuring a swift and efficient transfer of funds.

Pull payments also heavily rely on APIs. They play a crucial role in obtaining authorization from the payer and creating payment instructions. The payee’s system utilizes APIs to transmit payment instructions securely to the involved financial institutions, automating the pull payment process.

Turning our attention to security protocols, push payments prioritize encryption and authentication. Robust encryption protocols safeguard the communication channel between the payer’s device and the payment service provider, ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive information like payment details. Additionally, strong authentication methods, such as two-factor authentication (2FA), bolster the security of push payments by verifying the identity of the payer during transaction initiation.

In pull payments, security protocols are equally paramount. The process involves obtaining authorization and authentication from the payer. APIs are pivotal in securing the authorization process, guaranteeing that only authorized transactions are initiated. Like push payments, robust authentication mechanisms are implemented to verify the identities of both the payer and the payee, ensuring the secure transfer of funds.

Industry Applications

The distinctions between push and pull payments find diverse applications across various industries, shaping how transactions occur and influencing consumer behavior. Understanding these dynamics is pivotal for businesses and financial institutions seeking to optimize their payment processes and meet the changing expectations of consumers.

1. Financial Sector

a. Banking and digital wallets

Push and pull payments have transformative effects on traditional banking models. Push payments facilitated by real-time payment systems enable instant transfers between accounts, offering customers quicker and more convenient transactions.

b. Digital wallets, powered by push payment mechanisms, have become ubiquitous. They enable users to make seamless payments and transfers with a tap on their mobile devices. Pull payments, on the other hand, are often associated with scheduled transactions, standing orders, or direct debits. These automated pull payments contribute to the regularity and predictability of fund transfers, providing stability for both consumers and financial institutions.

c. Impact on traditional banking models

The advent of push and pull payments has significantly impacted traditional banking models. Push payments, with their speed and efficiency, challenge the conventional understanding of transaction timelines. The real-time nature of push payments encourages financial institutions to enhance their systems to meet customer expectations for immediacy. Pull payments, particularly in scenarios like direct debits, offer predictability, reducing the reliance on manual intervention for regular transactions. As financial institutions evolve to accommodate these new payment dynamics, a hybrid model that integrates both push and pull mechanisms is increasingly becoming the norm.

2. E-commerce

a. Online retail and payment preferences

The choice between push and pull payments often aligns with customer preferences and the nature of the transaction in e-commerce. Push payments are commonly associated with one-time transactions, where customers initiate payments. Real-time push mechanisms offer a seamless checkout experience, enhancing customer satisfaction.

Pull payments, represented by methods like automatic billing or subscription models, are prevalent in the e-commerce landscape. Subscription-based businesses leverage pull payments to streamline recurring transactions, providing a hassle-free experience for both merchants and consumers.

b. Subscription-based models

Pull payments play a vital role in subscription-based models. When customers subscribe to a service or purchase a subscription, they often authorize merchants to pull funds from their accounts at regular intervals. This model ensures a steady revenue stream for businesses and offers customers the convenience of automated payments.

Push payments, while applicable for one-time purchases, may not be as suited for recurring transactions where the pull mechanism provides a more seamless and predictable payment structure.

Challenges and Risks

Addressing challenges and understanding associated risks in push and pull payments is essential for maintaining a secure and compliant financial landscape.

Fraud and security concerns

The evolving digital landscape has given rise to sophisticated fraud attempts, including identity theft and unauthorized transactions. Mitigating these risks requires a multi-faceted approach. Robust authentication mechanisms, encryption protocols, and continuous monitoring play pivotal roles in countering fraud. Implementing two-factor authentication and educating users on secure practices contribute significantly to creating a more secure payment environment.

Regulatory landscape

Operating within the financial sector involves navigating a complex regulatory framework. Compliance challenges range from upholding data protection laws to ensuring transparency in transactions and safeguarding customer information. Regulatory standards in the financial industry are subject to continuous evolution, and financial institutions must stay updated. Adapting operational practices to align with changing regulations involves the adoption of technologies supporting compliance and active participation in industry dialogues.

Addressing these challenges necessitates a proactive approach. Financial institutions and technology providers must consistently update security measures and adapt to changing regulatory landscapes. This ongoing commitment is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of payment systems, whether in push or pull scenarios.

The Future of Push and Pull Payments

The dynamics between push and pull payments, fueled by technological advancements, introduce the intriguing possibility of a shift in the consumer payment landscape. Traditionally dominated by face-to-face, customer-initiated push payments, the emergence of pull payments may herald a transformative wave.

Pull payments as disruptors

Pull payments may disrupt the established norms of consumer payments. The concept of payees pulling funds introduces a novel paradigm in an environment accustomed to customers initiating transactions. This shift is driven by technological innovations and the changing preferences of both businesses and consumers.

Potential impact on face-to-face transactions

Pull payments might reshape the face-to-face consumer payment landscape. Push payments have long been the standard for in-person transactions. The growing sophistication of pull payment technologies raises questions about a potential reversal of historical shopping practices, where customers maintained a running tab with merchants.

Technology as the catalyst

Technological advances, particularly in payment processing and financial infrastructure, are the driving force behind the potential dominance of pull payments. Enhanced security measures, seamless transaction processes, and the ability to securely initiate payments by the payee contribute to the appeal of pull payments.

Resurgence of tab-based transactions

Shopping with a tab reminds us of historical practices where customers maintained open accounts with merchants and settled balances periodically. Pull payments could reintroduce a form of tab-based commerce by enabling a more convenient and efficient means for merchants to collect payments.

The dominance of pull payments in the future is speculative, but their disruptive potential is undeniable. The evolution of payment systems is intricately tied to technological innovations, consumer preferences, and the adaptability of businesses. The trajectory toward pull payments signals a nuanced shift in how transactions are initiated and processed, posing intriguing possibilities for the future of consumer payments.

The future promises an exciting evolution in payment dynamics. Technological innovations continue to reshape transactions, challenging traditional paradigms and introducing new possibilities. The coexistence of push and pull payments reflects a nuanced approach to catering to diverse needs and preferences in the financial realm.

Individuals and businesses play a crucial role in fostering informed financial practices. Understanding the distinctions between push and pull payments empowers users to make choices aligned with their needs and preferences. For businesses, it involves adapting to emerging technologies and aligning payment methods with customer expectations.

Stakeholders must stay abreast of technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviors. Informed decision-making and a proactive approach to adopting secure and efficient payment methods will be key in navigating the future financial terrain.

The integration of push and pull payments encapsulates a broader narrative of adaptability and innovation. By staying informed and embracing the possibilities offered by evolving payment dynamics, individuals and businesses alike can contribute to shaping a financial future that is efficient, secure, and reflective of the diverse ways we interact with and transfer value.

Let Us Help You

Brankas streamlines the complexities of both push and pull payments, offering businesses and individuals a seamless and secure transaction experience. Whether initiating push payments for real-time efficiency or facilitating the smooth flow of funds through pull payments, Brankas empowers users to navigate modern-day financial transactions with confidence and ease.

A Comprehensive Guide to API Management in Banking

A Comprehensive Guide to API Management in Banking

Staying ahead in banking means embracing innovations that enhance efficiency, security, and customer experiences. One technology that has become a cornerstone of modern banking is the strategic implementation of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and their meticulous management.

APIs facilitate the exchange of information between different software applications. This communication is vital in the banking sector for streamlining operations, introducing new services, and ensuring the security of sensitive financial data.

Consider the scenario of a customer using a mobile banking app to transfer funds. APIs enable the app to communicate with the bank’s servers to ensure the transaction is secure, swift, and accurately reflected in the customer’s account. The smooth experience consumers enjoy is made possible by robust API management.

Key Aspects of APIs in Banking

Grasping the fundamentals of APIs is essential to appreciate how financial institutions integrate their systems and services. Let’s break down the key aspects: 

Definition and purpose:

An API (Application Programming Interface) serves as a bridge between different software applications. In banking, APIs act as digital intermediaries, enabling diverse systems to communicate and share data securely. The primary goal of APIs is efficiency. 

When a customer applies for a loan through an online platform, APIs facilitate the secure transmission of application data to the bank’s systems. These APIs enable real-time credit checks, customer information verification, and automated decision-making, resulting in an almost instantaneous response to the loan application. This integration of APIs transforms the traditional loan approval process, offering customers a quicker and more efficient experience.

Types of Banking APIs:

1.   Internal APIs facilitate communication between different internal systems within a bank to enhance operational efficiency. For instance, linking the customer database with the transaction processing system.
2.   External APIs enable interaction with external entities. This could involve connecting with third-party services like payment gateways or credit bureaus. Integrating payment gateways such as Brankas ensure secure financial transactions, while interfacing with credit bureaus help obtain relevant credit information.

The Role of API Management

API management plays a critical and multifaceted role in the banking sector. It ensures the smooth operation, security, and efficiency of digital interactions between various systems and applications. API management involves overseeing the entire lifecycle of APIs, from creation and deployment to monitoring and updates. It is strategic and indispensable in banking where the stakes are high due to the sensitive nature of financial data. 

One fundamental aspect of API management is ensuring the security of data transmitted between systems. Robust encryption, authentication protocols, and access controls are implemented to safeguard against unauthorized access or data breaches. This is particularly vital in banking where customer trust is paramount and regulatory compliance is non-negotiable. API management tools act as gatekeepers, meticulously verifying the identity of users and devices interacting with the APIs to prevent any compromise of sensitive information. 

API management enhances the efficiency of banking operations by providing a centralized platform for developers and administrators to monitor, analyze, and optimize API performance. This includes tracking the usage of APIs, identifying potential bottlenecks, and ensuring that the APIs align with the overall business objectives. This level of control and visibility enables banks to proactively address issues, minimize downtime, and optimize resource allocation. 

Transformation is a constant in digital financial services. API management facilitates integration with emerging technologies. Whether incorporating artificial intelligence for data analytics or integrating blockchain for enhanced security, API management ensures these technologies harmoniously coexist within the existing banking infrastructure. This adaptability positions banks at the forefront of innovation, offering customers cutting-edge services and experiences.

Key Features of API Management Tools

API management tools play a pivotal role in orchestrating seamless communication between diverse systems and applications in the dynamic and security-sensitive banking ecosystem. The effectiveness of these tools is often determined by their key features. Each addresses critical aspects of security, developer experience, and integration capabilities. 

Key features collectively empower API management tools to be the backbone of secure, efficient, and interoperable digital communication banking. They address the technical intricacies of API management and prioritize the human element to ensure developers can leverage these tools effectively.

Security Measures

1.   Encryption and authentication

API management tools prioritize the secure transmission of data by implementing robust encryption protocols. This involves encoding sensitive information during transit, ensuring that even if intercepted, it remains indecipherable to unauthorized parties.

Authentication mechanisms are employed to verify the identity of users and systems interacting with the APIs. This two-pronged approach—encryption for data in transit and authentication for secure access—establishes a strong foundation for protecting the confidentiality and integrity of financial data.

2.   Access control and authorization

Granular control over who can access specific APIs and what actions they can perform is a critical security aspect. API management tools incorporate access control and authorization features to define and enforce policies governing API usage. This includes specifying which users or applications have permission to access certain resources and what operations they are allowed to execute. This fine-grained control prevents unauthorized access and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements by restricting sensitive operations to authorized entities.

Developer-Friendly Interfaces

1.   User experience for developers

API management tools prioritize a user-friendly interface by recognizing the diverse skill sets and backgrounds of developers. This involves intuitive dashboards and easy navigation, reducing the learning curve for developers who need to interact with APIs. Providing a seamless experience encourages developers to efficiently create, deploy, and manage APIs, fostering a collaborative environment that accelerates development cycles.

2.   Documentation and support

Clear and comprehensive documentation is crucial for developers to understand how to use APIs effectively. API management tools include thorough documentation that outlines endpoints, parameters, authentication processes, and response formats. Robust customer support ensures that developers have access to assistance when facing challenges or seeking guidance. This support infrastructure, whether through documentation or responsive support channels, empowers developers to leverage APIs without unnecessary hurdles.

Integration Capabilities

1.   Legacy system integration

Recognizing that many banks operate with legacy systems, API management tools are designed to facilitate seamless integration. They act as a bridge between modern, API-enabled applications and older, legacy systems, ensuring that data flows smoothly across the entire technology stack. This capability is crucial for banks looking to modernize without disrupting existing operations.

2.   Support for various data formats

Banking transactions involve diverse data formats. API management tools accommodate this diversity by supporting multiple data formats such as JSON, XML, and others. This flexibility ensures that APIs can communicate effectively with different systems, regardless of the data format they use. It simplifies the integration process and promotes interoperability between various applications and services within the banking ecosystem.

Implementation of API Management in Banking

Implementing API Management in the banking sector requires a strategic and collaborative approach that aligns technology initiatives with overarching business goals. Successful implementation involves a combination of best practices, ensuring that the integration of APIs is seamless, secure, and optimized for performance. 

Best Practices

1.   Collaboration between IT and business teams

A collaborative approach ensures that API implementation aligns with the broader strategic goals of the bank. Here’s how this collaboration unfolds:

a.   Alignment with business objectives- The IT team must have a deep understanding of the business objectives driving the need for API integration. Regular communication and collaboration with business leaders ensure that APIs are developed and deployed with a clear focus on enhancing customer experiences, improving operational efficiency, or addressing specific business challenges.

b.   Joint decision-making- Decisions regarding which APIs to prioritize, the level of security required, and the performance metrics to be achieved should be made collectively. This joint decision-making process ensures IT and business teams have a shared understanding of the priorities and constraints to foster a sense of ownership and commitment to the success of API implementation.

c.   Agile development practices- Collaboration enables adopting of agile development practices, allowing for iterative development and quick adaptation to changing business needs. This flexibility is crucial in banking, where market demands and regulatory requirements can evolve rapidly.

2.   Testing and Monitoring Procedures

Rigorous testing and continuous monitoring are central to successful API management implementation. These practices are essential for identifying and addressing potential issues and ensuring the reliability and security of the integrated APIs.

a.   Comprehensive testing protocols- Thorough testing is essential before deploying APIs into a live environment. This includes functional testing to verify that APIs perform as intended, security testing to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, and performance testing to assess how APIs handle varying levels of traffic.

b.   Real-time monitoring- Once deployed, APIs must be monitored continuously in real-time. Monitoring tools track key performance indicators, such as response times, error rates, and usage patterns. Real-time insights allow for proactive issue resolution, minimizing downtime and optimizing the overall user experience.

c.   Security audits and compliance checks- Regular security audits and compliance checks are integral to API management. These ensure that APIs adhere to industry regulations and internal security policies. Constant monitoring for security threats, coupled with prompt remediation, safeguards against potential breaches.

d.   Scalability testing- As banking operations scale, API management must be capable of handling increased loads. Scalability testing assesses how well the system can accommodate growing volumes of data and user interactions, ensuring that the infrastructure remains robust under varying levels of demand.

The successful implementation of API management in banking requires a holistic approach that bridges the gap between technology and business objectives. By fostering collaboration between IT and business teams and implementing rigorous testing and monitoring procedures, banks can ensure that their API integrations are technically sound and aligned with strategic goals, secure, and adaptable to the dynamic nature of the financial industry. 

Common Challenges in API Management

Implementing and managing APIs in the banking sector comes with its share of challenges, particularly in security and regulatory compliance. Addressing these challenges requires strategic planning and the adoption of robust solutions and mitigation strategies.

1.   Security Concerns

The foremost concern in API management for banks is the security of sensitive financial data. As APIs facilitate the exchange of information between various systems, they become potential points of vulnerability. Common security challenges include:

Data breaches

The risk of unauthorized access leading to data breaches is a significant concern. If inadequately protected, APIs can expose confidential customer information, posing a serious threat to the bank’s reputation and customer trust.

API key management

Improper handling of API keys, which act as authentication credentials, can lead to unauthorized access. If API keys are compromised, malicious actors can exploit vulnerabilities within the API.

2.   Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory frameworks, such as GDPR, PSD2, and other financial industry-specific regulations, impose strict guidelines on how banks handle and secure customer data. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and damage to the bank’s reputation. Key challenges include:

Data governance

Ensuring that data transmitted through APIs adheres to regulatory standards requires meticulous governance. Managing consent, data retention, and ensuring data integrity become complex tasks.

Dynamic regulatory environment

The financial industry is subject to frequent regulatory updates and changes. Keeping abreast of these changes and ensuring that APIs remain compliant with evolving standards is a constant challenge.

Solutions and Mitigation Strategies

Banks can navigate the intricate landscape of API management by adopting these solutions and mitigation strategies. This proactive approach safeguards against potential risks and fosters a culture of continuous improvement and compliance within the organization.

1.   End-to-end encryption- Implementing end-to-end encryption ensures that data is encrypted throughout its entire journey, from the source to the destination. This safeguards against interception and unauthorized access.
2.   OAuth and Tokenization- Utilizing OAuth for secure authentication and tokenization for handling sensitive data reduces the risk of unauthorized access. OAuth facilitates secure authorization processes, while tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive equivalents.
3.   Regular security audits- Conducting regular security audits and vulnerability assessments helps identify and address potential weaknesses in the API infrastructure. This proactive approach ensures that security protocols remain effective against emerging threats.
4.   Automated compliance monitoring- Deploying automated tools for compliance monitoring streamlines the process of ensuring that APIs adhere to regulatory requirements. These tools can provide real-time alerts and reports, enabling prompt action in case of non-compliance.
5.   Audit trails and documentation- Maintaining comprehensive audit trails and documentation of API transactions is essential for demonstrating compliance. This documentation includes details about data access, consent management, and any modifications made to the API structure to align with evolving regulations.
6.   Regular training and awareness programs- Keeping staff informed about the latest regulatory requirements through regular training programs ensures that everyone involved in API management is aware of their responsibilities in maintaining compliance.

The significance of API management as a catalyst for transformative change is unmistakable. API management streamlines operations, fortifies data security, and acts as a crucial bridge between technology and strategic business objectives. It facilitates collaborative efforts between IT and business teams to ensure that innovation aligns seamlessly with overarching goals. Despite the challenges posed by security and regulatory compliance, robust solutions emphasize that API management is not just a technological necessity but a strategic necessity for modern banking. The call to action is clear: financial institutions must wholeheartedly embrace API management to lead the charge in shaping the future of banking, fostering agility, security, and innovation in the industry.

Brankas and NetGlobal Solutions, Inc. Partner to Elevate Payment Capabilities for Filipino Merchants and Consumers

Manila, [13 Feb, 2024] – Brankas and NetGlobal Solutions Inc. (NGSI) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) under which Brankas will support NetGlobal Pay in its QR Ph, pay-by-bank, and pay-by-wallet capabilities in both NetGlobal Pay’s payment and e-wallet platforms.

Brankas will integrate its Brankas Direct API and Brankas Disburse API into NetGlobal Pay, which provides a range of payment options including credit and debit cards. Brankas Direct enables collections and retail cash-in for e-commerce, fund transfers, and recurring subscriptions. Brankas Disburse API enables single or bulk disbursements of loans, salary, commissions, insurance, and cash payouts. NetGlobal Pay is an integrated payment platform for cash-free online payments, cash disbursements, bill payments, and QR Ph code generation. Currently, NGSI offers both an e-wallet and payment portal interface.

Cooperatives, aspiring digital banks, public utility companies, and retail marketplaces are among the list of corporate users expected to benefit from this new partnership.

“Brankas is no stranger to payment gateways, considering we both build fully customizable merchant payment portals for our clients and also avail our APIs to existing platforms. We are especially excited about this partnership with NGSI because NetGlobal Pay offers an integrated user experience for merchants and end users. This means NetGlobal Pay customers are able to make payments of day-to-day expenses, do money transfers, and even large-scale disbursements — all on one platform, without needing to own a credit card. We see this as a big step in making financial services accessible to all.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas.

“This partnership marks a significant step forward in our mission to provide secure, innovative, and accessible payment solutions for Filipinos merchants and consumers,” said Peter G. Lingatong, CEO of NetGlobal Solutions Inc. “We aim to make NetGlobal Pay the premier payment platform in Southeast Asia, which is why we chose to partner with Brankas, having seen its track record in enabling payment providers across the region.”

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About NetGlobal Solutions Inc.

Net Global Solutions, Inc. is a Payment Service Provider offering a complete end-to-end Digital Payment Gateway called NetGlobal Pay. This newest payment gateway guarantees to provide safe and secure transactions. It also uses various payment methods such as BancNet, local and international issued credit and debit cards, and QR PH - the latest payment mode supported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP.)


NetGlobal Pay is the first payment gateway to support the acceptance of online payments using QR Ph. This guarantees interoperability of different payment options making it possible for registrants to transact without the need to link their bank accounts.

NetGlobal Pay offers two main products – NetGlobal Pay Portal and NetGlobal Pay E-Wallet. Both products can be fully accustomed based on the client’s requirements.

Brankas publishes first-ever ASEAN Bank Stability Report

Brankas publishes first-ever ASEAN Bank Stability Report, showing 2023 uptime performance from top banks including RCBC and Bank Mandiri

SINGAPORE, January 26, 2024 – Brankas today released the Bank Stability Report 2023 ASEAN, offering valuable insights into the uptime performance of top banks in the Philippines and Indonesia. The report, which includes consumer banks the likes of RCBC, Bank Mandiri, and UnionBank, informs businesses, partners, and end users on the infrastructure reliability of the banks they trust.

“Now that e-payments and digital banking are becoming the norm, constant access to reliable digital banking services is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas. “Uptime is a critical metric that impacts trust and stability, and we hope that Brankas’ latest report sheds light on the ASEAN region’s commitment to financial reliability and security.”

Bank availability data for the report was retrieved independently from public sources to determine real-time service reliability for operations including bank statement retrievals, payments, and money transfers. The uptime number is a measure of the percentage of time a bank is available to users for online data and payment transactions.

Key highlights:

• In the Philippines, RCBC led the pack with 98.30% uptime, while UnionBank, with 95.98%, faced challenges with longer downtimes.
• In Indonesia, Bank Mandiri and Permata Bank achieved above 99% uptime, demonstrating overall higher reliability compared to their Philippine counterparts.
• RCBC was the best performer in the Philippines, with 7 months of no downtime.
• Landbank and Metrobank in the Philippines set the standard for proactive communication, while BDO and UnionBank fell short, highlighting the need for improved customer awareness of planned and unplanned disruptions.
• Downtime incidents in Indonesia were relatively short, usually lasting between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
• BCA had the longest downtime at 201.5 hours, equivalent to being offline for 8.4 days in a year.
• Payday periods around the middle and end of the month coincided with more downtimes in the Philippines, indicating infrastructure strain.
• In Indonesia, uptime was significantly better between September and December, suggesting an improvement in infrastructure reliability.
• UnionBank experienced the longest downtime stretch of 20 hours on 20 May 2023.

The report further reveals aggregate downtime by month from all the banks, showing a spike in November and April 2023 from the Philippines and Indonesia respectively.

Brankas recommends that banks maintain at least an uptime of 99%, and provide transparent communication of scheduled downtime at least 5 working days in advance. This is in line with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) requirement for banks and financial institutions to maintain approximately 99.95% of uptime yearly. Central banks in the ASEAN region are expected to consider meting out punitive measures to banks for extended disruption of banking services in the future.

Download the full Bank Stability Report 2023 ASEAN today.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

A Comprehensive Guide to PSD2, OBIE, and Global Open Banking Standards

A Comprehensive Guide to PSD2, OBIE, and Global Open Banking Standards

Open banking has become increasingly prominent, reshaping the way individuals and businesses interact with financial services. Open banking standards refer to a framework that encourages secure data sharing and collaboration among financial institutions, FinTech innovators, and other third-party providers.

Adopting a global perspective is crucial, considering the interconnected nature of today’s financial systems. Different regions have embraced diverse approaches to open banking, reflecting unique regulatory environments, technological infrastructures, and cultural nuances. Explore how open banking influences financial innovation, data security, and the collaborative dynamics between traditional financial institutions and emerging FinTech players.

Open Banking Approaches

Europe is recognized as the birthplace of open banking, tracing its origins to Germany. It witnessed a pivotal moment with the introduction of the first open banking regulations by the European Union in 2015. Key players in the open banking landscape extend beyond the EU, encompassing nations such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Australia, each adopting a regulatory-driven approach to shape their financial ecosystems. In contrast, countries like Japan, India, South Korea, and Singapore have embraced a market-driven approach.

In a regulatory-driven approach, government regulatory bodies take the lead in orchestrating open banking initiatives. This involves the specification, control, and monitoring of API (Application Programming Interface) designs and data sharing by regulatory authorities. On the other hand, a market-driven approach sees the government playing a more supportive role, with limited direct responsibilities but a commitment to facilitating collaborations between financial institutions and third-party platforms (TPPs). This dichotomy in approaches reflects the diversity in strategies employed globally to embrace the open banking revolution.

European Union (EU)

Europe has been at the forefront of the open banking movement since the introduction of the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). PSD2, enacted by the European Union in 2015, laid the foundation for open banking by mandating financial institutions to provide access to customer account information to third-party providers through secure APIs.

PSD2 has had a profound impact on the financial landscape, fostering innovation and competition. One of the key features of PSD2 is the provision for Account Information Service Providers (AISPs) and Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs). AISPs can access account information, offering users a consolidated view of their financial data from multiple banks, while PISPs enable the initiation of payments directly from a user’s bank account.

Open banking initiatives within the EU have resulted in the proliferation of FinTech companies and startups that leverage regulated access to banking data. This has led to the development of innovative financial services, including budgeting apps, investment platforms, and alternative payment solutions.

The United Kingdom (UK)

The United Kingdom, while being a part of the EU during the introduction of PSD2, has gone further in its commitment to open banking. The UK embraced the open banking movement with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) mandating nine of the largest banks to open up access to their data. This led to the creation of the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), which developed open banking standards in the UK. Open banking in the UK is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The UK’s approach to open banking has been ambitious, setting a precedent for other European countries. The Open Banking Standard in the UK goes beyond PSD2 requirements, emphasizing the need for standardized APIs, strong customer authentication, and a robust framework for data sharing. This proactive stance has fostered a dynamic open banking ecosystem in the UK, encouraging collaboration between traditional financial institutions and innovative FinTech players. The UK’s journey exemplifies how a country can take the lead in open banking within the broader European context.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has positioned itself as a prominent player in the global open banking arena, adopting a regulatory-driven approach overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The HKMA introduced the Open Application Programming Interface (API) Framework in 2019, serving as a comprehensive guideline for banks to follow in developing secure and standardized APIs. This framework aligns with international best practices and outlines a three-phase implementation strategy focusing on account information, payment initiation, and an ongoing expansion of banking functions and products. Hong Kong’s open banking standards also promote collaboration between banks and third-party service providers (TPPs) through the Open API onboarding platform. This platform streamlines the onboarding process for TPPs, enabling them to access APIs from multiple banks without undergoing a complex onboarding procedure for each.

Australia

Australia’s journey to open banking is driven by regulatory initiatives to enhance competition and empower consumers. The Consumer Data Right (CDR) is at the forefront of Australia’s open banking standards, enabling individuals to access and share their banking data securely. The Australian government introduced the CDR to extend beyond the banking sector, encompassing telecommunications and energy, with the intent of providing consumers greater control over their data. Under the CDR, the banking sector’s implementation involves phased rollouts, starting with the Big Four banks and gradually extending to other financial institutions.

The framework in Australia is designed to foster innovation and competition by encouraging the participation of TPPs through the provision of standardized APIs. These APIs facilitate secure data sharing and payment initiation, ensuring that the open banking ecosystem operates seamlessly.

Singapore

Singapore has embraced open banking as a strategic initiative to fortify its financial ecosystem and stimulate innovation. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has been a key driver in this journey, fostering a regulatory environment that encourages collaboration and competition among financial institutions and TPPs. The development of standardized APIs and the establishment of a secure framework for data sharing are pivotal elements in Singapore’s open banking landscape, ensuring that consumers have control over their financial data while facilitating the creation of innovative financial products and services.

The regulatory approach emphasizes partnerships between banks and FinTechs, enabling the co-creation of solutions that benefit industry players and end-users. The move towards open banking aligns with Singapore’s broader Smart Nation initiative, reflecting a commitment to leveraging technology for the improvement of citizens' lives.

Indonesia

The path to open banking standards in Indonesia involves navigating a diverse financial landscape marked by a large unbanked population. The Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), Indonesia’s financial services authority, has been actively engaged in developing regulations to guide the implementation of open banking.

SNAP Bank Indonesia is a national Open API standard aimed at enhancing market practices through competitive and innovative yet secure payment systems. The API payment standard documents strive to improve the security and reliability of payment system infrastructure in Indonesia while promoting efficient digital transactions among various banks. Governance standardization through SNAP BI contributes to customer protection against irresponsible parties and ensures swift responses to data leaks.

The country is focusing on fostering an ecosystem that encourages collaboration among banks, FinTechs, and other stakeholders. Open banking serves as a strategic enabler to achieve these objectives as Indonesia endeavors to drive financial inclusion and digital adoption.

Philippines

Open banking in the Philippines is gaining significant traction as the financial landscape undergoes a transformative shift. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, has been at the forefront of initiatives aimed at fostering innovation while ensuring the security and stability of the financial sector. The regulatory framework introduced by the BSP encourages collaboration between traditional banks and FinTech firms, paving the way for innovative financial solutions. Open banking in the Philippines is seen as a catalyst for financial inclusion, with an emphasis on expanding access to financial services for the unbanked and underserved populations.

Latin America

Latin American countries are adopting a market-driven strategy towards open banking. Various Latin American nations are at different stages in embracing open banking. For instance, Brazil has been a notable player in advancing open banking regulations, introducing a phased implementation plan to ensure a smooth transition. Mexico has been exploring open banking frameworks to enhance financial services accessibility. The evolving landscape in Latin America reflects a mix of regulatory guidance and market-driven initiatives, highlighting the nuanced approach the region is taking toward adopting open banking standards.

Middle East and Africa

Open banking in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is gradually making its mark as financial ecosystems adapt to the digital era. The evolution is fueled by a combination of regulatory developments and market dynamics. Countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been at the forefront of embracing open banking, with the UAE Central Bank actively working on regulatory frameworks to facilitate secure data sharing and interoperability. Other nations in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, are also exploring open banking initiatives to foster innovation and competition within their financial sectors.

Nigeria and South Africa are exploring open banking to enhance financial inclusion and provide a more robust and interconnected financial infrastructure. The region’s approach is marked by a blend of regulatory guidelines and industry collaboration.

Canada

In Canada, the open banking landscape is influenced by a more regulatory-driven approach. The Canadian government has been actively exploring the implementation of open banking standards to enhance competition and consumer choice. Several consultations and pilot programs have been conducted to gather insights and assess the potential impact on the financial sector. While the regulatory framework is still evolving, the commitment to exploring open banking signifies an acknowledgment of its transformative potential. Canadian authorities aim to strike a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring robust consumer protection and data security, reflecting a meticulous approach to adopting open banking standards in the country.

United States (US)

The approach to open banking in the United States is notably market-driven, with various financial institutions and FinTech players exploring innovative solutions. Unlike some other regions, the US does not have a comprehensive regulatory framework explicitly designed for open banking. The financial sector is adapting to the evolving landscape with a focus on industry-led standards and collaborations. This dynamic approach has led to the emergence of various API initiatives and partnerships between traditional banks and FinTech firms, fostering a competitive and innovative financial ecosystem.

Comparative Analysis

The global landscape of open banking is characterized by diverse approaches, shaped by regional variances in regulatory frameworks, economic landscapes, and technological infrastructures. PSD2 in the EU has set a precedent for standardized API designs and data sharing. The UK is going beyond PSD2 requirements and fostering a more competitive environment with a broader scope for third-party access. In contrast, the Asia-Pacific region showcases a mix of regulatory and market-driven approaches. While countries like Hong Kong and Australia follow a regulatory-driven path, others like Singapore and Indonesia emphasize market dynamics with regulatory support. These diverse strategies reflect the adaptability of open banking models to local contexts, highlighting the importance of considering regional nuances in future implementations.

The Future of Open Banking

As technological innovations continue to redefine the financial landscape, open banking stands at the forefront of this evolution. The proliferation of standardized APIs, driven by open banking standards worldwide, has unleashed a wave of transformative possibilities in competition, innovation, and improved services for consumers. The anticipated developments in open banking suggest a trajectory marked by deeper integration of technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and data analytics. These advancements promise to enhance security, personalization, and efficiency in financial services, further revolutionizing how individuals and businesses interact with their finances.

As an example, the proposed PSD3 may be finalized by 2024 and implemented by 2026. This updated version of PSD2 introduces stricter regulations to safeguard consumer rights and personal information and proposes a new Payment Services Regulation (PSR) to further improve consumer protection.

The evolution of open banking standards mirrors the dynamism of the global financial ecosystem. From the regulatory-driven approach in Europe to the market-driven strategies in the Asia-Pacific region, each region’s unique path reflects the adaptability and resilience of open banking models. The future of open banking lies in compliance with standards and in a continuous commitment to pushing boundaries, exploring new technologies, and fostering an environment where traditional financial institutions, FinTech disruptors, and regulatory bodies collaborate seamlessly. As open banking becomes a global norm, this collaborative spirit will be instrumental in navigating the complexities of a rapidly evolving financial landscape. Expect a future where financial services are not just open but continuously evolving for the benefit of all.

A How To Become Open Banking Compliant: A 10-Step Guide

A How To Become Open Banking Compliant: A 10-Step Guide

Open banking is reshaping how institutions operate and deliver services. The innovation potential is immense as financial systems open up their data to third-party providers. However, this unparalleled opportunity comes with its challenges primarily centered around compliance with regulatory frameworks.

This article will provide a strategic roadmap that resonates with industry experts and is accessible to a broader audience. It is designed to equip you with the essential steps to ensure compliance and success in open banking compliance.

Understanding Open Banking

Open banking is a financial framework that advocates the secure sharing of financial data through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Financial institutions open up access to their customer data and infrastructure to external, authorized entities. The scope extends beyond traditional banking services to other financial products and services such as payments, investments, and more. This shift towards openness is rooted in the belief that increased data accessibility can drive competition, foster innovation, and ultimately benefit consumers.

Key Players in Open Banking

Several key players play pivotal roles in open banking. Traditional banks are custodians of customer data and are central to the process. Third-party providers range from FinTech startups to established technology companies. Regulatory bodies also play a crucial role in shaping and overseeing the implementation of open banking frameworks to ensure security, privacy, and fair competition.

Benefits of Open Banking

The adoption of open banking brings advantages for all stakeholders involved. For consumers, it translates to enhanced control over their financial data, enabling them to access a broader range of personalized and innovative financial services. Financial institutions benefit from increased efficiency, cost reduction, and the opportunity to tap into new revenue streams through collaborations with third-party providers. Open banking has the potential to drive economic growth by fostering a more competitive and dynamic financial services landscape.

Regulatory Landscape

A robust understanding of the regulatory landscape is vital to ensure compliance and foster a trustworthy financial ecosystem. Open banking operates within a framework governed by regulations and industry standards. Notable among these is the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which safeguards the privacy and security of personal data. The PSD2 (Revised Payment Service Directive) plays a pivotal role, requiring financial institutions to open up access to their customer data through secure APIs.

GDPR and PSD2 are pivotal in Europe. Other regions, such as the United States, Australia, and Canada, are also witnessing the emergence of regulatory frameworks tailored to their unique landscapes. The global nature of financial transactions necessitates a nuanced approach to compliance, understanding, and adhering to the specific regulations relevant to each jurisdiction.

The regulatory framework provides a necessary structure, but compliance with these regulations poses challenges for financial institutions. The complexity of integrating secure APIs, ensuring data privacy, and aligning internal processes with regulatory requirements can be formidable. The rapid evolution of technology and the emergence of new financial services add a layer of complexity. Navigating these challenges demands a strategic and adaptable approach to compliance.

There is a notable absence of a comprehensive compliance framework in many countries beyond regions with established frameworks like GDPR and PSD2, leaving organizations to navigate uncharted territories. The absence of standardized regulations poses a dual challenge—organizations must grapple with the complexities of compliance and contribute to regulatory framework development in regions where they are lacking.

Importance of Adhering to Regulations

Non-compliance with open banking regulations transcends geographical boundaries and carries legal implications that resonate globally. Financial institutions operating in diverse regions must navigate a patchwork of laws, emphasizing the need for a meticulous understanding of each jurisdiction’s regulatory requirements. The legal consequences of non-compliance extend to fines, penalties, and potential restrictions on global operations.

Beyond legal considerations, adherence to regulations is instrumental in fostering trust globally. As open banking transcends borders, consumers and partners expect a uniform commitment to data security and ethical practices. Organizations that proactively align with regional regulations mitigate legal risks and position themselves as responsible global actors, contributing to establishing trust in the broader open banking ecosystem.

Steps to Mastering Open Banking Compliance

Step 1: Conducting a Compliance Assessment

The regulatory environment surrounding open banking is multifaceted. Each region has its own set of rules and standards. Organizations must meticulously identify the regulations applicable to their operations, considering not only the local framework but also any global standards that may impact their business. This involves an examination of data protection laws, financial regulations, and industry-specific standards. The goal is to create a tailored roadmap that ensures adherence to all relevant regulations, fostering a proactive and preemptive approach to compliance.

The next critical aspect of the compliance assessment is evaluating the organization’s current state of compliance. This involves a comprehensive internal audit to gauge how well existing processes align with regulatory requirements. The assessment encompasses the functionality of data protection measures, the efficacy of current security protocols, and the integration of compliance into operational workflows. This analysis provides a baseline understanding of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses concerning open banking compliance, serving as a foundation for subsequent strategic decisions.

Step 2: Building a Compliance Team

Assemble a dedicated compliance team. This team becomes the linchpin for ensuring that the organization understands regulatory nuances and can implement and sustain compliance measures effectively.

The cornerstone of a successful compliance initiative lies in defining clear roles and responsibilities within the compliance team. Each member must be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the intricacies of open banking regulations. Key roles may include a Compliance Officer overseeing the entire compliance program, Data Protection Officers to ensure adherence to data privacy regulations, and specialists focused on specific compliance domains. Defining these roles ensures there is a well-coordinated effort to address diverse compliance requirements. It’s not just about having a team; it’s about having the right people in the right roles, each contributing to the organization’s overall compliance strategy.

Open banking compliance is not confined to a single department; it requires collaboration across various functions within an organization. Building a compliance team that thrives on cross-functional collaboration is imperative. This involves breaking down silos and fostering communication between legal, IT, risk management, and other relevant departments. Collaboration ensures that compliance considerations are integrated into all facets of the business, from product development to customer service. The compliance team becomes a bridge, connecting disparate parts of the organization and ensuring a holistic approach to open banking compliance.

Step 3: Establishing Robust Security Measures

Implementing robust data protection measures involves encryption protocols to secure information during transmission and storage. Encryption ensures that even in the event of unauthorized access, the data remains secure. Organizations must adopt state-of-the-art encryption technologies and stay abreast of evolving security standards to fortify their defense against potential breaches.

Adopting best practices in cybersecurity involves regular vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and the implementation of multi-factor authentication. A proactive cybersecurity strategy extends beyond mere compliance, focusing on the continuous identification and mitigation of potential threats. This approach safeguards against regulatory breaches and builds a resilient infrastructure capable of withstanding emerging cybersecurity challenges.

Step 4: Implementing Effective Identity Verification

Identity verification begins with robust KYC (Know Your Customer) processes. Organizations must establish comprehensive procedures to verify the identity of individuals accessing their services. This involves collecting and validating personal information, conducting risk assessments, and implementing due diligence measures. Compliance with KYC regulations not only ensures regulatory adherence but also enhances the overall security of the open banking ecosystem by preventing unauthorized access and potentially fraudulent activities.

The implementation of secure authentication methods is central to open banking compliance. Multi-factor authentication, biometric verification, and dynamic authentication protocols fortify identity verification processes. These measures meet regulatory requirements and bolster the organization’s defense against identity theft and unauthorized access. Striking a balance between security and user convenience is key to ensuring seamless yet robust identity verification processes.

Step 5: Ensuring Data Privacy

Adherence to its stringent data protection requirements is imperative for organizations operating in regions covered by the GDPR. This involves transparent data collection practices, obtaining explicit consent for data processing, and providing individuals control over their personal information. Ensuring GDPR compliance safeguards against legal repercussions and fosters a culture of respect for individual privacy.

Even in regions without specific regulations like GDPR, organizations must adopt best practices for data privacy. This includes implementing robust data access controls, encrypting sensitive information, and regularly auditing data handling processes. Organizations should go beyond meeting minimum compliance standards and aspire to establish a gold standard for data privacy, engendering trust among consumers and partners alike.

Step 6: Integrating Compliance into Systems

Open banking relies heavily on APIs for data sharing, and ensuring robust API security is non-negotiable. Organizations must implement encryption for data transmitted through APIs, employ secure coding practices, and conduct regular security audits. A proactive approach to API security safeguards against potential breaches and aligns with regulatory requirements for secure data transmission.

Compliance is not a static state but a dynamic, ongoing process. Real-time monitoring of transactions, access logs, and system activities is critical to identify and respond promptly to potential compliance breaches. Establishing a robust reporting mechanism ensures anomalies are detected and addressed swiftly, minimizing the impact on regulatory standing and customer trust.

Step 7: Conducting Regular Audits and Assessments

Regular compliance audits are essential to evaluate the effectiveness of existing compliance measures. These audits involve a comprehensive review of policies, procedures, and systems to identify any gaps or areas for improvement. By conducting periodic audits, organizations can proactively address issues before they escalate, ensuring continuous alignment with regulatory standards.

Organizations should employ continuous improvement strategies based on audit findings. This involves a dynamic approach to adapting and enhancing compliance measures in response to changing regulatory landscapes and emerging threats. Regular assessments provide valuable insights into the efficacy of existing processes, allowing organizations to refine their strategies for sustained compliance excellence.

Step 8: Employee Training and Awareness

Comprehensive training programs should be implemented to educate employees on open banking compliance requirements. This involves disseminating information on relevant regulations, data protection practices, and the organization’s specific compliance policies. A well-informed workforce is better equipped to identify and address potential compliance issues, contributing to a culture of vigilance and responsibility.

Organizations should actively foster a culture of compliance among their staff. This involves instilling a sense of responsibility and ownership regarding compliance obligations. Employees should be encouraged to report any potential compliance issues promptly, creating a collaborative environment where compliance is seen as a shared goal rather than a burdensome task.

Step 9: Engaging with Regulatory Authorities

Regular and proactive communication with regulatory authorities is crucial for organizations in the open banking space. This involves reporting compliance activities and seeking guidance and clarification on ambiguous or evolving regulatory requirements. Establishing an open line of communication fosters transparency and demonstrates a commitment to collaboration in upholding regulatory standards.

The regulatory landscape is dynamic, with rules and standards evolving constantly. Organizations must actively stay informed about regulatory updates that may impact their operations. This involves monitoring official communications from regulatory authorities, participating in industry forums, and leveraging external resources to stay ahead of changes. A proactive approach to regulatory awareness positions organizations to adapt swiftly to new requirements and maintain compliance excellence.

Step 10: Continuous Adaptation and Improvement

Regulatory frameworks are dynamic and subject to changes and updates. Organizations must stay ahead of these changes by continually monitoring regulatory developments. This involves participating actively in industry discussions, attending relevant conferences, and maintaining a network of contacts within regulatory bodies. By anticipating and adapting to evolving regulations, organizations position themselves to implement necessary changes proactively, ensuring ongoing compliance.

The financial services industry is dynamic, with emerging technologies, market trends, and consumer behaviors shaping the landscape. Organizations must adapt to these changes to remain competitive and compliant. This includes embracing new technologies, refining business strategies, and ensuring compliance measures evolve in tandem with broader industry shifts.

Final Thoughts

A key aspect of sustainable open banking success lies in strategic partnerships with FinTech companies like Brankas. Brankas, through its Open Finance Suite, offers a comprehensive solution that facilitates seamless data sharing and aligns with stringent compliance standards. Banks can enhance their compliance measures, ensuring secure API integration, robust data protection, and adherence to regulatory requirements by leveraging Brankas' expertise. Brankas provides a holistic solution that aligns with the dynamic landscape of open banking compliance, from API security to real-time monitoring and reporting.

The significance of compliance cannot be overstated as financial institutions navigate the complex landscape of regulatory frameworks, data privacy, and evolving industry standards. Mastering open banking compliance is not merely a checklist of steps; it is a strategic imperative that demands continuous commitment and adaptability. As financial institutions embrace this commitment and forge strategic alliances with innovative FinTechs, they can effectively navigate the complexities of open banking compliance.

A Comprehensive Guide to Online Philippine SSS Contribution Payment and Verification

A Comprehensive Guide to Online Philippine SSS Contribution Payment and Verification

Paying and verifying your Social Security System (SSS) contributions has become more convenient than ever in an era of advancing technology. This guide will inform you how to efficiently handle your SSS contributions online, offering you a hassle-free and secure way to ensure financial security. This guide will also give insight on how businesses can integrate Brankas Direct into their workflows to provide a faster way for end-users to pay their SSS contributions.

SSS plays a pivotal role in providing financial assistance and security to Filipinos in various stages of life. Understanding the significance of your SSS contributions is vital, as they contribute to your future benefits, including retirement and disability. In this digital age, the transition to online contribution management simplifies the process and empowers you with greater control over your financial journey.

This article will walk you through the step-by-step process of getting started with online SSS contribution payment and verification. From creating your online SSS account to interpreting your contribution records, we aim to demystify the process and equip you with the knowledge needed to navigate the digital landscape confidently.

Whether you’re new to online contribution management or seeking to enhance your existing knowledge, this guide will provide valuable insights, tips, and resources. By the end, you’ll be well-prepared to embrace the benefits of managing your SSS contributions online, ensuring a smoother path toward your financial goals. Let’s embark on this journey of empowerment and efficiency as we explore online SSS contribution management in the Philippines.

Understanding SSS contributions

The SSS plays a crucial role in providing financial security and protection for workers in the Philippines. As a government agency, the SSS is dedicated to ensuring that individuals who contribute to the system are entitled to various benefits, such as retirement, disability, sickness, maternity, and even death benefits. This safety net is designed to alleviate the financial burden that may arise during challenging times, ensuring that individuals and their families have access to essential support.

The SSS operates on the principle of collective responsibility, where members contribute a portion of their income to the system, and in return, they gain access to these valuable benefits. This approach fosters a sense of social solidarity, where each member’s contribution contributes to the well-being of the entire community. Understanding the various types of SSS contributions is essential for effectively managing your financial security and maximizing the benefits you can access.

1. Employees: Employees in the private sector contribute a portion of their monthly salary to the SSS. This contribution is calculated as a percentage of the employee’s monthly salary, up to a specific ceiling set by the SSS. The contributions are deducted directly from the employee’s salary and are matched by the employer’s corresponding contribution.

2. Employers (business or household): Employers are equally responsible for contributing to their employees' financial security. The employer’s contribution is also calculated based on a percentage of the employee’s monthly salary, up to the same ceiling as the employee’s contribution. This joint effort ensures that both the employer and employee are invested in securing the employee’s future.

3. Self-employed: Self-employed individuals, including freelancers, entrepreneurs, and professionals, can also contribute to the SSS to avail of its benefits. They have the flexibility to choose their contribution amount, which is often determined by their declared monthly earnings.

4. Household help: Even domestic workers are eligible to be SSS members. Their employers are responsible for remitting their contributions, ensuring that these valuable contributors to households also have access to social security benefits. Like employee contributions, household helpers and their employers pay a portion of the monthly payment.

5. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs): OFWs can also become SSS members, providing them security even while working abroad. Contributions from OFWs are particularly significant, as they safeguard their financial well-being during their employment overseas.

Each category of SSS membership underscores the inclusivity and versatility of the system, designed to cater to the diverse needs of different segments of the workforce. As you navigate the landscape of SSS contributions, it’s essential to be aware of the types of contributions applicable to your situation, their corresponding rates, and how they collectively contribute to your financial security.

This knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions, ensuring that you’re making the most of the benefits offered by the SSS. Understanding SSS contributions is a fundamental step in securing your financial future. With a grasp of the significance of the Social Security System and the breakdown of contribution types, you’re well-equipped to move forward in managing your contributions effectively. It’s important to note that contributions are pooled together in the SSS fund. This fund is managed and invested by the SSS to generate returns, which in turn contribute to the sustainability of the system and the fulfillment of its beneficiaries' needs.

Benefits of online SSS contribution management

In today’s fast-paced digital age, the Social Security System (SSS) has adapted to modern convenience by offering an online platform for managing contributions. Embracing this digital transformation brings a multitude of advantages that simplify the process for contributors and ensure a seamless experience. Let’s explore the key benefits of using the online platform for your SSS contribution payments and verification:

1. Convenience: The online platform eliminates the need for in-person visits and lengthy paperwork. You can conveniently manage your contributions from the comfort of your home or office, saving you time and effort.

2. 24/7 accessibility: With the online platform, you’re no longer bound by traditional office hours. You have access to your SSS account and contributions at any time of the day or night, allowing you to stay in control of your financial security.

3. Ease of payment: Online platforms provide various payment methods, including credit/debit cards, online banking, and digital wallets. This flexibility allows you to choose the payment option that suits you best.

4. Instant verification: Online systems offer real-time verification of contributions. You can immediately see your updated contribution history and ensure that your payments are accurately recorded.

5. Reduced errors: The online platform minimizes the risk of errors in contribution payments. Automated systems calculate contributions based on your declared income, reducing the likelihood of manual calculation errors.

6. Digital records: Your contribution history and receipts are stored digitally, eliminating the need to keep physical copies. This ensures that your records are organized and easily accessible whenever you need them.

Comparing traditional methods of contributing to the SSS with modern online processes highlights the transformative power of technology. Traditional methods often involve visiting SSS branches, filling out forms, and waiting in lines. These processes can be time-consuming and may require multiple trips.

In contrast, the online platform streamlines the entire process. You can make payments and verify contributions without leaving your home or office. The need for physical forms is eliminated, reducing the risk of misplacement or errors. Online systems provide immediate updates and accurate records, allowing you to stay informed about your financial security.

The benefits of online SSS contribution management resonate particularly in the current digital landscape, where efficiency and accessibility are paramount. As we move forward, the integration of technology into social security systems underscores a commitment to providing contributors with a hassle-free and user-friendly experience.

Getting started with online SSS contribution payment

This section will guide you through creating your online SSS account or My.SSS, which serves as the foundation for managing your contributions with ease and efficiency. The online platform provided by the Social Security System empowers you to take control of your contributions, enabling you to monitor your payments, access records, and make necessary updates conveniently.

SSS Mobile app

You can also check your SSS contributions online through the SSS Mobile app, available for download at the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Huawei App Gallery. These are the services available on the app:

1. Viewing of membership information;
2. Updating of contact information;
3. Viewing of loan and claim application status and breakdown of total contributions;
4. Application for salary loan;
5. Location of SSS branches with map
6. My.SSS Registration

Making SSS contributions online

You can make SSS contribution payments online through various available payment channels.

1. Many leading banks have apps and website portals where you can pay. Visit the website or download the app. Go to “PAYMENTS” or “TRANSACTIONS.” Choose SSS and enter the appropriate information.

2. GCash

    a. Get a PRN via MY.SSS or SSS online account

    b.Click on “PAY BILLS” on your GCash app

    c. Select “GOVERNMENT” from the list

    d. Click on “SSS CONTRIBUTION”

    e. Fill out the transaction form

    f. Click “NEXT.” Double-check the details then confirm your transaction.

Employers can also pay for SSS contributions online

Both household and business employers can conveniently opt for online payment methods, which encompass platforms like SBC – Digibanker (https://sbcdigibanker.securitybank.com/portal) and UBP (https://www.unionbankph.com), including the UnionBank Online App.

For business employers, alternatives include the BPI – Bizlink (https://www.bpibizlink.com) and BancNet’s eGov facility, accessible through its 19 participating banks.

The Auto Debit Arrangement is open to all payors, encompassing options such as BPI, Country Builders Bank (CBB), First Consolidated Bank, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank), and Philippine National Bank (PNB).

Here is a complete list of SSS-accredited collecting agents:

Employers can eliminate the hazards of manual processing and embrace a secure and seamless approach to employer SSS contribution payments. Incorporate Brankas Direct into your workflows. Its cutting-edge technology guarantees secure, straightforward, and user-friendly payment processes.

How to check your SSS contributions online

1. Go to https://www.sss.gov.ph/
2. Click the appropriate portal button on the right side of the web page.

3. Log in with your user ID and password.
4. Go to “INQUIRY” and select ‘Contributions’ Source: sss.gov.ph and The Pinay Investor

Managing your SSS contributions online offers many advantages that simplify your financial responsibilities. By embracing the efficiency of online platforms, you not only streamline your contribution management but also contribute to the operation of the Social Security System. With just a few clicks, you can ensure your financial security and future while avoiding the hassles of traditional methods.

Transforming Finance: From Staggered Payments in Insurance to Multiple Industries

Transforming Finance: From Staggered Payments in Insurance to Multiple Industries

Innovation is reshaping how businesses operate, and insurance companies are no exception. As technology revolutionizes various industries, staggered payments have emerged as a game-changer, offering numerous benefits for insurers and policyholders.

Understanding staggered payments

Staggered payments or staggered payouts, entail dividing a substantial sum of money into smaller, more manageable installments spread over a predefined period. This innovative approach has gained traction within the insurance landscape, offering a fresh perspective on how insurance payouts can be structured. Staggered payouts in life insurance policies hold immense potential to shape the financial well-being of beneficiaries.

Receiving staggered payments brings a host of benefits that resonate deeply with beneficiaries. Unlike traditional lump-sum payouts, staggered payouts provide recipients with a structured and steady stream of income. This ensures a consistent financial foundation, offering peace of mind to beneficiaries during challenging times. Such an approach proves invaluable for individuals aiming to secure the financial future of their loved ones, as it safeguards against financial instability in the event of a policyholder’s demise.

Staggered payments align seamlessly with the changing dynamics of modern life. Financial obligations, such as mortgages, education expenses, and daily living costs, continue even after losing a loved one. Staggered payouts address this reality by facilitating a steady income flow that can be strategically allocated to fulfill these commitments, reducing the financial burden on beneficiaries during grief.

By offering a structured and reliable income stream, staggered payouts contribute to enhancing beneficiaries' financial stability and overall quality of life. As this innovative approach gains momentum within the insurance industry, it underscores the power of thoughtful financial planning and underscores the insurance sector’s commitment to adapting to the evolving needs of its clients.

Innovations in the insurance industry

Staggered payments bring many advantages that resonate deeply with policyholders and insurers. For policyholders, this approach offers greater financial flexibility and peace of mind. Instead of receiving a lump sum that might require complex financial management, beneficiaries are assured of a steady income stream that can be utilized to meet ongoing financial obligations and necessities. This structured approach minimizes the risk of mismanagement and provides beneficiaries with a clear understanding of their financial situation.

The benefits extend to insurers as well. By offering staggered payouts, insurance companies can tailor their products to match the financial needs and preferences of a diverse clientele. This flexibility enhances the attractiveness of life insurance policies, making them more appealing to a broader range of individuals. Staggered payments can potentially lower the incidence of policy surrender, as beneficiaries are more likely to continue receiving payouts over time rather than opting for a lump-sum payment and potentially mismanaging it.

In addition to the evident advantages for policyholders and insurers, staggered payments reflect the insurance industry’s commitment to adapting to the changing landscape of financial planning. It acknowledges that the traditional model of a lump-sum payout may not always align with the intricate financial needs of beneficiaries. As a result, staggered payouts showcase the industry’s ability to evolve and innovate to better serve its clients in an increasingly complex financial world.

Integration of FinTech solutions in insurance companies

Insurers can offer seamless payment experiences to policyholders by leveraging FinTech solutions. One significant application of fintech in insurance is the automation of disbursements. Automated disbursement systems streamline the complex payout process, ensuring that policyholders and beneficiaries receive their funds in an efficient manner.

1. Seamless payment processes

Automated disbursement solutions replace traditional manual and paper-based methods, eliminating the potential for errors, delays, and administrative bottlenecks. These systems leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and secure online platforms, to facilitate seamless communication between insurance companies, financial institutions, and beneficiaries. By automating the disbursement process, insurance companies can reduce the risk of payment errors, enhance operational efficiency, and provide a more user-friendly experience for policyholders and beneficiaries.

2. Enhances customer experience and loyalty

Investing in FinTech solutions, particularly automated disbursement systems, directly translates to an enhanced customer experience, leading to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction. With automated disbursements, beneficiaries no longer need to navigate through complex paperwork, lengthy waiting periods, or manual check-processing procedures. Instead, they experience the convenience of receiving their funds directly and promptly through secure digital channels.

The user-centric approach of FinTech solutions significantly improves the overall perception of insurance companies. Beneficiaries view insurance providers as innovative, responsive, and committed to meeting their evolving financial needs. This positive experience not only strengthens the bond between policyholders and insurers but also fosters brand loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.

Beyond insurance: multi-industry applications

The application of automated disbursement solutions extends far beyond the insurance sector, finding relevance in various industries.

1. Payroll and employee benefits

Traditional payroll systems can be time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to discrepancies and delays in salary distribution. However, FinTech-driven automated disbursement solutions offer a streamlined approach.

These systems enable employers to automate the entire process, from calculating salaries and deductions to disbursing funds directly into employees' bank accounts. By eliminating manual intervention, companies can ensure timely and error-free salary payments, enhancing trust and transparency among their workforce. Employees benefit from the convenience of receiving their salaries promptly, eliminating the need to physically collect paychecks or face potential delays in funds availability.

The impact of automated payroll and employee benefits disbursement on employee satisfaction cannot be understated. When employees experience seamless and punctual salary payments, it contributes to a positive work environment. Workers feel valued and appreciated by their employers, which, in turn, boosts morale and job satisfaction. The convenience of accessing their earnings promptly empowers employees to manage their finances effectively, reducing financial stress and enhancing their overall well-being.

2. Loan repayments and financial services

The financial services industry also stands to benefit significantly from automated disbursement solutions. Loan repayments can be made more flexible and convenient for borrowers. FinTech-driven systems allow borrowers to customize their repayment plans based on their financial capabilities and preferences.

Borrowers can set up automated repayments, choosing from various options such as monthly, bi-weekly, or even daily deductions from their accounts. This flexibility reduces the risk of default, as borrowers can align repayments with their income schedules, ultimately improving their financial well-being.

For financial institutions, automated loan repayment systems enhance risk management. Regular and predictable repayments minimize the chances of delinquency or default. These systems can automatically trigger alerts or notifications to borrowers, reminding them of upcoming payments and providing transparency into their loan status.

3. Sales agents' commissions

Automated disbursement solutions are also a boon for businesses that rely on commission-based sales agents. These systems simplify calculating and disbursing commissions, ensuring sales agents receive their earnings promptly and accurately.

Why invest in FinTech solutions

Investing in automated disbursement solutions offers compelling reasons for companies across various industries.

1. Efficiency and cost savings: Automated disbursement systems streamline financial transactions, reducing the need for manual intervention. This efficiency translates into substantial cost savings by minimizing human errors, administrative overheads, and the resources required for traditional payment methods. Companies can allocate these saved resources to more strategic endeavors.

2. Speed and timeliness: Fintech solutions, like automated disbursements, significantly accelerate the payment process. This speed is particularly vital in industries such as insurance, where timely payouts are crucial for beneficiaries during challenging times. Quick access to funds can make a substantial difference in the customer experience and satisfaction.

3. Enhanced customer experience: Fast and hassle-free disbursements contribute to an improved customer experience. In the insurance sector, for instance, policyholders appreciate the convenience of staggered payouts, which are seamlessly facilitated by FinTech platforms. This enhanced experience fosters loyalty and positive brand perception.

4. Customization and flexibility: FinTech solutions allow for the customization of payment plans. customers can opt for repayment plans tailored to their financial capacity in sectors like loans and finance services. This flexibility enhances customer retention and minimizes default risks, as borrowers can better manage their financial obligations.

5. Transparency and traceability: Blockchain technology, often integrated into fintech platforms, ensures transparent and traceable transactions. This level of transparency builds trust among all stakeholders, reducing disputes and fraud while increasing the overall integrity of financial transactions.

6. Expanded market reach: FinTech solutions facilitate the inclusion of individuals and businesses with limited access to traditional financial services. For instance, in the insurance sector, automated disbursements reach policyholders in remote areas, expanding market reach and unlocking growth potential.

7. Data-driven insights: FinTech platforms generate valuable data and analytics. Companies can leverage this data to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and payment patterns. Such insights empower data-driven decision-making and strategies for business growth.

8. Competitive edge: Embracing FinTech solutions provides a competitive edge in today’s digital economy. Companies that offer automated disbursements, personalized payment plans, and transparent financial processes are more likely to attract and retain customers in a highly competitive marketplace.

9. Regulatory compliance: Many FinTech solutions, including automated disbursements, are designed with compliance in mind. They adhere to industry regulations and standards, ensuring companies meet their legal obligations while avoiding penalties.

10. Future-proofing: As technology continues to advance, companies that invest in FinTech solutions are better prepared to adapt to changing market dynamics. This future-proofing ensures businesses remain agile and relevant in an evolving financial landscape.

Brankas revolutionizes automated disbursements across industries

Brankas, a leading fintech solution provider, offers a comprehensive suite of automated disbursement solutions that cater to the diverse needs of various industries. With Brankas' expertise and cutting-edge technology, businesses can streamline their financial processes and elevate the efficiency of their disbursement operations.

The future of staggered payments and automated disbursement solutions is promising. As businesses across industries recognize the value of such systems, the adoption of FinTech-driven solutions is anticipated to grow exponentially. Collaborations between industries and FinTech providers are likely to become more common, driving innovation and propelling the concept of staggered payments into new territories.

Embracing a seamless financial future

Adopting automated disbursement solutions represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of financial transactions across industries. This technological revolution has ushered in an era of unparalleled efficiency, convenience, and transparency. It becomes increasingly evident that embracing these innovations is tantamount to reinventing how we conduct financial transactions.

FinTech’s role in facilitating staggered payments in insurance, automating disbursements in various sectors, and ensuring secure, swift, and customizable financial transactions has redefined the essence of financial interactions. This transformation extends far beyond mere convenience; it reimagines the very nature of financial services. It places control and flexibility firmly in the hands of customers, be they insurance policyholders, employees receiving salaries, sales agents collecting commissions, or borrowers repaying loans.

Companies across diverse industries are embracing a sounder financial future as they recognize the benefits of FinTech solutions. They are redefining how they engage with their customers, enhancing efficiency, and positioning themselves as leaders in an increasingly digital world. The possibilities for growth, innovation, and market expansion are boundless.

Philippine SWIFT Codes and Bank Codes: Efficient Financial Transactions to PNB, BPI, UnionBank, BDO, and more

Precise communication is the bedrock of successful transactions in global finance. SWIFT and bank codes stand as the linchpins, orchestrating the seamless flow of funds across international and local borders. Understanding these codes is not just a matter of convenience but a necessity in modern banking.

SWIFT and bank codes connect global banking networks

SWIFT and bank codes function as digital signatures, uniquely identifying financial institutions. They play a vital role in verifying the origins and destinations of funds, reducing errors, and simplifying the intricate process of cross-border money transfers. Whether it’s a business conducting imports or an individual sending remittances, these codes enhance the speed and accuracy of financial operations. They provide an added layer of security by validating the legitimacy of sender and recipient institutions. This authentication process reduces the risks associated with fraudulent activities and unauthorized transfers. Thus, these codes contribute significantly to maintaining the integrity of the global financial system.

SWIFT and bank codes also play a pivotal role in adhering to regulatory guidelines. As financial transactions traverse borders, they encounter varying regulations and compliance requirements. These codes aid financial institutions in ensuring that transactions comply with local and international regulations, adding an element of transparency and accountability to the process.

What is a SWIFT code?

SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. A SWIFT code, commonly referred to as a SWIFT number or Business Identifier Code (BIC), serves as a unique identifier for global banks and financial institutions. These codes play an integral role in expediting money transfers across international borders. If you’re initiating an international money transfer from the Philippines, possessing a valid SWIFT/BIC code is a necessity.

How SWIFT codes are structured and what they signify

SWIFT/BIC codes are made up of 8 to 11 characters. They are structured in a pattern that distinguishes your bank, country, location, and branch.

The first four letters identify the bank. The next two letters show which country the bank is located. You’ll know where the bank’s main office is by the next two letters. The last three digits are optional and refer to a specific bank branch. Most of the time, XXX is used instead of a specific branch.

For instance:

• PNB SWIFT code-PNBMPHMM
• PNBM-Philippine National Bank
• PH-Philippines
• MM-Metro Manila

How will I know which SWIFT code a bank is using?

There are several ways to find out a bank’s SWIFT code:

1. Call the bank’s customer service hotline.
2. Visit the bank.
3. Go to the SWIFT website. Type the bank’s name, city, and country in the appropriate fields. Click ‘Search’.
4. Check from the list prepared by the Brankas team.

SWIFT codes of Philippine Banks 2023

Source: bank.codes by Wise

Are bank codes the same as SWIFT codes?

Bank and SWIFT codes are related, but each has distinct identification systems used in the banking industry for different purposes. Bank codes are primarily used for domestic transactions within a country, while SWIFT codes are essential for international transactions, connecting banks across the globe in a standardized way.

A bank code or the Bank Routing Symbol Transit Number (BRSTN), comprises nine digits assigned to each bank by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). This distinctive identifier holds significance within diverse financial operations, encompassing local fund transfers, salary deposits, bill payments, and other monetary transactions. Filipinos using PayPal need their bank’s bank code to add a bank account to their PayPal account. Each bank within the Philippines possesses a unique BRSTN code, which functions as a representation of its identity.

The utilization of the BRSTN code holds paramount importance in expediting financial transactions, guaranteeing precision in the movement of funds among different Philippine banks. An accurate BRSTN code is imperative; its absence or inaccuracy can result in transaction delays, rejections, or even loss, thereby incurring inconvenience and supplementary expenses for both the sender and recipient.

Furthermore, the BRSTN code, also known as the bank code, plays an integral role in international remittances. When funds are transferred from overseas to a bank in the Philippines, awareness of the recipient bank’s BRSTN code becomes crucial to ensure the seamless progression of the transaction.

Bank codes (BRSTN) of Philippine Banks

Here is a list of bank codes in the Philippines for quick reference.

Source: Grit PH

The importance of accurate codes

Using incorrect codes can lead to a series of detrimental consequences. In the case of SWIFT codes, sending funds to the wrong financial institution can result in the money being lost or delayed indefinitely. These errors can be expensive to rectify and may even result in legal disputes.

Similarly, using incorrect bank codes in domestic transactions can lead to payments not reaching their intended recipients. This can lead to unpaid bills, delayed salaries, and even disrupted business operations. The consequences can extend beyond financial losses to damaged business relationships and tarnished reputations.

For individuals, such errors can lead to personal financial losses, unexpected charges, and inconvenience. In the corporate landscape, such inaccuracies can disrupt supply chains, hinder cash flows, and potentially lead to legal battles. Inaccurate codes also expose individuals and organizations to heightened cybersecurity risks, as fraudsters can exploit these errors to redirect funds to their accounts.

Future trends of banking identification

Banking identification methods are evolving in response to technological advancements and changing customer preferences. Biometric data, such as fingerprints and facial recognition, offer a more secure and convenient way to verify transactions and access accounts. Open banking allows authorized third-party providers to access customer data with consent, potentially leading to more streamlined and secure ways of verifying transactions without the need for codes. Blockchain technology’s tamper-proof structure could provide a robust solution for maintaining and sharing codes securely across institutions.

Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can take advantage of technology to make payments a stress-free experience for clients. You may lose funds or get a bad exchange rate while sending or receiving wire transfers. Brankas APIs help businesses provide a safe and convenient payment platform for customers.

As the world becomes more digitally interconnected, codes might become more integrated into the digital fabric of our lives. While traditional SWIFT or bank codes will still hold importance, their usage might become more seamless, automated, and user-friendly. This evolution aligns with the broader trend of making financial interactions more convenient, secure, and efficient.

Top 10 Banking Technology Trends in 2023 Affecting Southeast Asia

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, the banking industry is undergoing a profound metamorphosis. The dynamics of financial services are being redefined by a relentless surge of technological advancements, propelling the industry toward uncharted territories. The spotlight on these groundbreaking transformations is illuminated by the comprehensive research conducted by StartUs Insights, which delves into the Top 10 Banking Technology Trends and Adoption in 2023.

In the heart of Southeast Asia’s thriving economies, the importance of embracing and integrating these transformative trends cannot be overstated. Banking institutions that fail to navigate this technological tide risk being left behind in a sea of obsolescence, where antiquated methods struggle to keep pace with the demands of the modern customer. As these trends sweep through the banking industry, they reverberate across the ASEAN region, reshaping customer expectations, regulatory landscapes, and the very essence of financial interactions.

StartUs Insights' research offers a profound insight into the vital convergence of technology and finance. It elucidates how each trend weaves a distinct thread in the intricate fabric of modern banking, underscoring the imperative for banks to not just keep up, but to surge ahead. This article will examine these trends and unravel their implications for the banking landscape in Southeast Asia (SEA). We shed light on how artificial intelligence, open banking, hyper-personalized experiences, blockchain, the banking of things, cybersecurity, immersive technologies, banking process automation, neobanking, and even the potential of quantum computing will uniquely influence banking in this vibrant region.

The era of passive banking has ceded its ground to proactive, customer-centric, and data-driven banking, a transformation that holds distinctive resonance in Southeast Asia’s diverse and dynamic markets. Customers here are no longer satisfied with mere transactions; they seek seamless experiences, personalized services, and safeguarding their financial interactions. To meet these evolving expectations, banks in Southeast Asia must seamlessly weave technology into their DNA, embracing these trends not as optional enhancements but as fundamental pillars of their existence.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolutionizing Banking

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is propelling institutions into a new era of efficiency, customer-centricity, and data-driven decision-making. A Kearney report reveals, “AI has the potential to add $1 trillion to the GDP” in Southeast Asia. AI is a pivotal trend that is not only reshaping operations but also deeply impacting customer experiences and strategic planning.

AI-Powered customer service and chatbots

Gone are the days of prolonged hold times and delayed responses to customer queries. AI-powered customer service and chatbots have emerged as game-changers, ushering in a new era of instantaneous and personalized interactions. These intelligent virtual assistants act as the first line of communication, promptly addressing customer inquiries, providing account information, and assisting with routine transactions.

Diverse languages and cultures coalesce in SEA, and AI-driven chatbots offer unparalleled convenience. They seamlessly adapt to different languages, dialects, and communication styles, ensuring that customers across the region can engage effortlessly with their financial institutions. These chatbots not only offer immediate responses but also continuously learn from interactions, enhancing their ability to provide accurate and contextually relevant solutions. As AI evolves, the chatbot experience is poised to become even more intuitive and emotionally intelligent, enabling banks to forge stronger connections with their clientele.

Enhanced fraud detection and prevention

The battle against financial fraud and cybercrime has never been more critical. AI-powered fraud detection systems tirelessly analyze vast datasets to identify irregular patterns and anomalies that could signal fraudulent activities. By pinpointing potentially fraudulent transactions in real-time, AI mitigates risks and minimizes losses, safeguarding customers and financial institutions.

Moreover, AI augments the power of traditional cybersecurity mechanisms by rapidly adapting to new threats and vulnerabilities. It enables proactive threat assessment, allowing banks to stay ahead of cybercriminals and maintain the integrity of their systems.

Data analytics and personalized financial insights

In the age of data abundance, harnessing information is the key to unlocking competitive advantages. AI-powered data analytics enables banks to glean valuable insights from colossal datasets, painting a comprehensive portrait of customer behaviors, preferences, and financial patterns. These insights empower banks to deliver hyper-personalized experiences, tailoring services, and product offerings to individual customer needs.

For instance, AI analyzes transaction histories to offer customized financial recommendations, guiding customers on budgeting, investment opportunities, and debt management. Such tailored advice not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters a sense of financial empowerment among users. Banks armed with AI-driven analytics are poised to cultivate stronger customer relationships and become trusted financial advisors in the digital realm.

DBS Bank transforms alert prioritization and operational efficiency

A tangible illustration of AI’s influence can be found within Singapore’s DBS bank. AI is harnessed to minimize false positives and effectively prioritize alerts. This approach liberates analysts to allocate their valuable time to more critical tasks, enhancing overall operational efficiency. Utilizing AI-powered algorithms, DBS adeptly handles the intricate task of assimilating and analyzing copious volumes of bank data, a pivotal step in ensuring well-informed decisions concerning alerts.

UnionBank innovative credit scoring for the unbanked

Harnessing the capabilities of AI-powered credit scoring models, UnionBank in the Philippines seamlessly generates credit scores for the previously unbanked demographic. By tapping into alternative data sources, this groundbreaking initiative is substantially broadening the horizon of credit accessibility. This approach revolutionizes financial inclusion, offering opportunities that were once elusive to individuals outside the realm of traditional banking services.

2. Open Banking: Redefining Financial Services

Open banking seeks to dismantle traditional silos within the banking industry, ushering in an era of seamless data sharing and collaboration. This paradigm shift not only enhances customer experiences but also fosters a fertile ground for innovation within the sector.

Breaking down silos and data sharing

Traditionally, banks have operated in isolated compartments, safeguarding their data and services within proprietary boundaries. Open Banking disrupts this conventional approach by advocating for the sharing of financial data through secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This implies that banks willingly open their treasure troves of information to authorized third-party providers, allowing for the seamless exchange of data between institutions.

The implications of this are profound. Customers can now enjoy a holistic view of their financial landscape, consolidating information from various accounts and institutions onto a single platform. For instance, a customer can track expenses from multiple bank accounts, investment portfolios, and even loyalty programs in one unified interface. This data-sharing revolution empowers customers with unprecedented insights into their financial health, enabling informed decision-making.

Expanding customer choices through API integration

Open banking transcends the realm of data-sharing, extending its impact on the array of financial services available. Through API integration, customers can access a broader spectrum of financial products and services from multiple providers within a single app or platform. This signifies that customers can effortlessly compare offerings, select the most suitable options, and even initiate transactions, all within the confines of their chosen application.

Consider a scenario where a customer explores mortgage options. Through open banking, they can swiftly analyze mortgage rates, terms, and eligibility criteria across various banks, rendering the decision-making process more efficient and transparent. This democratization of choices ensures that customers can tailor their financial journey according to their preferences and needs.

Fostering innovation through collaborative ecosystems

Open banking’s transformative impact extends beyond customer convenience—it nurtures a fertile environment for innovation. By allowing third-party developers to create new applications and services based on shared financial data, open banking paves the way for a thriving ecosystem of interconnected services. This collaborative approach has given birth to a plethora of innovative fintech solutions that cater to niche financial needs.

For example, a customer might utilize a third-party app that seamlessly analyzes spending patterns and suggests personalized budgeting strategies. Another scenario could involve a lending platform that assesses creditworthiness based on comprehensive financial data, revolutionizing loan approvals. Such collaborative ecosystems encourage competition and inspire inventive solutions that amplify the value proposition for customers.

UNOBank Enhances User Convenience

UNOBank, in collaboration with Brankas, seamlessly incorporated both the direct and disburse Brankas APIs into their mobile application. By eliminating intermediaries, users swiftly add funds to their accounts and seamlessly transfer money to other banks and e-wallets without the extra layers and fees.

The innovation doesn’t stop there. UNOBank’s integration with Brankas empowers users to effortlessly add money from a multitude of sources, including UnionBank, BPI, and several other banks. Equally impressive is the ability to send money seamlessly to a diverse array of destinations, spanning BDO, GCash, Metrobank, Landbank, and over a hundred other banks and e-wallets. This comprehensive connectivity optimizes the user journey, embodying UNOBank’s unwavering commitment to customer-centricity and delivering an unparalleled banking experience.

3. Hyper-Personalized Banking for Customer Centricity

Hyper-personalization transforms the way financial institutions interact with their customers. Its core involves leveraging advanced technologies to deliver tailored and relevant experiences to individual customers. This shift from a one-size-fits-all approach to a finely curated journey empowers banks to cater to the unique needs, preferences, and behaviors of each customer.

Leveraging big data for tailored customer experiences

Central to hyper-personalization is the effective utilization of big data. Banks are amassing volumes of customer data, ranging from transaction histories and spending patterns to digital interactions and social media behavior. By tapping into this data goldmine, banks can glean invaluable insights into customer preferences and behaviors. This data-driven approach enables banks to create highly targeted and relevant interactions with customers, enhancing engagement and satisfaction.

For instance, a bank can analyze a customer’s spending habits and recommend customized budgeting strategies or investment options that align with their financial goals. By understanding each customer’s unique financial journey, banks can proactively offer solutions that resonate personally, fostering deeper customer relationships.

Predictive analytics and behavioral analysis

Hyper-personalized banking harnesses the power of predictive analytics and behavioral analysis to anticipate customer needs and preferences. Advanced algorithms analyze historical data and current behaviors to predict future actions. This enables banks to take a proactive stance in addressing customer requirements, often before customers themselves are aware of them.

Consider a scenario where a customer is saving for a major life event, such as purchasing a home. Through predictive analytics, a bank can identify this goal and offer timely advice, such as personalized mortgage options or investment strategies. This level of proactive guidance not only enhances the customer’s financial journey but also positions the bank as a trusted advisor.

Customized product offerings and services

Hyper-personalization extends to the realm of product offerings and services. Banks can tailor their array of financial products to align with individual customer goals and aspirations. This means that customers receive recommendations for credit cards, loans, investment portfolios, and insurance coverage uniquely suited to their needs.

For instance, a young professional with an affinity for travel might receive personalized credit card offers that include travel rewards and discounts. Similarly, a customer nearing retirement might be presented with investment options focused on generating stable income. This level of customization not only enhances the customer’s financial experience but also bolsters their trust in the bank’s ability to cater to their evolving needs.

Aspire by Techcombank tailors banking experience for the Why Not? generation

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) Aspire is a holistic value proposition crafted to empower customers with an unparalleled banking experience that resonates with their unique preferences and aspirations. By providing a seamless and personalized approach to banking, Aspire grants customers the freedom to bank on their own terms, redefining traditional financial interactions. The offering encompasses a range of privileges, from selecting personalized account numbers and card designs to accessing credit cards tailored to individual spending habits.

Account management, transaction fees, and card issuance fees are all waived, underscoring a commitment to customer-centricity. Furthermore, customers can relish unlimited cashback benefits, zero-interest installment purchases, and flexible insurance policies. Aspire also extends its reach to investment opportunities, home loans, and comprehensive health and protection solutions, elevating the banking journey to an entirely new level of value and personalization.

UOB TMRW elevates customer engagement

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) in Singapore quadrupled its customer engagement rate and Net Promoter Score (NPS) one year after launching TMRW. TMRW is a mobile-only bank designed for ASEAN millennials. With a visionary approach to enhancing customer engagement, retention, and loyalty, UOB TMRW harnessed the potential of AI-powered insights to shape a banking experience that resonates intimately with each individual.

UOB TMRW seamlessly integrated AI-powered personalized insights into its mobile-only banking platform. Off-the-shelf and custom-built insights serve as intuitive nuggets of financial wisdom that cater to users' specific financial activities. From optimizing savings transfers and preparing for unforeseen expenses to identifying potentially fraudulent transactions, offering exclusive discounts for online shopping, and more, UOB TMRW has orchestrated an ecosystem where banking becomes a proactive and user-centric engagement.

4. Blockchain: Beyond Cryptocurrencies in Banking

Blockchain technology has transcended its initial association with cryptocurrencies to become a transformative force in the banking sector. This trend revolves around harnessing the unique attributes of blockchain for a myriad of applications, extending well beyond the realm of digital currencies.

Streamlining cross-border payments

One of the most significant impacts of blockchain in banking lies in its potential to revolutionize cross-border payments. Traditional international transfers often entail convoluted processes, multiple intermediaries, and extended settlement times. Blockchain introduces a streamlined approach by enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions across borders. This eliminates intermediaries, slashes processing times, and reduces transaction costs. Banks can establish secure and instantaneous transfer mechanisms using blockchain, thereby enhancing the efficiency of global remittances and trade finance.

Smart contracts revolutionizing contractual agreements

Smart contracts are a hallmark of blockchain’s ingenuity, poised to redefine how contractual agreements are executed in the banking domain. These self-executing contracts are coded with predefined conditions and terms. When these conditions are met, the contract is automatically executed without the need for intermediaries. This has profound implications for various banking operations, including loan disbursements, trade finance, and supply chain finance. Smart contracts enhance accuracy, eliminate manual errors, and expedite processes, ultimately optimizing the efficiency of financial operations.

Ensuring transparency and security in transactions

Transparency and security are paramount in banking, and blockchain is a potent tool to address these concerns. The technology’s decentralized and immutable nature ensures that all transactions are recorded securely on a distributed ledger, impervious to alteration or tampering. This fosters an unparalleled level of transparency, as all authorized parties have real-time access to a single source of truth. Additionally, the cryptographic protocols employed by blockchain bolster data security, mitigating the risk of fraud and unauthorized access. By instilling trust and accountability into financial transactions, blockchain elevates the integrity of banking processes.

OCBC Bank revolutionizes payment services

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Limited (OCBC) Bank has taken a pioneering leap in the Southeast Asian banking landscape by embracing blockchain technology for both local and cross-border payment funds transfers. This innovative move promises heightened operational efficiency, transparency, security, and cost-effectiveness, leading to an enhanced customer experience. A noteworthy successful pilot transaction conducted between OCBC Bank, OCBC Malaysia, and Bank of Singapore exemplifies the tangible benefits of the blockchain solution jointly developed with BCS Information Systems (BCSIS). With plans for full integration and broader application, OCBC Bank’s blockchain platform holds the potential to revolutionize inter-bank payments, eliminating the need for intermediaries, and sets the stage for the technology’s expansion into various financial products and services.

ADB transforms cross-border securities

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has embarked on an innovative project aimed at revolutionizing cross-border securities transactions in Asia and the Pacific through the integration of blockchain technology. Collaborating with prominent blockchain firms, ADB is committed to establishing direct connections among central banks and securities depositories within a blockchain network across SEA. The strategic deployment of blockchain has the potential to significantly reduce transaction costs and settlement risks, addressing the current challenges posed by the existing global network of custodians and correspondent banks, which often necessitate lengthy processing times due to geographical disparities and market operating hours.

5. Banking of Things: Convergence of Finance and IoT

The concept of banking of things represents the fascinating fusion of the financial realm with the Internet of Things (IoT), resulting in a dynamic ecosystem where interconnected devices play a pivotal role in shaping the future of banking and payments.

Connected devices enable seamless transactions

The essence of IoT in banking lies in the ability of everyday devices, ranging from smartphones and wearables to household appliances and vehicles, to facilitate seamless financial transactions. These smart devices become conduits for swift and secure payments, allowing users to effortlessly execute purchases, transfer funds, and manage their accounts through a touch or a voice command. The integration of near-field communication (NFC) technology and biometric authentication further amplifies the convenience factor, transforming our surroundings into potential points of financial interaction.

Data-driven insights for financial decision-making

The marriage of IoT and finance yields a treasure trove of data, offering valuable insights into consumer behavior, spending patterns, and preferences. As devices gather and transmit real-time information, financial institutions can harness this data to enhance their understanding of customer needs. These insights drive personalized financial recommendations, tailored product offerings, and more informed decision-making processes. With banking of things, the boundary between banking and everyday life blurs, creating a symbiotic relationship where financial services seamlessly adapt to individual lifestyles.

The future of payments in an interconnected world

The integration of banking and IoT paints a compelling vision of the future, where payment methods transcend conventional channels. From enabling contactless payments through wearable devices to facilitating peer-to-peer transactions via connected vehicles, the possibilities are limitless. It will not only revolutionize payment processes but also open doors to novel revenue streams and innovative business models. However, as the IoT landscape expands, robust cybersecurity measures and data privacy protocols become imperative to ensure a safe and trustworthy environment for these interconnected financial transactions.

POSB Smart Buddy empowers financial literacy through smartwatches

The Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) in Singapore launched its Smart Buddy program across 19 primary schools. POSB introduced a pioneering initiative that employs wearable technology – a complimentary watch – to instill prudent saving and spending habits among students. The program utilizes these smart watches to digitally track students' savings and expenditures, fostering early familiarity with digital payments. This innovative approach not only promotes financial literacy but also integrates seamlessly into a digital payment ecosystem within schools. Parents are empowered to remotely manage their child’s allowance, monitor spending and savings, and even observe their activity levels through a dedicated app.

6. Fortifying Cybersecurity in an Evolving Landscape

In an era where digital transactions and data exchanges underpin the banking realm, the necessity to fortify cybersecurity has become paramount. This trend encompasses a multifaceted approach to safeguarding sensitive information, ensuring customer trust, and maintaining operational integrity.

AI-enhanced threat detection and response

The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into cybersecurity frameworks is revolutionizing threat detection and response. AI algorithms possess the capability to swiftly analyze vast volumes of data, identifying aberrant patterns and potential threats that human counterparts might overlook. This proactive stance empowers financial institutions to preemptively counteract cyberattacks, minimizing potential damages.

Biometric authentication and secure identity verification

Biometric authentication methods, such as fingerprint recognition, facial scanning, and iris detection, are emerging as stalwarts in ensuring secure identity verification. These methods offer a higher degree of certainty compared to traditional passwords, reducing the vulnerability of accounts to unauthorized access. By integrating biometric technologies into banking systems, institutions can significantly enhance the security of their digital platforms.

Zero Trust Architecture: A new paradigm in security

The concept of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is gaining traction as a transformative shift in cybersecurity philosophy. Unlike conventional perimeter-based security models, ZTA operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” This approach demands continuous verification of user identities and devices, regardless of location or network. By adopting a Zero Trust approach, banks can mitigate the risks associated with internal and external threats, bolstering their overall cybersecurity posture.

GoTyme Bank secures digital frontiers with technology partners

GoTyme Bank, a partnership between the Gokongwei Group in the Philippines and Singapore-based Tyme, employs a multi-faceted approach to cybersecurity by utilizing SonarQube for continuous code inspection, internal and external security tests, and round-the-clock monitoring through a dedicated cyber operations center. With Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its infrastructure provider, the bank leverages secure certifications like PCI DSS and NIST. The integration of AWS control towers streamlines issue identification and reporting. Collaborating with NICE Actimize bolsters GoTyme’s defense against financial crimes. Biometrics further enhance security for high-value transactions, showcasing the bank’s commitment to cutting-edge measures for safeguarding customer data and transactions.

7. Immersive Technologies: Enhancing Customer Engagement

Immersive technologies have transcended the realm of entertainment and are making profound inroads into the banking industry, revolutionizing the way customers interact with financial services. These technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), are reshaping customer engagement, redefining the concept of banking spaces, and fostering financial literacy through gamification.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in banking

VR and AR are offering banks unprecedented opportunities to create immersive and interactive customer experiences. With VR headsets, customers can virtually step into a bank’s virtual environment, navigate through digital replicas of physical branches, attend meetings with advisors, and explore financial products. AR overlays digital information onto the real world, enabling customers to point their mobile devices at a physical space and receive real-time information, such as property values or nearby ATMs. These technologies foster deeper engagement and provide a dynamic channel for customers to explore banking offerings.

The incorporation of immersive technologies is reimagining the traditional brick-and-mortar bank branch. Banks are leveraging VR and AR to transform physical spaces into dynamic hubs where customers can engage with financial experts, attend virtual seminars, and even simulate investment scenarios. These digital enhancements are erasing geographical boundaries and enabling banks to establish a global presence, while simultaneously offering customers a unique and engaging banking encounter.

Gamification for financial education and empowerment

Gamification is emerging as a powerful tool for enhancing financial literacy and empowering customers to make informed decisions. Banks are utilizing gamified apps and platforms to create interactive learning experiences, teaching customers about budgeting, investments, and risk management in an entertaining and accessible manner. By infusing an element of play into financial education, gamification holds the potential to increase customers' financial awareness and confidence.

VIB augments customer interactions

Vietnam International Bank (VIB) has seamlessly integrated Augmented Reality (AR) technology into its mobile banking app, MyVIB 2.0. This dynamic incorporation transforms routine financial transactions, including card/account management, payment processing, promotional discovery, and branch/ATM navigation, into captivating journeys. By overlaying real-world environments with digitally rendered objects via smartphones, customers are offered an engaging and immersive perspective, redefining the way they interact with the bank’s services."

KB Kookmin Bank ventures into the metaverse

KB Kookmin Bank, a prominent South Korean banking institution, has teamed up with VR-content developer Sharebox to forge a virtual bank branch, accessible through head-mounted VR devices, ushering in a novel realm of banking engagement. Beyond its immersive training environment for staff, this virtual branch serves as an educational hub for young adults, imparting financial wisdom. This initiative is fortified by the development of the KB Metaverse VR Branch Testbed, a pioneering platform facilitating virtual banking services, remittances, and personalized consultations via avatars – effectively marrying cutting-edge technology with seamless banking experiences.

8. Banking Process Automation: Efficiency and Agility

Banking process automation, driven by technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), is revolutionizing the operational landscape of financial institutions, enhancing efficiency, reducing manual errors, and accelerating customer service. This trend encompasses a wide array of functions, from backend operations to customer-facing processes, all aimed at streamlining operations and ensuring a seamless banking experience.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in backend operations

RPA involves the use of software bots to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks that were traditionally performed by humans. In the banking sector, RPA is being harnessed to handle routine administrative processes, such as data entry, reconciliations, and report generation. By offloading these tasks to RPA bots, banks can free up their workforce to focus on higher-value activities, leading to increased productivity and improved operational agility.

Automated loan processing and credit risk assessment

Automating loan processing and credit risk assessment is significantly transforming the lending landscape. Advanced algorithms analyze a multitude of data points to assess creditworthiness quickly and accurately. This expedites the loan approval process, allowing banks to provide customers with prompt decisions on their credit applications. Moreover, automation ensures rigorous risk assessment, minimizing the chances of non-performing loans and enhancing overall portfolio quality.

Redefining customer onboarding and KYC procedures

Customer onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, often associated with complex paperwork and lengthy verification processes, are being revamped through automation. Digital onboarding solutions enable customers to open accounts and access banking services remotely, while AI-driven algorithms verify identity documents and conduct enhanced due diligence. These automated processes not only reduce customer friction but also bolster compliance efforts by ensuring robust KYC practices.

Bank Mega revolutionizes efficiency

Indonesia’s Bank Mega has embarked on an automation journey to revolutionize its services by leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Formerly grappling with time-consuming and error-prone processes, the bank aimed to enhance customer service. Previously, agents handling 135,000 monthly calls spent up to seven minutes per call, covering a range of tasks from inquiries to complaints. By implementing RPA, service requests that once took six to 24 hours are now accomplished within a maximum of five minutes. This transformation, driven by a strategic partnership with IDstar, has streamlined over 30 back-office processes, including the intricate task of reconciliation. Beyond expediting tasks, RPA has standardized procedures, ensuring consistent compliance and swift verifications.

9. Rise of Neobanking: Disrupting Traditional Banking Models

The ascent of neobanking signifies a transformative shift in the financial industry, challenging the conventional banking model and redefining the way customers interact with financial services. Neobanks, born out of digital innovation, prioritize customer-centricity, agility, and technological advancement, reshaping the banking landscape in profound ways.

Digital-first banking: beyond mobile apps

Neobanks stand out by offering a truly digital-first banking experience that extends beyond mere mobile apps. Their entire infrastructure is built around seamless digital interactions, from account opening to transaction management. With intuitive user interfaces, neobanks empower customers to effortlessly access and manage their finances using smartphones, tablets, or laptops, eliminating the need for physical branch visits.

Customer-centric offerings and flexible services

Neobanks revolve around customer needs, tailoring their services to meet the demands of modern lifestyles. By leveraging data analytics, neobanks gain insights into customer preferences and behaviors, enabling them to offer hyper-personalized financial products. These might include customizable savings goals, automated budgeting tools, and real-time spending insights. Moreover, neobanks often collaborate with third-party financial technology providers, extending their product suite to encompass investments, insurance, and more.

Challenges and opportunities for neobanks:

While neobanks bring innovation and convenience, they also face unique challenges. Building trust and credibility in a market dominated by traditional institutions remains a hurdle. Regulatory compliance and security are paramount, especially as neobanks handle sensitive financial information. Nevertheless, neobanks also have distinct advantages, including agility in adapting to evolving customer needs, a leaner operational structure, and the ability to rapidly introduce and test new features.

Tonik pioneers digital banking

Tonik Digital Bank was the inaugural private neobank in the country that was granted an official digital license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Moreover, Tonik stands out with the added assurance of deposits insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), solidifying its commitment to safeguarding its customers' financial interests. Tonik’s product portfolio encompasses deposits, payments, debit cards, and loans. This suite of offerings is designed to cater to a wide spectrum of tech-savvy individuals, predominantly the adult demographic, who may have been underserved or excluded from traditional banking services.

K Bank transforms South Korean banking

K Bank stands as South Korea’s pioneer licensed digital bank. Acquiring its banking license in November 2015, it rapidly amassed a customer base exceeding 250,000 by April 2017. The bank presents a diverse spectrum of financial services encompassing online and mobile banking, loans, deposits, debit cards, and international remittances.

10. Quantum Computing: Transforming Data Processing

Quantum computing stands at the forefront of technological advancement, heralding a new era of data processing with the potential to revolutionize the banking industry. This emerging field harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics to process information in ways that classical computers cannot achieve, holding profound implications for the future of banking operations, cryptography, and data analysis.

Quantum supremacy and its impact on banking

Quantum supremacy, the point at which quantum computers can perform tasks beyond the capabilities of classical computers, could have transformative effects on banking operations. Quantum computing’s unparalleled processing power could significantly enhance complex financial modeling, risk assessment, and algorithmic trading. It has the potential to revolutionize optimization problems, like portfolio management and fraud detection, by solving them exponentially faster than current technologies.

Cryptographic innovations and enhanced data security

While quantum computing promises unparalleled computing capabilities, it also poses a potential threat to current cryptographic methods, such as RSA and ECC, which secure digital transactions and communications. Quantum computers could potentially break these cryptographic schemes, jeopardizing data security. However, quantum computing also offers the opportunity to develop new cryptographic techniques, like quantum key distribution and post-quantum cryptography, which could ensure even higher levels of data security in the future.

Quantum machine learning: Shaping banking analytics

Quantum machine learning, a fusion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, has the potential to revolutionize data analytics in banking. By processing and analyzing vast datasets at unprecedented speeds, quantum machine learning could uncover intricate patterns and correlations that were previously hidden. This could enhance credit scoring models, fraud detection algorithms, and customer behavior predictions, leading to more accurate and insightful decision-making processes.

SCB transforms financial services

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) in Thailand partnered with subsidiary Digital Ventures to become the first bank in Southeast Asia to engage with quantum technology in financial services. The collaboration aims to apply quantum computing to areas like portfolio optimization, risk management, and security. SCB anticipates short-term advancements in various financial processes and long-term support for its investment strategy in transformative technologies.

These ten banking technology trends reshape the trajectory of the banking industry in Southeast Asia. As the digital and financial realms intertwine, the role of banks is evolving from being gatekeepers of funds to becoming architects of financial empowerment. The road ahead demands not just adaptation, but active participation in the ongoing technological revolution. By navigating this transformative journey with foresight, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to customer-centricity, Southeast Asian banks are poised to rewrite the script of financial services, ushering in an era of unparalleled connectivity, accessibility, and prosperity for all. The future beckons and those who embrace it stand to shape the future of banking for generations to come.

Why Your Business should use Embedded Finance to Boost Customer Retention and Loyalty

Staying competitive in business requires understanding the challenges and embracing innovative solutions. We have seen how customer retention is the cornerstone of a successful enterprise in this article on the challenges of customer retention. This article will explore the game-changer that is embedded finance and how it addresses the customer retention challenges mentioned.

Embedded finance is not merely a trend; it is a seismic shift in the business landscape. It is about convenience, personalization, and, most importantly, keeping customers engaged and loyal. Financial transactions are no longer bound by traditional banking, and embedded finance opens new horizons. Join us in unraveling the transformative power of Embedded Finance.

Defining Embedded Finance

McKinsey & Company defines embedded finance as “the placing of a financial product in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform.” The idea is nothing new; banks have found ways to reach customers. Older forms of embedded finance include traveler’s checks, ATM networks, and financing options from car dealerships. These days, next-gen embedded finance gains remarkable strength from the seamless integration of financial products into the digital interfaces people engage with everyday. Almost everyone has used ride-hailing apps, digital wallets, food delivery apps, and e-commerce platforms where in-app payment solutions are provided.

Consumers and businesses have growing expectations for financial products and services to merge with their daily routines seamlessly. Consider scenarios like paying for parking as you enter a garage or securing real-time financing when making a purchase. These integrated experiences transcend the realm of mere “digital financial services” and propel us toward the next evolutionary phase in finance. Financial services are becoming an integral part of broader value chain experiences, marking a significant shift into the age of experiential finance.

How Embedded Finance Fits into Customer Retention

The transformative potential of embedded finance enhances customer engagement and loyalty. It is reshaping customer interactions by integrating financial solutions into everyday activities, ultimately boosting customer stickiness and satisfaction. This approach not only simplifies financial transactions but also deepens customer relationships. 

Key benefits of embedded finance include offering tailored financial solutions, such as installment plans and buy-now-pay-later options, directly at the point of sale. This customization enhances the customer experience and fosters loyalty. Additionally, embedded finance enables real-time access to financial services, making transactions smoother and more efficient. It also supports cross-border payments, simplifying international transactions. Embedded finance is not limited to traditional banking but extends to industries like e-commerce, travel, and healthcare, expanding the scope of financial services.

Addressing Customer Retention Challenges

1. Embedded finance reduces churn rate

Embedded finance solutions empower businesses to create a seamless payment experience for customers and enhance the attractiveness of subscription and membership services. By reducing payment friction and offering value-added perks, embedded finance contributes significantly to reducing churn rates and fostering long-term customer relationships.

a. Seamless payment integration

Embedded finance integrates payment processing directly into the customer’s journey. Whether it is making a purchase online, renewing a subscription, or paying for a service, customers can complete transactions without switching platforms or navigating external payment gateways. This frictionless experience reduces the chances of customers abandoning a transaction due to a cumbersome payment process.

Embedded finance enables businesses to offer tailored payment solutions, such as flexible installment plans, digital wallets, or even cryptocurrency payments. This customization caters to a wide range of customer preferences, further enhancing the likelihood of completing transactions.

b. Subscription and membership services

Embedded finance empowers businesses to automate subscription renewals. This means customers can seamlessly continue their subscription or membership without manual intervention. This convenience not only reduces churn but also ensures a steady stream of recurring revenue for businesses.

Businesses can offer additional perks or tiered membership levels by embedding finance into subscription models. For example, customers who upgrade their subscriptions may gain access to premium content, exclusive discounts, or priority customer support. These value-added benefits incentivize customers to remain loyal.

Embedded finance tools provide businesses with valuable insights into customer behavior. This data can be leveraged to optimize subscription offerings, identify at-risk customers, and tailor marketing efforts to improve customer retention.

2. Embedded finance provides customized solutions

Personalization through embedded finance is about delivering the right financial products and services to the right customers at the right time. By harnessing data-driven insights and offering tailored financial solutions, businesses can create highly engaging and customer-centric experiences. This not only boosts customer retention but also fosters brand loyalty and long-term relationships.

a. Data-driven insights

Embedded finance tools collect and analyze vast amounts of customer data. This includes transaction history, spending patterns, preferences, and more. By leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms, businesses can gain deep insights into individual customer behavior.

Using these insights, businesses can segment their customer base into distinct groups based on various attributes and behaviors. For example, they can identify high-value customers, frequent purchasers, or those at risk of churning.

With segmentation in place, personalized product and service recommendations become possible. For instance, an e-commerce platform can suggest products based on a customer’s past purchases, improving the likelihood of additional sales.

b. Tailored financial products

Embedded finance allows businesses to design and offer financial products that cater to specific customer needs. For instance, a FinTech company could provide tailored investment portfolios based on an individual’s risk tolerance and financial goals.

Tailored financial products also extend to flexible payment solutions. Businesses can offer installment plans, buy now, pay later (BNPL) options, or credit lines based on a customer’s financial situation.

Personalized loyalty programs, driven by embedded finance, can reward customers for their engagement. Points, discounts, or cashback offers can be tailored to match customer preferences and spending habits.

3. Embedded finance expands payment options

The expansion of payment options through embedded finance is about offering customers the flexibility and convenience they expect in today’s global marketplace. By providing diverse payment gateways and facilitating cross-border payments, businesses can cater to a broader audience, reduce friction in the payment process, and ultimately boost customer retention. Customers are more likely to stick with companies that accommodate their preferred payment methods and make cross-border transactions hassle-free.

a. Diverse payment gateways

Offering a variety of payment gateways provides customers with options that align with their preferences and geographic locations. This convenience minimizes friction during the payment process, reducing the likelihood of abandoned transactions.

Diverse payment gateways enable businesses to cater to a global customer base. Companies can attract and retain international customers by accepting various payment methods, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, and more.

Some customers may prefer specific gateways due to their reputation for security. Providing choices empowers customers to select the payment method they trust most, fostering a sense of security in financial transactions.

b. Cross-border payment solutions

For businesses eyeing international growth, embedded finance can facilitate cross-border transactions seamlessly. Cross-border payment solutions allow customers to make payments and transactions across different countries and currencies without complications.

Integrated currency conversion tools ensure customers can view prices and make payments in their preferred currency. This simplifies the shopping experience for international customers and minimizes the risk of cart abandonment due to unfamiliar currencies.

Compliance with international financial regulations is vital. Embedded finance providers often ensure that cross-border payments adhere to local and global financial laws, enhancing trust and reducing legal risks.

4. Embedded finance ensures data security

Data security in embedded finance is vital for maintaining customer trust and reducing churn. Robust encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with data protection regulations all contribute to the security of financial transactions and sensitive information. Businesses that prioritize data security can assure customers that their financial data is well-protected, ultimately leading to higher customer retention rates.

a. Robust encryption and authentication

Embedded finance platforms employ robust encryption protocols to protect data during transmission. This encryption ensures that sensitive information, such as financial transactions and personal details, remains confidential and cannot be intercepted by malicious actors.

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide multiple forms of verification, such as passwords, fingerprint scans, or one-time PINs, before accessing their financial data or making transactions. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

b. Customer trust

Trust is a fundamental component of customer retention. Businesses leveraging embedded finance must establish and maintain trust by safeguarding customer data. A breach of trust, such as a data breach or security incident, can erode customer confidence and lead to churn.

Open communication about data handling practices, privacy policies, and security measures can build trust. Customers appreciate knowing that their data is being handled responsibly and that the company is accountable for any issues.

Complying with data protection laws and financial regulations helps avoid legal repercussions and demonstrates a commitment to customer data security. This adherence fosters trust among customers who know their data is handled following established standards.

Businesses Benefitting from Embedded Finance

Diverse businesses across industries have harnessed the power of embedded finance to enhance customer retention and elevate their market presence. These case studies exemplify the potential of embedded finance in fostering loyalty, streamlining financial processes, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Cake by VPBank in Vietnam

Cake, in collaboration with the on-demand consumer platform Be, introduced a co-branded credit card that offers impressive cashback rates of up to 20% and delivers attractive payment experiences to customers. This innovative product garnered recognition with the “Pioneering Digital Partner in Rapid Credit Card Issuance” award from VISA. Thanks to Cake’s technology platform, customers can complete online registration in minutes and start shopping online immediately, even before receiving their physical card. Cake stands out as one of the few digital banks capable of issuing international credit cards within just two years of operation. The Be-Cake credit card not only offers a wide range of financial services, including payments, savings, lending, micro-investments, and credit cards but also provides a hassle-free online application process with only an ID card required. With impressive growth rates and more than 3 million users, Cake by VPBank has firmly established its presence in the market, processing transactions valued at over VND38 trillion (US$1.62 billion) as of April 2023.

Fibe in India

Fibe, a leading Indian consumer lending platform, introduced Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services for various medical and cosmetic treatments. They implemented an engaging conversational UI-based onboarding process in their Fibe App version 3.0 to enhance user experience. The addition of a multilingual chatbot, robust security measures, and personalized customer journeys led to impressive outcomes, including a 20% increase in customer conversion rates and a remarkable 65% surge in repeat customers. Fibe’s digital-first approach, reducing loan registration time by 67%, garnered a 4.5 rating on the Play Store and boosted their Net Promoter Score from 60% to 72%, contributing to their expanded customer base of 5 million.

PERA HUB in the Philippines

PERA HUB, a prominent financial service provider in the Philippines under PETNET, collaborated with Brankas to introduce a Digital Remittance Platform that empowers the institution to share its API with various entities, including banks, remittance companies, wallets, and fintech partners. This partnership facilitated the provision of faster, more cost-effective, secure, and accessible financial services. The company established an open API hub that allowed partners to join effortlessly. This innovative approach allowed partners to seamlessly integrate into the core remittance system, granting real-time management of partner relationships and endpoints. Notably, the platform also streamlined Digital Sub-Agent (DSA) interactions, facilitating instant API consumption and expediting the review process for DSA applications.

Grab Holdings Limited in Singapore and Malaysia

Grab Holdings Limited, originally known as a ride-hailing platform, made significant strides by obtaining full digital banking licenses in Singapore and Malaysia via its digital banking venture, GXS Bank Pte. Ltd. The company harnessed embedded finance to offer its customers a wide array of services, encompassing shopping, food delivery, transportation, payments, savings, and investments. This transformation effectively turned Grab into a super app, resulting in heightened customer engagement, improved retention rates, and increased overall customer lifetime value.

Starbucks in the US

A prime example of how embedded finance can excel in loyalty platforms is Starbucks—they are the bank that sells coffee. Customers can effortlessly manage their funds, accumulate rewards, make payments, and even place orders through their smartphones. This approach played a major role in contributing to 55% of the company’s US operating revenue in Q4 2022, with over 28.7 million members just in the U.S. The platform has securely stored more than $1 billion belonging to its users—to put it in perspective, that is more than what 85% of U.S. banks hold in assets.

Facilitators of Embedded Finance

Various entities work together to make integrated financial services a reality. These facilitators play crucial roles in enabling businesses to smoothly incorporate financial products into their offerings.

FinTech companies serve as the technological backbone of embedded finance. They offer platforms that distributors can access and customize to provide a wide range of financial products. Some FinTechs, like Brankas, provide comprehensive platforms that encompass multiple financial services, including bank account opening, deposits, bank data, simplified bank-to-bank payments, and lending. Others specialize in specific financial categories, like card issuing.

Balance sheet providers (licensed financial institutions) are responsible for manufacturing embedded finance products. They also offer risk and compliance services, ensuring regulatory adherence. Moreover, they provide access to funds required for lending and deposit-related offerings. Collaboration between balance sheet providers and technology providers is customary.

The time for businesses to embrace embedded finance solutions is now. Whether you are a retailer, a digital platform, or a service provider, the potential for improved customer retention, revenue growth, and a more seamless customer experience is too significant to ignore. As technology continues to evolve and more facilitators enter the embedded finance landscape, the possibilities are boundless. As businesses increasingly intertwine financial services with their core offerings, they unlock unprecedented opportunities for customer engagement, loyalty, and revenue generation.

References:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/embedded-finance-who-will-lead-the-next-payments-revolution

https://www.ey.com/en_gl/banking-capital-markets/fintech-ecosystems/how-banks-are-staking-a-claim-in-the-embedded-finance-ecosystem

https://www.nium.com/resources/four-ways-embedded-finance-can-help-businesses-improve-customer-stickiness

https://www.bworldonline.com/economy/2023/06/25/530594/how-embedded-finance-elevates-the-customer-experience/

https://bfsi.eletsonline.com/transforming-the-credit-landscape-fibes-co-lending-initiatives-and-technological-advancements-reshape-borrowing-experience/

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/cake-digital-bank-wins-innovative-product-award-4610379.html

https://www.brankas.com/case-study/perahub

https://gtngroup.com/asia/insights/embedded-finance-driving-a-new-wave-of-fintechs-3/

Banks Look to API Monetization in New White Paper on the Future of Open Banking in the MENA Region

Manama // 27 October 2023 — Arab Financial Services (AFS) and Brankas are thrilled to unveil an illuminating white paper that offers a comprehensive exploration of the future of financial services in the MENA region, with a primary focus on Open Banking and Open Finance. Titled “The Future of Financial Services and Trust in the MENA Region,” this white paper serves as a beacon guiding the financial industry through the transformative landscape of Open Banking and beyond.

Some key insights from the white paper:

• Global Impact of Open Banking: As of August 2023, over 65 nations have embraced Open Finance, driving financial innovation worldwide.
• MENA Region’s Open Banking Momentum: The MENA region is poised for an Open Banking breakout period in 2023-2025, with countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE taking the lead.
• Evolution from Open Banking to Open Finance: Countries like Australia, India, Brazil, and the UK are extending the data sharing mandate to non-banking sectors, ushering in Open Finance and Open Economy.
• Opportunities for Financial Institutions: Open Banking offers various pathways for banks to innovate and drive digital transformation while addressing readiness levels.
• Collaboration for Maximum Impact: The success of Open Banking hinges on industry-wide collaboration, with key players including data aggregators, payment processors, cybersecurity firms, and identity verification entities.

The white paper reveals compelling monetization strategies for open banking, such as premium APIs—like Emirates NBD’s top API banking service—BaaS APIs that empower and enable brands looking to provide financial services, like Banque Saudi Fransi’s APIZone within its open banking technical sandbox, and cutting-edge marketplaces, like Mashreq Bank’s partnership with fintechs and startups.

“To truly harness the transformative power of open banking, banks must evolve beyond just ticking the regulatory boxes. The real journey begins when we shift our focus from mere compliance to leading the charge in innovation, embracing new paradigms, and adapting to the dynamic contours of a rapidly changing financial landscape. It’s about proactively shaping the future, not just responding to it.” Todd Schweitzer, CEO - Brankas

Trust is paramount in Open Banking. The white paper delves into the crucial levers for building a trust-centric Open Banking ecosystem, encompassing authentication, API security, privacy standards, and more. The MENA region emerged as a beacon of trust in the financial sector in the Statista survey from 2023. Among the 32 nations surveyed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) clinched noteworthy ranks, standing 5th, 7th, and 10th, respectively. Such rankings not only underscore the intrinsic faith customers in these countries place in their financial institutions but also spotlight the profound relationship and rapport banks have cultivated with their clientele over the years.

“Open banking isn’t just a technological trend; it’s the bedrock of tomorrow’s B2B financial landscape in MENA. From the seamless integration of payroll systems and the effortless management of supplier invoices to the swift execution of employee reimbursements, the opportunities open banking brings to the fore are transformative. As financial industry leaders, our vision should be centered on not just adapting, but reshaping the financial contours of tomorrow.” Samer Soliman, CEO - Arab Financial Services

The white paper is a great resource for financial institutions, FinTech innovators, and industry professionals looking to navigate the dynamic and evolving landscape of Open Banking and Open Finance in the MENA region.

To access and download the full white paper, please visit: https://resources.brankas.com/future-of-financial-services-trust-mena-region

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Visit www.brankas.com for more information and join the conversation on LinkedIn.

About AFS

Arab Financial Services was formed in 1984 to provide payment products, services and expertise to banks and merchant groups and deliver customized payment solutions in an increasingly divergent, disruptive, and dynamic payment ecosystem.

A key to the growing and continued success of the company was an executive team determined to invest in the most up-to-date, leading-edge technologies. AFS is owned by a total of 37 banks and financial institutions and serves over 60 clients in more than 20 countries across MEA.

Today, AFS is the region’s leading digital payment solutions provider and Fintech enabler, regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

AFS’s innovative approach to the provision of financial services is evidenced by a series of pioneering payment services that covers card processing services, merchant acquiring, fintech solutions and an impressive array of value-added services.

The emphasis that AFS places on innovation has positioned the company as a driving market force, delivering a rich portfolio of payment solutions including digital mobile wallets, customer orientated Merchant Acquiring services; Bahrain’s leading digital payroll solution Al Rateb, global Contact Centers and much more.

Trusted by businesses across the region AFS has been recognized as the “Best Payments Solutions Provider – Bahrain” by MEA Finance Awards 2022, “Best New Payment Solutions Provider for MSME Business Bahrain 2022" by Global Business Magazine, “Leading Payments Innovator Bahrain 2022” by Global Business Outlook and “Best Payment Solution Provider Bahrain 2022” by Global Banking & Finance Review.

Visit www.afs.com.bh for more information and join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Personalization, Payment Efficiency, and Data Security: Unboxing the Customer Retention Problem

New customers frequently enter the scene of a bustling business, and it is easy to overlook the steady companions that keep operations running smoothly – loyal customers. Customer retention, the art of keeping valuable patrons returning, is a critical endeavor for businesses of all shapes and sizes. It is more than just a numerical figure; it is the lifeblood that sustains growth, profitability, and reputation.

The significance of customer retention cannot be overstated. The pursuit of new customers is undoubtedly vital, but the retention of existing ones is equally, if not more, important. Loyal customers often prove to be the cornerstone of a thriving business, driving revenue, and providing stability. They do not just make one-off purchases; they engage consistently, spreading positive word-of-mouth and becoming brand advocates.

Businesses face many challenges in the quest to maintain these coveted relationships. Customer retention or ‘stickiness’ is riddled with complexities ranging from the ever-present threat of churn rates skyrocketing to the daunting task of offering personalized experiences at scale. Payment friction and data security concerns further complicate the picture, leaving businesses scrambling for solutions to keep their cherished customers from slipping away. In this two-part series, we delve into these common customer retention problems and explore the innovative role of embedded finance in solving them. Join us on this journey to discover how businesses can secure their future by preserving their past (their loyal customer base).

Understanding Customer Retention Issues

A high customer churn rate is like a leaky bucket, constantly draining away hard-earned profits. Retaining customers is often more challenging than attracting new ones in the fiercely competitive business landscape. To address this issue, it is crucial to understand first why customers leave in the first place.

Competition and easy switching

Customers have an abundance of options at their fingertips in today’s digital age. Whether it is switching banks, trying out a new e-commerce platform, or opting for a different streaming service, the competition is just a click away. This ease of switching providers makes it imperative for businesses to continuously earn and re-earn their customers' loyalty.

Customers are quick to jump ship if they find a better deal, superior service, or more convenience elsewhere. To combat this, businesses need to not only meet but exceed customer expectations consistently. It is no longer sufficient to offer just a product or service; it is about building an ongoing relationship that adds value beyond the initial transaction.

Blockbuster, once a leading movie rental chain, struggled with customer retention due to increased competition and the ease of switching to alternatives like Netflix. Customers found it more convenient to access movies online rather than visiting physical stores. Blockbuster eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2010, highlighting the impact of failing to adapt to changing customer preferences and market dynamics.

Unresolved customer problems

Another reason customers often take their business elsewhere is the frustration stemming from unresolved issues. Customers expect prompt and effective resolution when they encounter problems, whether it is a billing discrepancy, a faulty product, or subpar customer service. Failure to address these concerns can lead to frustration, erode trust, and ultimately push customers towards your competitors.

Businesses need efficient systems and well-trained staff to tackle and resolve customer issues swiftly. A seamless customer support experience and a commitment to making things right can go a long way in preventing churn. We will explore how embedded finance solutions can play a pivotal role in addressing these customer retention challenges, offering businesses the tools they need to keep their customers content and loyal in the next article of this series.

Comcast faced severe customer retention challenges due to unresolved customer problems. Customers often complained about billing errors, service disruptions, and poor customer service. These issues led to a high customer churn rate as dissatisfied customers switched to competitors with better customer support.

Inadequate personalization

Inadequate personalization occurs when businesses employ generic, one-size-fits-all marketing strategies that fail to resonate with individual customers. This approach treats all customers as if they have identical needs, preferences, and behaviors. Customers are unique, and they expect businesses to recognize and cater to their distinct requirements.

Related to generic marketing is the issue of customization. It involves tailoring products, services, and marketing efforts to meet the specific needs and preferences of individual customers. Lack of customization can lead to customer dissatisfaction and churn.

Amazon’s personalized recommendation system revolutionized the online retail industry. In contrast, many local bookstores struggled to provide personalized shopping experiences. Customers appreciated Amazon’s tailored product suggestions and convenient shopping, leading to decreased customer retention for traditional bookstores.

Effective personalization and customization require data-driven insights into customer behaviors and preferences. Embedded finance solutions can play a crucial role in gathering and analyzing this data, enabling businesses to create tailored experiences that keep customers engaged and satisfied. In our next article, we will look at how embedded finance can provide the tools needed to enhance personalization and customization efforts, ultimately boosting customer retention rates.

Limited payment options

Limited payment options refer to businesses offering only a restricted set of payment methods, which can be inconvenient for customers. This issue creates payment friction, making it difficult for customers to complete transactions smoothly. Payment friction can have several negative consequences for businesses and their customers.

For example, if an e-commerce website accepts only credit card payments but does not support digital wallets or alternative payment methods, it may deter potential customers who prefer different payment options. This friction can lead to cart abandonment, where customers abandon their shopping carts without making a purchase.

Abandoned carts and failed transactions are direct outcomes of limited payment options and payment friction. When customers encounter difficulties or inconveniences during the checkout process, they are more likely to abandon their shopping carts or experience transaction failures.

Abandoned carts represent lost revenue opportunities for businesses. Customers may leave items in their carts but never complete the purchase due to payment issues. This not only impacts immediate sales but can also harm long-term customer relationships and retention rates.

Failed transactions can also lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among customers. If a payment fails, customers may have to repeat the entire checkout process or contact customer support for assistance, resulting in a poor customer experience.

Embedded finance solutions can address these challenges by offering a wide range of payment options and facilitating seamless transactions. In Part 2 of this series, we will explore how embedded finance can enhance payment flexibility and reduce payment friction, ultimately contributing to improved customer retention.

Data security concerns

Data security concerns are paramount in today’s digital age. Customers entrust businesses with their personal and financial information. This trust is essential for customer retention. When customers perceive that their data is not adequately protected, it erodes trust and can lead to attrition.

Trust plays a vital role in customer retention because loyal customers are more likely to stay with a business they believe will safeguard their sensitive information. If customers feel their data is at risk due to inadequate security measures, they may seek alternatives with better security practices.

Data breaches can have severe consequences for customer retention. When a business experiences a data breach, it exposes sensitive customer information, such as names, addresses, credit card details, and more. The aftermath of a data breach can include identity theft, financial losses, and emotional distress for affected customers.

Yahoo experienced several data breaches that exposed millions of user accounts. These breaches eroded customer trust, and many Yahoo users closed their accounts or switched to more secure email services like Gmail. The breaches had a significant impact on Yahoo’s user base and its ultimate acquisition by Verizon.

In addition to these direct consequences, data breaches can result in reputational damage for a business. Negative publicity and loss of customer trust can lead to a significant customer exodus. Customers may choose to discontinue their relationship with the breached company, seeking out competitors they perceive as more secure.

Addressing data security concerns through robust cybersecurity measures and embedded finance solutions can help mitigate these risks. We will explore how embedded finance can enhance data security, rebuild trust, and contribute to customer retention in part 2 of this series.

Numbers Do Not Lie

“Did you know that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer, than to keep an existing one? The first rule of any business is to retain customers and build a loyal relationship with them, and thereby avoid customer acquisition costs. It’s a well-established fact that 44% of companies have a greater focus on customer acquisition vs. 18% that focus on retention.” Khalid Saleh, CEO and co-founder of Invesp

Understanding the numbers in business is pivotal. Customer retention statistics guide companies on their journey to success and provide valuable insights into the profound impact of retaining customers. These figures illuminate why businesses are investing more than ever in strategies like embedded finance to navigate the complex terrain of customer retention successfully.

• Boosting customer retention rates by just 5% can lead to substantial profit increases ranging from 25% to 95%. (Invesp)
• Selling to existing customers typically has a success rate of 60% to 70%, while selling to new customers sees a considerably lower success rate ranging from 5% to 20%. (Semrush)
• Boosting customer retention by just 5% can result in a significant profit surge, ranging from 25% to an impressive 95%. (Gitnux)
• 80% of a company’s profits are generated by 20% of its customer base. (SmallBizGenius)
• A substantial 65% of a company’s revenue is derived from its loyal base of existing customers. (Gitnux)
• Returning customers often contribute 33% more in spending when compared to new customers. (Textedly)
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to embrace new product offerings. (Zippia)
• The customer churn rate can soar as high as 30% in certain global markets. (Deloitte) 
• 74% of respondents make purchasing decisions based on their buying experience, with a staggering 77% considering customer experience as equally vital as product quality. (Forbes)
• 70% of consumers prioritize friendly customer support, convenience, and speed as the top three factors contributing to their loyalty to a business. (pwc)

The Role of Technology

Technology is not just a choice these days – it is a vital solution to many challenges companies face, including retaining customers. Businesses today must harness the power of technology not only to stay competitive but also to address pressing issues that impact stickiness. Technology plays a critical role in shaping the strategies that keep customers coming back, such as:

Data analytics enable businesses to collect, process, and analyze vast amounts of customer data. This data can be leveraged to understand customer behavior, preferences, and pain points better. By identifying patterns and trends, businesses can tailor their offerings and marketing strategies to meet customer needs effectively.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems empower businesses to manage their interactions with customers efficiently. These systems store customer information, track communication history, and provide insights for more personalized engagement. CRM tools enable businesses to nurture customer relationships and address their concerns promptly.

Personalization algorithms and machine learning models can create personalized experiences for customers. These technologies analyze customer data to offer product recommendations, content, and marketing messages tailored to individual preferences. Personalization enhances engagement and keeps customers coming back for more.

AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants provide 24/7 customer support. These systems can handle routine inquiries, guide customers through troubleshooting processes, and even offer personalized recommendations. This automation ensures that customers receive timely assistance, improving their overall experience.

For businesses with an online presence, e-commerce platforms integrate various tools to optimize the customer journey. Features such as one-click purchases, guest checkouts, and intuitive navigation enhance the shopping experience. Additionally, technology streamlines payment processes, reducing cart abandonment rates.

Social media platforms offer a direct channel for engaging with customers. Technology enables businesses to monitor social media conversations, respond to customer inquiries, and address complaints promptly. Social listening tools help companies stay attuned to customer sentiment and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Automated email marketing campaigns deliver targeted messages to customers based on their behavior and preferences. Technology facilitates segmenting customer lists, scheduling emails, and tracking performance metrics. Email automation keeps customers informed and engaged over time.

As data breaches remain a concern, technology continuously evolves to enhance data security. Encryption, multi-factor authentication, and robust cybersecurity protocols build trust with customers by safeguarding their sensitive information.

Modern payment solutions, including digital wallets and mobile apps, simplify transactions for customers. Technology ensures secure and convenient payment experiences, reducing the friction that can lead to customer churn.

Embedded finance, encompassing modern payment solutions like digital wallets and mobile apps, plays a pivotal role in simplifying transactions for customers. This infusion of technology ensures secure and convenient payment experiences, effectively reducing the friction that can often lead to customer churn.

This article covered the significant obstacles that businesses confront when striving to retain their valuable customers. These challenges highlight the paramount importance of customer retention in today’s intensely competitive landscape. The compelling statistics we have explored underscore that customer retention is not merely a facet of business strategy—it stands as the linchpin of profitability. 

In our next article, we will closely examine how embedded finance, as part of the technology-driven solution spectrum, can provide innovative answers to these retention challenges. This exploration promises to transform the very way businesses engage with and retain their cherished customer base, forging stronger and more prosperous relationships.

References:

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-some-challenges-retaining-customers-highly

https://vizury.com/blog/customer-retention-challenges

https://www.omniconvert.com/blog/how-to-solve-common-retention-problems/

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/

https://www.semrush.com/blog/customer-retention-stats/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insights-treasuredata/2020/03/10/7-steps-for-creating-an-ideal-customer-experience-strategy/?sh=5f75d59d1b62

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html

https://financesonline.com/customer-retention-statistics/

https://blog.gitnux.com/customer-retention-statistics/

https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/customer-loyalty-statistics/

https://blog.textedly.com/infographics/customer-acquisition-vs.-customer-retention-cost-infographic

https://thesmallbusinessblog.net/customer-retention-statistics/

https://velaro.com/blog/using-technology-to-retain-customers-for-long-term-growth

Investing in Open Banking Solutions for Growth in Indonesia and Beyond (Part 3)

Also read: Investing in Open Banking Solutions for Growth in Indonesia and Beyond (Part 2)

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are crucial parts of any economy’s backbone. They fuel innovation and serve as engines for job creation, rendering them indispensable contributors to a nation’s economic advancement. Securing the necessary financial resources for business expansion, however, often poses challenges for SMEs. The emergence of open banking has emerged as a remedy for Indonesia’s 62.9 million MSMEs. Bank Indonesia’s strategic initiative in digital transformation (Indonesia Payment System Blueprint 2025) integrates small economic entities into the digital fabric of today’s business landscape. As these MSMEs navigate through digital finance, they are not only generating data but also sowing the seeds of innovative business solutions. This growth trajectory aims to uplift these enterprises to heightened economic engagement. In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, this orchestrated effort promises to resonate as a potent catalyst for progress.

Impact of Open Banking on MSMEs in Indonesia

Open banking presents transformative possibilities for Indonesia’s MSMEs. These economic cornerstones stand to gain substantially from the democratization of financial services. Open banking’s accessible ecosystem and data-driven solutions promise to bridge the longstanding financial gaps, allowing MSMEs to access tailored financial products, streamline transactions, and unlock growth opportunities. As open banking aligns with Bank Indonesia’s forward-looking blueprint, it extends a digital lifeline to MSMEs, empowering them to navigate the modern economic landscape with enhanced agility and resilience. These are the advantages that open banking brings to MSMEs:

1. Enhanced access to financial services

Open banking allows MSMEs to connect their financial accounts with various institutions, providing a consolidated view of their financial information in one place. This simplifies account management, enabling business owners to monitor their finances more effectively, access transaction history, and view balances in real-time. The convenience of managing accounts through a single platform saves time and reduces the administrative burden for MSMEs.

Open banking facilitates the integration of payment services into the digital ecosystem of MSMEs. By leveraging open APIs, these businesses can offer customers a variety of payment options, including mobile wallets, online banking, and e-commerce platforms. This diverse range of payment methods enhances customer satisfaction and expands the market reach of MSMEs, driving higher sales and revenue.

2. Improved access to credit

Open banking provides MSMEs the opportunity to share their financial transaction data securely with financial institutions. This data can offer a comprehensive view of the business’s financial health and performance. Lenders can analyze this real-time data to make more accurate and informed credit decisions, granting loans that are tailored to the specific needs and capabilities of each MSME.

The availability of transaction data through open banking opens doors to a wider range of financing options for MSMEs. Traditional and alternative lenders can use this data to offer innovative financial products, such as short-term loans, working capital credit, and invoice financing. This increased access to funding supports MSME growth and expansion plans.

Highlighted Brankas Use Case:

Right Choice Finance Corporation (RCF) is a non-bank loan provider in the Philippines for individuals and businesses. Through the implementation of Brankas Bank Data, RCF has achieved swift and secure access to dependable borrower information, streamlining the sharing of financial data by borrowers. This integration enhances RCF’s loan origination process, ultimately elevating the borrower’s journey. With this enhancement, borrowers can now enjoy a hassle-free experience, obtaining their desired loan amounts promptly and efficiently. This efficiency empowers borrowers, enabling them to achieve their goals with greater speed and ease. Read more about how Brankas is helping Right Choice Finance improve their repayment experience.

3. Streamlined payment processes

Open banking empowers MSMEs to offer their customers a variety of digital payment options. These options may include QR code payments, online transfers, and mobile app payments. By integrating these payment methods, MSMEs cater to diverse customer preferences, ultimately enhancing the customer experience and encouraging repeat business.

Open banking enables real-time access to financial data, allowing MSMEs to monitor cash flow more effectively. With this visibility, business owners can track incoming and outgoing transactions, predict cash flow fluctuations, and make informed decisions to optimize their financial operations. This capability is particularly crucial for MSMEs with limited resources, as it ensures better financial stability and planning.

Doku is a top payment technology provider in Indonesia, offering businesses a convenient method for receiving online payments. They provide innovative solutions for e-commerce, finance, and telecommunications. What sets Doku apart is its unwavering commitment to keeping transactions safe and secure. They have earned trust by implementing top-notch security measures to protect data and prevent fraud. Doku is widely favored by Indonesian MSMEs because it enables them to accept online payments effortlessly, offers over 20 payment choices, and has a speedy setup process.

Technologies Powering Open Banking

Innovative technologies drive the engine of open banking. These technological advancements collectively shape a dynamic financial ecosystem, fostering innovation, accessibility, and security.

1. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Central to open banking are Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), a set of protocols facilitating seamless communication between diverse software applications. APIs enable financial institutions to securely share customer data and services with authorized third-party providers. This collaborative approach fosters the creation of novel financial products and services while ensuring data privacy and security.

APIs empower banks to offer controlled access to their systems and data. This dynamic enables third-party developers to design innovative applications and services that harness the capabilities of financial institutions. This symbiotic relationship spurs real-time payment initiation, account aggregation, and personalized financial tools, elevating the options available to MSMEs and enhancing their financial interactions.

In 2017, Bank Central Asia (BCA) introduced the BCA API, a revolutionary cash management solution designed to simplify, expedite, and fortify banking transactions for business customers. This innovation empowered businesses to integrate their applications with the BCA banking system. Customers can expedite the reconciliation of payment receipts via the BCA API. This innovative tool automates various business transaction processes. Securities firms can seamlessly conduct online Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures for potential BCA investors. These are just a few examples of the benefits conferred by the BCA API. Fast forward four years, and the results are astounding: the BCA API has notched up over 1 billion customer transactions, underscoring its efficiency, speed, and security in the financial landscape.

2. Data analytics and AI

Open banking generates a wealth of transactional and behavioral data. Employing data analytics tools, these insights offer a deeper understanding of customer behavior, preferences, and patterns. MSMEs can harness these insights to customize their products and services, tailoring them to the preferences of their target audience, thereby bolstering customer satisfaction.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically machine learning algorithms, revolutionizes open banking by facilitating personalized financial experiences. MSMEs leverage AI to offer tailored product recommendations, predictive budgeting tools, and automated financial advisories. This personalized approach enhances engagement and equips MSMEs with the tools needed for informed financial decision-making.

3. Blockchain technology

The secure nature of blockchain technology offers a decentralized approach to recording transactions. In open banking, blockchain heightens security and transparency by establishing an immutable ledger of financial activities. This becomes crucial in verifying transaction authenticity, deterring fraudulent activities, and engendering trust among financial participants.

Blockchain’s transparent and tamper-proof attributes have a multitude of applications in open banking. For example, blockchain can streamline the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, ensuring secure and efficient customer identity verification. Additionally, it can expedite cross-border payments, minimizing intermediaries while enhancing transaction speed and security.

4. FinTech partnerships

Open banking thrives on symbiotic partnerships between conventional financial institutions and innovative FinTech startups. These collaborations breed novel products and services, combining the agility of FinTech with the established institutions' regulatory compliance and vast customer reach. This synergy enriches the offerings available to MSMEs, presenting a broader spectrum of tailored financial solutions.

FinTech collaborations drive innovation and enhance customer value. By merging diverse strengths, these partnerships birth groundbreaking solutions. MSMEs stand to gain from enhanced digital payment systems, novel lending approaches, and streamlined financial management tools, thereby reaping the benefits of collaborative innovation.

K24Klik is Indonesia’s pioneering and most comprehensive online platform for purchasing authentic and licensed medicines. With a commitment to ensuring the availability of essential health products, K24Klik simplifies the process of acquiring health products through a single application. To offer customers a broader range of digital payment options, K24Klik integrated BRIAPI between February and March 2022. This integration led to a remarkable surge in transactions, with payments through BRIVA experiencing a notable 200% increase.

5. Cybersecurity measures

Concerns over data security and privacy are paramount. Robust cybersecurity measures ensure the confidentiality and protection of sensitive financial information. This is vital to fostering trust among customers, financial institutions, and third-party providers in the open banking ecosystem.

Implementing cybersecurity strategies is essential to ensuring secure data sharing. Encryption, authentication protocols, and real-time monitoring bolster data protection. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders are vital to preempt and counter potential breaches, maintaining the integrity of open banking transactions.

Empowering MSMEs through a FinTech Partner in Open Banking

Brankas emerged as a pioneering FinTech entity poised to be a catalyst for MSMEs in their pursuit of growth and financial prosperity. As a frontrunner in the realm of APIs, Brankas specializes in empowering financial institutions and businesses to embrace the opportunities presented by open banking. With its Open Finance Suite solution, Brankas provides an array of innovative tools designed to simplify financial interactions, optimize transactions, and drive digital innovation. This suite of solutions encompasses account aggregation, payment initiation, and financial data enrichment, granting MSMEs a comprehensive toolkit to navigate the open finance realm with agility and efficiency. Through strategic collaborations and the integration of Brankas’ advanced technologies, MSMEs can unlock new horizons of financial accessibility and operational excellence, contributing to their growth and sustained success in a dynamic digital economy.

Beyond Indonesia

The successful integration of MSMEs into the open banking framework has a profound impact that extends well beyond their individual growth. As these agile businesses thrive through enhanced financial access, optimized operations, and fortified security, their success resonates throughout Indonesia’s economic landscape. The rapid expansion of these enterprises contributes significantly to job creation, fostering local talent, and driving community development. With streamlined access to credit and financial services, these MSMEs can realize their full potential, pushing the boundaries of innovation and igniting a cycle of sustainable growth.

The positive effects ripple beyond national borders, establishing Indonesia as a beacon of open banking success that inspires neighboring economies. The lessons learned from the Indonesian open banking journey can be shared across international platforms, creating a roadmap for other nations to follow in their pursuit of financial inclusivity and digital transformation. As the global community witnesses the economic revival and dynamism spurred by MSMEs, Indonesia’s influence and prestige in the international economic arena will inevitably expand.

The emergence of MSMEs in the open banking landscape is not just a local phenomenon; it’s a testament to the power of technology and collaboration to uplift economies and reshape the future of finance. Indonesia’s journey towards embracing open banking sets the stage for a brighter and more inclusive economic horizon, not only for the nation but for a world that seeks to harness innovation for shared prosperity.

References:

https://www.bi.go.id/en/publikasi/kajian/Documents/Indonesia-Payment-Systems-Blueprint-2025.pdf

https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/open-banking-smes/

https://fintechnews.sg/66692/indonesia/indonesias-open-finance-scene-heats-up-as-consumer-interest-heightens/

https://www.bca.co.id/en/tentang-bca/media-riset/pressroom/siaran-pers/2021/07/16/09/38/gencar-lakukan-transformasi-digital-api-bca-tembus-1-miliar-hit

https://medium.com/@samsmithms27/top-5-best-payment-gateway-indonesia-to-uplifted-your-online-businesses-5bc9873034f2

https://developers.bri.co.id/index.php/en/use-case/briva-k24klik-successfully-increases-transactions-200-percent

https://www.brankas.com/case-study/right-choice 

https://www.brankas.com/open-finance-suite

How to Check Your Credit Score in Philippines

A credit score is a pivotal number that can greatly influence your financial opportunities such as taking out a loan. Understanding the significance of credit scores and being aware of your score is a crucial step toward achieving better financial health. Your credit score can unlock various financial milestones, from securing loans and credit cards to gaining favorable interest rates. With the Philippines' growing economy and evolving financial services, knowing how your credit score functions can empower you to make informed decisions and set you on a path toward financial success. Whether you’re a young professional looking to build a solid financial foundation or a seasoned individual seeking to enhance your creditworthiness, this guide will equip you with the knowledge needed to navigate the world of credit scores effectively.

Also Read: Leveraging Brankas Data APIs for Credit Scoring

Understanding credit scores and credit reports

Your credit score is a numerical representation of your creditworthiness, indicating how likely you are to repay borrowed money based on your credit history. In the Philippines, credit scores range from 300 to 850. The higher your score, the better your creditworthiness. A score between 700 and 850 is categorized as excellent, while a realistically strong score often falls within the range of 759 to 800. A credit score from 650 to 699 is also considered good. Scores below 650 are regarded as a lower score. The credit score is a valuable tool used by lenders, such as banks and financial institutions, to assess the risk of lending to you.

A credit score differs from a credit report, which is a comprehensive summary of your borrowing and repayment activities. It encompasses your personal and/or business details, along with significant information about your loans, credit cards, mortgages, and other financial transactions.

To break down the credit reporting process in the Philippines:

Banks and various financial institutions submit their clients' credit information, encompassing both positive and negative aspects, to the Credit Information Corporation (CIC). This entity serves as the public credit registry and repository of credit-related data in the country.

The CIC then compiles the gathered credit information, crafting detailed credit reports that provide valuable insights into an individual’s credit history.

These credit reports are subsequently shared by the CIC with lenders recognized as official accessing entities. These lenders are the submitting financial institutions authorized by the CIC to access essential credit data. Additionally, accredited credit bureaus also receive these reports.

Lenders utilize the information contained within credit reports to make informed decisions about extending loans or credit to borrowers. This evaluation process significantly hinges on the data provided in these credit reports.

Credit reports and credit scores jointly facilitate lenders in making well-informed decisions regarding lending money or extending credit. Accessing and understanding your credit report and credit score is vital as an individual looking to enhance your financial standing. By closely monitoring your financial behavior through credit reports and striving to improve your credit score, you can effectively elevate your creditworthiness over time.

Why your credit score matters

Credit scores hold particular importance because they will impact your financial journey. A good credit score opens doors to favorable financial opportunities, including lower interest rates on loans and credit cards. It can make the difference between being approved or denied for credit applications. Landlords and potential employers might also check your credit score to evaluate your financial responsibility. It’s important to note that credit reports and credit scores are not the same. A credit report is a detailed record of your credit history, while a credit score is a numerical representation derived from the information in your credit report. Both play significant roles in financial decisions and being aware of the distinction is vital for navigating the credit landscape effectively.

Step-by-step guide to checking your credit score

The CIC was established under the provisions of Republic Act 9510, commonly known as the Credit Information System Act. As the sole centralized credit data registry within the Philippines' credit ecosystem, the CIC is tasked with the responsibility of gathering, consolidating, and distributing credit-related information to all financial institutions operating within the country. The CIC compiles financial data sourced from various entities engaged in financial transactions, including banks, cooperatives, insurance companies, and telecom providers. This compiled data is then meticulously organized into comprehensive credit reports. Accredited financial institutions can access these credit reports through the CIC.

To calculate credit scores within the nation, the CIC collaborates with three accredited credit bureaus, each serving as a distinct accessing entity: Credit Information Bureau, Inc. (CIBI), CRIF Philippines, and TransUnion Philippines. The issuance of credit reports accompanied by credit scores is exclusively entrusted to CIBI. CRIF Philippines and TransUnion Philippines are also recognized credit bureaus authorized to access the credit data compiled by the CIC.

You can check your credit score and access your credit report by following these steps.

1.     For mobile phone users, download the CIBIApp via the Google Play Store and App Store. For desktop users, you may access the app via your web browser at https://cibiapp.cibi.com.ph/#/login.
2.     Once the app is installed, open it and create an account by providing a unique username and password. This will be your login information for future access.
3.     Enter your contact information and personal details as required. This includes your name, address, and other relevant information.
4.     Upload clear and valid copies of your primary identification documents. These can include your SSS, GSIS, TIN, UMID, and driver’s license. Upload any secondary IDs you possess, like PRC IC, Passport, IBP ID, OWWA ID, voter’s ID, senior citizen’s ID, digitized postal ID, and GSIS e-Card. Don’t forget to submit your digital signature.
5.     Schedule a video call appointment for character verification within the app or website. This can be done from Monday to Friday, between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. Wait for a confirmation email from CIBI regarding the scheduled appointment.
6.     On the appointed day, make sure you have the same identification documents you uploaded earlier. This will be used for the character verification process.
7.     At the scheduled time, initiate the video call through the MeetMe feature within the CIBIApp or website. During the call, your character and identification will be verified.
8.     After a successful character verification, proceed to make the payment. The required fee is PHP 235, inclusive of VAT.
9.     Once the character verification is complete and the payment is confirmed, you will receive an email from CIBI. This email will contain your comprehensive CIC credit report.

You can utilize the CIC’s Online Dispute Resolution Process (ODRP) if you come across inaccurate information in your CIC Credit Report and need to report it. Visit the CIC website and click on the “Online Dispute” section. It’s important to note that there is no charge associated with filing a dispute, making it a straightforward and cost-free procedure.

Factors affecting credit scores

Understanding the factors that influence your credit score is pivotal for maintaining a healthy credit profile. Credit scoring agencies in the Philippines consider a variety of elements when calculating your credit score.

1.     Payment history: This is one of the most crucial factors. It reflects your track record of making timely payments on your loans and credit cards. Any late payments, defaults, or delinquencies can harm your credit score. Conversely, consistently paying on time demonstrates financial responsibility and can boost your score.
2.     Credit utilization ratio: This ratio measures the amount of credit you’re using compared to the total credit available to you. A high credit utilization ratio suggests potential financial strain and can lead to a lower score. Keeping your credit utilization below 30% is generally advisable for a positive impact.
3.     Length of credit history: The longer your credit history, the better. It gives lenders a more comprehensive view of your financial behavior. Individuals with a longer credit history are often perceived as more stable and less risky borrowers.
4.     Types of credit used: Having a mix of credit types, such as credit cards, loans, and mortgages, can be beneficial. It demonstrates your ability to manage various forms of credit responsibly. However, applying for multiple credit accounts within a short period may signal financial instability and can lower your score.
5.     New credit inquiries: When you apply for new credit, such as a loan or credit card, a hard inquiry is generated on your credit report. Multiple recent inquiries can indicate a potential financial strain or desperation for credit, thus lowering your credit score. Limit the number of new credit applications to maintain a positive impact.
6.     Public records and collections: Negative public records, such as bankruptcies, tax liens, or accounts sent to collections, have a significant adverse effect on your credit score. It reflects financial mismanagement and can take time to recover from.
7.     Credit history on new accounts: The age of your newest credit accounts matters. New accounts with a short history may indicate risk, as there is limited data to evaluate your financial behavior.
8.     Total outstanding debt: The amount of debt you owe compared to your income can influence your credit score. High levels of debt relative to your income may indicate financial strain and can lower your score.

Expanding financial horizons with alternative credit scoring

A new avenue for credit evaluation has emerged through alternative credit scoring companies. These entities specialize in providing alternative credit reports and scores that go beyond traditional credit and payment history. This innovative approach complements the conventional credit scoring system by furnishing financial institutions with a more comprehensive view of individuals' financial capabilities, incorporating data often excluded from traditional credit reports. This dynamic partnership extends financial services to a broader population, leveraging the wealth of data accessible through alternative financial technology companies. By combining traditional and alternative credit scoring methods, a realm of possibilities unfolds for both credit applicants and financial institutions in the Philippines.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is urging financial institutions to explore non-traditional data, such as social media activities and online transactions, as alternative sources for credit scoring. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno emphasized that harnessing alternative data provides a more comprehensive view of clients, enabling a wider range of individuals and businesses to be evaluated.

In contrast to conventional data like bank transactions and credit records, alternative data encompasses various forms, including social media, mobile usage, behavioral patterns, utilities data, online transactions, geolocation information, and browser activity. By incorporating alternative data, financial entities can effectively assess borrowers' creditworthiness, especially those with limited or no credit history. This approach aligns with expanding financial inclusion in the Philippines. Currently, credit assessment relies solely on bank transactions and credit bureau data, which leaves individuals and small businesses without formal credit histories.

Use case for innovative approaches to credit assessment

CRIF Philippines, in collaboration with Brankas, introduces innovative alternate credit scoring methods that revolutionize lending practices. These alternate credit scores include:

1.     Telco Score: This score employs telco information to predict the likelihood of default, enhancing risk assessment accuracy.
2.     Psychometric Score: Through interactive quizzes and metadata analysis, this score evaluates default probability based on applicant responses, providing a unique and comprehensive perspective.
3.     Transaction-Based Scoring: Leveraging Visa credit/debit card transactions and bank account activity, this scoring method evaluates the likelihood of default, expanding the range of data for more accurate credit assessments.

Also read: Brankas and CRIF Launch APAC’s First Open Banking Credit Score Product

Transforming Credit Scoring through Secure Data Sharing

Brankas facilitates the gathering of consent and ensures a secure and seamless link to user’s bank statements & transactions and various alternative data sources, such as credit card transactions, via a straightforward and safe user interface. CRIF subsequently deploys a sophisticated machine-learning algorithm to create an inventive credit score. Brankas' open banking data-sharing solutions, designed for security, enable the advancement of next-generation alternative credit scoring. Consequently, users can enjoy the advantages of immediate and automated retrieval of statements through a secure and compliant platform.

How to start a GCash Business and be a GCash Merchant

Achieving business success extends beyond a robust business plan, top-tier products, and a skilled team; it hinges on a well-crafted business strategy. Amidst these considerations, the choice of customer payment methods emerges as a pivotal aspect. The selection of optimal payment methods isn’t just a mere detail; it wields significant influence on the overall success and growth trajectory of a business. Making informed decisions about customer payment methods holds paramount importance because it:

1. Directly impacts how customers perceive your business;
2. Will expand your customer base;
3. Will reduce abandonment rates;
4. Facilitates faster transactions;
5. Makes your business accessible across borders and countries;
6. Fosters trust and credibility among customers; and
7. Keeps you updated with industry trends.

One industry trend growing exponentially is digital payments.

The Rise of Digital Payments

Among Southeast Asian nations, the Philippines stands proudly as a frontrunner in harnessing the power of digital payments to fuel its economic dynamism. The 2022 Status of Digital Payments report unveiled by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) states digital payments have asserted their dominance – now commanding an impressive 42% share of the retail payments landscape. This meteoric rise from a mere 14% in 2019 underscores a robust shift toward digital financial avenues. Person-to-business (P2B) merchant payments have now surged to seize an imposing 73% slice of the expansive digital transaction pie, a statistic that resonates powerfully across the spectrum of over two million digital exchanges.

GCash Pioneering a Digital Revolution

GCash is at the forefront of the digital payment frontier in the Philippines. With an impressive user base exceeding 66 million registered individuals and over 5 million merchants and social sellers as of June 2022, GCash has seamlessly woven itself into the financial fabric of the nation. The vigor of its influence is evident as 29 million users actively engage with the platform daily, propelling transactions to an astounding gross transaction value (GTV) of Php 3 trillion in the initial half of 2022 alone.

Also Read: The Future of eCommerce & Digital Payments in Asia

The architect behind this monumental success story is Mynt, a remarkable joint venture forged by the dynamic partnership of Ant Group, Ayala Corporation, and Globe Group. Mynt’s ascent to the prestigious “double unicorn” status in November 2021 marks a significant milestone. The first feather in their cap comes from propelling from a startup with a value below $1 billion, while the second, an impressive $300-million equity deal, solidifies their position as a true powerhouse in the financial technology domain.

Why Choose GCash for Your Business

GCash emerged as an industry trailblazer by introducing its pioneering mobile app back in 2012. This pivotal move marked a seismic shift, heralding an era of unparalleled convenience for users navigating financial transactions. Gone were the days of grappling with labyrinthine codes and typing out cumbersome keywords. With the advent of the GCash app, users wielded the power of seamless transactions at their fingertips. From bill payments to fund transfers and account reloads, these pivotal actions metamorphosed into effortless taps on a smartphone screen.

GCash’s ingenuity surged even further with the introduction of its QR code-based payment service. This innovative feature seamlessly integrated into the app elevated the user experience to new heights. By harnessing the power of QR codes, GCash ushered in a realm of frictionless transactions, transcending the boundaries of traditional payment methods.

With 5 million merchant partners, the virtuosity of GCash’s reach isn’t confined to a single industry but dances dynamically across sectors. From the bustling aisles of retail havens to the bustling kitchens of gastronomic delights, GCash’s reach extends its transformative touch to supermarket chains, food establishments, and pharmacies alike. The allure of convenience transcends even into transportation, entertainment, and the medical sphere.

Becoming a GCash merchant partner is a gateway to a dynamic ecosystem of transformative commerce. Seamlessly integrating GCash into your business amplifies reach, enhances customer experiences, and positions you at the forefront of innovation. Beyond transactions, this partnership unlocks a realm where adaptability meets advancement, propelling your business into a new era of growth and seamless transactions.

Becoming a GCash Merchant: How It Works

GCash Merchant is tailored for business owners. This ingenious service enables all GCash users to breeze through payments using their e-wallet balance by scanning the merchant’s QR code. The QR function of GCash lets merchants keep tabs on sales effortlessly. Plus, it brings automatic payment transfers to their bank accounts, streamlining their financial flow. GCash Merchant is not just about payments; it’s about making life smoother for businesses and customers.

Take these steps to be a GCash Merchant:

For Individual or Sole Proprietorship

Submit:

• Fully-accomplished GCash Application Form
• Completion of the Scan-to-Pay application form
• Proof of Banking (e.g., passbook or bank statements)
• Branch Enrollment Form (BEF)
• Implementing Agreement
• Signed GCash KYC Form
• Photocopies of:
• Non-expired government-issued ID with specimen signature
• DTI Business Name Registration
• BIR Certificate of Registration (form 2303)
• Mayor’s Permit, Brgy. Clearance

For Partnership and Corporation

Submit:

• Fully-accomplished GCash Application Form

• Bank Account Documentation (such as a passbook or bank statements

• Branch Enrollment Form (BEF)

• Agreement on Implementation

• Signed GCash KYC Form

• Photocopies of:

  • SEC Certificate of Partnership/Incorporation
  • Articles of Partnership/Incorporation
  • Corporate By-Laws
  • Latest GIS document with Beneficial Owners Declaration (Corporation only)
  • BIR Certificate of Registration
  • Notarized Secretary’s Certificate/Partnership’s Certificate
  • Non-expired government-issued ID of the corporate secretary and authorized signatories

The application process takes between 7 to 14 business days.

• Day 1 Complete document submission, including signed MOA
• Day 2 Review of application
• Day 3 QR wallet creation
• Day 4 QR production and kitting
• Day 7-11 Delivery (NCR area)
• Day 7-14 Delivery (Provincial area)

Unleashing the Benefits: What GCash Merchants Gain

As an entrepreneur, your core mission revolves around delivering value to your customers. Enabling them to shop and transact effortlessly provides you with a strategic edge. By streamlining the shopping and payment process, you’re empowered to concentrate your energies on amplifying the quality of the products and services you provide. This dynamic synergy ensures that your business’s offerings remain at the forefront of excellence while customer interactions flourish with seamless convenience.

As a GCash Merchant, sole proprietors get these advantages:

1. Harness a distinct QR code seamlessly connected to your personal GCash wallet, ensuring secure transactions devoid of sharing your registered phone number.
2. Unlock a wallet capped at Php 100,000, with the potential for an increase to Php 500,000 by linking a bank account.

GCash Merchant partnerships and corporations will enjoy these benefits:

1. Enjoy detailed transaction reports,
2. Experience lightning-fast payment transfers to your bank account by the next business day
3. Receive a QR kit brimming with promotional materials.
4. Embrace unparalleled flexibility with no monthly transaction limits.

Integrating GCash and Payment Gateways

As a GCash merchant, the synergy between your services and payment gateways is paramount. Incorporate GCash as a payment option on your website or mobile app, using Brankas' Open Finance technology to simplify the purchasing journey for your valued customers. Harnessing the power of the Open Finance technology not only streamlines payment processes but also opens up a world of financial possibilities for your business.

While the integration process may require a touch of technical finesse, the dividends of a frictionless payment experience are immeasurable. Here’s where Brankas steps in as your ally. With Brankas by your side, navigating the technical intricacies becomes a breeze. Our expertise in Open Finance technology ensures that your GCash integration is executed seamlessly, catapulting your business toward enhanced customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Plus, with our innovative product, Direct Payments API platforms can effortlessly integrate GCash, further simplifying the process and unlocking even more possibilities for your business.

Brankas enables PesoPay to go live with Maya

Brankas and PesoPay today announced that the payment gateway by AsiaPay is now live with Maya, enhancing the number of payment options available for existing and new PesoPay merchants. With this integration, PesoPay empowers merchants to accept payments from Maya users. The integration is made possible via Brankas Direct API, which is connected to over 7 Philippines banks to enable collections and retail “cash-in” for e-commerce, fund transfers, and recurring subscriptions. 

With Brankas Direct, PesoPay will add the Maya payment method to its wide range of options including other e-wallets like GCash, GrabPay and ShopeePay, credit and debit cards,  over-the-counter payments, and China payments. PesoPay, the platform brand name of AsiaPay Philippines, a leading provider of digital payment solutions, with 16 operational offices across Asia Pacific. The PesoPay e-payment service focuses on providing payment options for merchants and consumers in the Philippines. 

For inquiries, please send an e-mail to sales@pesopay.com

About AsiaPay

Founded in 2000, AsiaPay is a premier digital payment solution and technology vendor in Asia, strives to bring advanced, integrated, and cost-effective digital payment processing solutions and services to banks and e-businesses around the world. Our integrated payment services covers credit and debit cards, bank account/net banking, digital wallets, buy now pay later, over-the-counter and other digital means.

AsiaPay offers a variety of award-winning, multi-currency, multi-lingual, multi-card, and multi-channelled payment solutions, bundled with our advanced functionalities including fraud detection, tokenization and data analytics among others.

Brankas and Konsentus launch secure Banking as a Service Platform

Konsentus has teamed up with Brankas to enable financial institutions, central banks, and regulators to accelerate their open finance journeys. The integrated technology solutions from two of the most established players in the business will deliver ease of use, security and cost-efficiency for those setting up or participating in open ecosystems.

The core service offerings comprise:

1. Centralised Open Finance Platform

The Brankas API Hub, together with the Konsentus Open Trust Platform, provides regulatory bodies with ready-to-use API use cases and a secure trust framework, enabling participants to communicate across financial services ecosystems in a compliant, secure and scalable manner.

The modular platform, which can be customised to market requirements and easily integrated with existing infrastructure, combines a centralised API Hub and central directory delivering real-time identity & regulatory status validation with an open API enablement experience for financial institutions. 

The platform also provides speed to market, transparency, and management system oversight.

Deploying a centralised Open Finance Platform enables a market to fully digitise its financial services sector by orchestrating the use cases and services between market participants and giving control to the end consumer of their financial data.

2. Banking as a Service (BaaS) Solutions

The new secure BaaS platform is a combination of Brankas’ Open Finance Suite and Konsentus’ real-time data security, enabling banks to manage and monitor vendor onboarding and API distribution. 

As embedded finance grows in popularity, connectivity to the major banks is becoming a necessity for everyday apps in retail, public transportation, utilities, travel, entertainment, and more. Banks today are helping to power financial offerings including BNPL, insurance, and virtual credit cards. This requires them to have a reliable third party management platform. 

With the need to securely connect to a growing number of third parties, banks now require a robust third-party management platform that can verify identities and transactions, distribute APIs, and manage access permissions, enabling secure data exchange, verification, and API distribution.

The Brankas Open Finance Suite (OFS) offers banks an out-of-the-box vendor and API management system tailored to the needs of digital banks. The Konsentus technology is integrated into OFS’ core components to enable onboarded vendors to deliver safe and secure data exchange in a consistent, automated, and reliable way. Konsentus’ trusted data enables informed decisions to be made when identifying and validating third parties requesting customer account access. Together, this unlocks an open and secure BaaS platform that can be customised to a bank’s needs to safely and confidently expand its ecosystem and add new revenue streams.

“Legacy banking infrastructure often cannot meet today’s needs, whether it relates to swift vendor onboarding or integration with new platforms to expand technical capabilities. Konsentus and Brankas address those needs with an open banking platform that provides banks with the agility and security they demand.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas.

Mike Woods, CEO Konsentus, commented: “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to Open Finance. In Brankas we recognise a partner who shares our objective of putting the customer first and being able to tailor products and services accordingly.  We also have the same desire to integrate easily with existing infrastructure and systems so I’m delighted that we will be working together with banks and regulators to realise their ambitions.”

About Konsentus

Konsentus provides award-winning SaaS technology solutions for participants in open banking and open finance ecosystems. Safeguarding the customers of 250+ clients across 37 countries, Konsentus provides a protected environment for data and funds to be exchanged in a reliable, consistent and automated way. 

The Konsentus Open Trust Platform provides all the components required to build, manage and maintain protected and secure centralised open ecosystems.

Headquartered in the UK, Konsentus is operational across Europe and selected markets in Latin America, the Middle East and South East Asia.

Konsentus is ISO 27001 certified.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Investing in Open Banking Solutions for Growth in Indonesia and Beyond (Part 2)

Also read: Investing in Open Banking Solutions for Growth in Indonesia and Beyond (Part 1)

Open banking constitutes a transformative shift where customers can seamlessly explore novel financial offerings from authorized third-party providers. This innovation is facilitated by financial institutions crafting Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that align with the central bank standards of a country. Third-party entities acquire licenses to interface with these APIs, fostering a collaborative financial environment. 

Open finance is an extension of open banking. It unbinds the ensemble of financial data and services, allowing individuals and businesses to access a comprehensive overview of their financial activities, including investments, loans, credit cards, and more. This holistic view empowers users to make informed decisions and fosters innovation within the industry.

This transition towards open finance carries profound significance for the financial sector. Individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of their financial health, promoting better financial management and literacy. Businesses, especially fintech startups, can leverage this data to create personalized financial products and services, enhancing the customer experience and accessibility. Open finance breaks down data silos, enabling collaboration, transparency, and innovation across the financial ecosystem, paving the way for a more interconnected and inclusive financial landscape.

Potential impact of open banking solutions in Indonesia

Indonesia encompasses a staggering 17,000 islands. Boasting a population exceeding 273.5 million, dominated by Generations Y and Z, and characterized by their desire for swift and mobile services. This demographic inclination is intertwined with a resounding shift toward digital engagement. While the country enjoys a 56% internet penetration rate, about 92 million individuals remain unbanked, and approximately 46 million people are underbanked. Open banking is an opportunity to enhance financial inclusion and promote financial literacy across the nation.

Indonesia Payment Systems Blueprint 2025 (IPS 2025)

In 2019, Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), introduced the Indonesia Payment Systems Blueprint 2025 (IPS 2025) to address the growing digital needs of its population. This regulatory framework emphasizes strategies for thriving in the digital era, fostering regulated connections between traditional financial institutions and FinTechs to balance innovation’s risks and opportunities. BI’s blueprint consists of five initiatives: open banking, retail payment systems, financial market infrastructure, data, and regulatory, licensing, and supervision.

The first initiative was realized through the National Open API Payment Standard (SNAP), launched in October 2021. The BI-SNAP initiative sets a standard for open API implementation, reducing fragmentation among financial institutions and enhancing interoperability. By fostering integration among API operators, BI aims to drive payment system efficiency, contributing to financial inclusion. The BI-SNAP API standards encompass statement retrievals, account openings, payment channels, information security, and more. Sixteen financial institutions plan to adopt the open API system by June 2022, with full adoption anticipated by 2025. Since SNAP’s launch, various financial institutions and FinTechs have been developing open APIs aligned with BI’s guidelines.

Bank Indonesia introduced its Fast Payment System (BI-FAST) in December 2021 as part of IPS 2025’s second initiative, Strengthening the Configuration of Retail Payment Systems. BI-FAST facilitates real-time retail payments, enhancing the national retail payment system’s resilience by providing an alternative infrastructure. Key to BI-FAST’s adoption is the reduced interbank transfer fee, from IDR 6,500 to IDR 2,500 per transaction. Moving forward, this system will serve as the backbone of Indonesia’s retail payment system, extending to encompass bulk credit, direct debit, and requests for payment services.

The projected outcome of IPS 2025 implementation

The IPS Blueprint 2025’s implementation culminates in three key milestones that serve as Bank Indonesia’s flagship programs. These milestones comprise the Open Banking consultative paper, the conceptual design of BI-FAST, and the new regulatory structure. These pivotal markers will guide the process and serve as stepping stones for further achievements within the framework of IPS 2025. The blueprint is poised to steer Indonesia’s digital economic transformation, facilitating well-functioning payment, monetary, and financial systems that contribute to sustainable economic growth, prosperity, and financial system stability. IPS 2025 will effectively connect structural reforms with digital transformation, weaving the participation of all economic stakeholders into an inclusive digital ecosystem. In this context, the deployment of IPS Blueprint 2025 is expected to yield two primary outcomes.

First and foremost, IPS 2025 aims to promote more effective collaboration between banks and fintech businesses, as seen in an increase in the Banking Digitalization Ratio. Secondly, a significant boost in the adult participation rate within the financial sector is targeted.

Through IPS Blueprint 2025, Bank Indonesia is taking substantial steps to establish a robust digital ecosystem while fulfilling its role as a central bank. This framework aims to ensure that the ongoing digitalization in Indonesia benefits society by delivering improved economic and financial inclusion on a wider scale.

Advantages of open banking for Indonesian consumers

Open banking offers a range of significant advantages for Indonesian consumers, revolutionizing how they manage their finances and engage with financial services. Here are some key benefits:

1. Enhanced financial access and options: Open banking empowers Indonesian consumers with a broader spectrum of financial products and services. Through APIs, they can seamlessly connect with various financial institutions, giving them access to a diverse range of offerings such as loans, investment opportunities, and insurance plans from different providers.
2. Convenience and personalization: With open banking, consumers can consolidate their financial data from multiple accounts and institutions in one place, usually through a single app or platform. This streamlined view allows for better financial management, budgeting, and tracking of expenses. Furthermore, personalized recommendations based on their financial behavior can help users make informed decisions tailored to their individual needs.
3. Faster and seamless transactions: Open banking facilitates faster and more convenient transactions. Consumers can initiate payments, transfers, and other financial activities directly from their preferred applications without switching platforms or logging in to various accounts. This frictionless experience is particularly advantageous for mobile-first economies like Indonesia.
4. Better interest rates and terms: With access to a wider range of financial institutions, consumers can compare interest rates, terms, and fees more easily. This competition encourages financial providers to offer more competitive rates and terms to attract customers, ultimately benefiting Indonesian consumers by potentially reducing their borrowing costs and enhancing their savings.
5. Security and control: Contrary to concerns about security, open banking can offer enhanced security features. Instead of sharing entire login credentials, users provide consent to share specific financial data through secure APIs. This approach minimizes the exposure of sensitive information, reduces the risk of data breaches, and puts users in control of their data sharing.
6. Financial inclusion: Open banking can significantly contribute to financial inclusion in Indonesia, where a significant portion of the population remains unbanked or underbanked. By providing access to a wider array of financial services through digital platforms, open banking can bring previously excluded individuals into the formal financial ecosystem.
7. Innovation and customization: Open banking encourages innovation by fostering collaboration between traditional financial institutions and fintech companies. This collaboration often results in innovative products and services that cater to specific consumer needs, ultimately leading to more customized and customer-centric solutions.
8. Transparency and competition: Open banking promotes transparency by giving consumers more control over their financial data. This transparency encourages healthy competition among financial providers, incentivizing them to offer improved services and better terms to retain and attract customers.

Open banking solutions in Indonesia

In the dynamic landscape of Indonesia’s open finance sector, Brankas emerges as a prominent figure. Established in 2016, this company stands as a powerhouse, providing a suite of banking-as-a-service embedded APIs that encompass a wide range of services, including account opening, credit scoring, identity verification, and online payments. In March 2023, Brankas proudly declared its acquisition of the Payment Service Provider (PJP) Category 3 License from Bank Indonesia (BI). This prestigious certification is a testament to Brankas' unwavering commitment to adhering to the highest local regulatory and security standards for its cutting-edge open finance payment solutions. It also forged a partnership with Element Inc. to further enhance consumer data protection and confidentiality, consistent with the country’s Personal Data Protection Law. Brankas proudly serves over 40 banks, as well as more than 100 enterprise customers and channel partners who trust and depend on its innovative offerings.

The adoption of open banking solutions represents a pivotal stride towards modernization and financial inclusivity in Indonesia. This strategic convergence of traditional financial institutions and cutting-edge FinTech companies is orchestrating a profound transformation, providing Indonesian consumers with amplified access, convenience, and security. The benefits are palpable, spanning from streamlined financial management and personalized services to expeditious transactions and favorable rates. Beyond these immediate gains, the broader impact of open banking has the potential to galvanize financial inclusion and ignite competitive dynamics that will reshape the country’s economic landscape.

As Indonesia propels itself into the digital age, the implementation of the Indonesia Payment Systems Blueprint 2025 and the advent of open banking synergize to redefine the contours of financial services. By leveraging the potency of open APIs, Indonesia is poised to amplify consumer-centric offerings, bolster financial inclusion, and catalyze a virtuous cycle of innovation. This confluence of open banking and a forward-looking regulatory framework beckons a future where financial services are more accessible, responsive, and aligned with the dynamic needs of Indonesia’s diverse population. In embracing this trajectory, Indonesia is not just adopting technology but also crafting a narrative of financial empowerment, transparency, and sustainable economic growth for the nation.

References:

https://www.bi.go.id/en/publikasi/kajian/Documents/Indonesia-Payment-Systems-Blueprint-2025.pdf

https://openfuture.world/open-finance-global-progress-ebook-indonesia/

https://fintechnews.sg/66692/indonesia/indonesias-open-finance-scene-heats-up-as-consumer-interest-heightens/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brankas-introduces-advanced-fraud-detection-020000735.html

https://blog.brankas.com/brankas-secures-payments-licenses-in-indonesia-and-the-philippines

Defining QRPh: Its Benefits and How It’s Shaping the Future of Cashless Payments

What is QRPh?

QRPh is the QR code standard of the Philippines fashioned after the Europay-Mastercard-VISA (EMV) global benchmark for secure financial transactions. QRPh empowers patrons of participating banks and non-bank electronic money issuers (EMIs) with a quick and secure channel for hassle-free payments, efficient bank transfers, and seamless interlinking of diverse bank and e-money accounts within the Philippines.

What’s all the buzz? Why do we need QRPh?

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been pushing for the modernization of retail payment systems. BSP and the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) created InstaPay and PESONet, which allow fund transfers between any two bank accounts. BSP now mandates payment service providers to adopt QRPh.

The drive behind embracing a national standard is all about supercharging the efficiency of payment systems. QRPh takes the jigsaw puzzle of QR-based payment services across the nation and turns them into interconnected solutions. This will drastically reduce the hassle of merchants and customers having to tie themselves to specific payment providers. No more chaos for billers who had to juggle a multitude of QR codes just to accept payment from customers with different banks or electronic money issuers (EMIs).

What’s in it for you when you use QRPh?

The true gem of QRPh lies in its unparalleled convenience, revolutionizing the way you handle transactions. Say goodbye to bulky wallets crammed with cash – your trusty smartphone and internet connection are all you need. With QRPh, the magic of sending and receiving money unfolds instantly, eliminating those tedious waits. But that’s not all – there’s no juggling a maze of different apps or e-wallets. It’s seamless, straightforward, and hassle-free.

And let’s talk security. QRPh offers a fortified haven for your private and financial information. No longer will you be haunted by the specter of disclosing your name and account number, putting your mind at ease. With QRPh, you’re stepping into a new era where your transactions are shielded and your peace of mind, restored.

How to use QRPh

To send money:

1. Open your bank or e-wallet app. Choose Transfer money or pay via QR. Double-check details. All transactions are final and irreversible. Approve the transaction. You will receive a message confirming a successful translation.
2. Scan the receiver’s QRPh code. Type the amount you need to send.
3. Double-check details. All transactions are final and irreversible. Approve the transaction. You will receive a message confirming a successful translation. Note that a transfer fee will be charged to senders for each transaction. The nominal fee will be the same as your bank or e-wallet’s transfer fee for InstaPay.

To receive money:

1. Open your bank or e-wallet app. The app may ask you to enter the amount and other information.
2. Generate a QR code.
3. Show or send the QR code to the sender. There are no fees for receiving money.

Banks and EMIs that offer QRPh

QRPh is not a stand-alone app. You can only use it if your bank or e-wallet provider is a participant in QRPh. Here is a list of banks and EMIs that have adopted QRPh as of June 30, 2023

Expect to see more banks and EMIs in the coming months. If your bank or EMI still needs to become a QRPh participant, you can still send money through InstaPay (as long as they are InstaPay participants).

QRPh is not just for person-to-person payments

Entrepreneurs, big or small, will also enjoy the benefits of QR with the P2M (person-to-merchant) facility. QRPh P2M marks a significant stride towards advancing digital payment adoption nationwide by extending the advantages of digital transactions to businesses. This move amplifies the digital payment landscape encouraged by BSP and will transform the country’s economy with these advantages:

1. Just like sending payment to another person, a mere scan of the merchant’s QR code using a smartphone enables seamless payments. Customers opting for QR to settle their bills for goods and services won’t be burdened with additional charges, fostering an environment of cost-effective and hassle-free online transactions.
2. The facility extends a warm invitation to businesses of all kinds, with a particular emphasis on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to become integral members of the formal financial ecosystem. QR also includes informal ventures and the unbanked, such as online sellers, market vendors, and tricycle drivers. Change funds will no longer be a burden as all payments are exact to the last centavo.
3. QRPh P2M opens doors to opportunities for both banks and non-bank EMIs. This strategic move holds the promise of broadening their customer horizons, forging stronger bonds with their accredited merchants, and elevating their financial product repertoire, catering to the diverse demands of retail customers and businesses alike. Financial institutions can craft financial profiles for their valued clientele empowering them to curate bespoke, customer-centric financial solutions, precisely tailored to address unique needs and circumstances. It’s not just participation; it’s a pathway to strategic growth and enhanced customer care.

How merchants can avail of the QRPh P2M facility

For merchants who would like to harness the potential of P2M as a payment avenue for their clientele, simply inquire from your associated banks or EMIs. By reaching out to these financial partners, merchants can integrate the QRPh P2M facility into their business operations. Depending on the banks or EMI, there may be a reasonable fee to accessing the suite of advantages it brings. Participating banks and EMIs are the same as QRPh P2P (see table above).

QRPh is a game-changer in the Philippine financial landscape

QRPh not only amplifies the digital payment landscape but also aligns with BSP’s Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023, which aims to convert 50 percent of total retail payments into digital by 2023.

Philippines retail payments to merchants, many of whom are MSMEs, comprise over 70 percent of transactions, but only a quarter of these occur digitally, as per the BSP’s 2020 report. The P2M facility is poised to onboard more merchants into the digital payment sphere. This strategic maneuver holds the potential to significantly boost digital payment share, enticing a larger pool of consumers to embrace digital payments and savor its benefits.

Recognizing the ever-evolving landscape of financial technology (FinTech), BSP acknowledges the superiority of QR technology as a convenient and cost-effective channel for seamless fund transfers between accounts. Notably, the rise of QR-based payment and financial solutions is steadily encroaching on the terrain traditionally dominated by debit and credit cards.

In light of these dynamic shifts, BSP anticipates fresh business models and an array of novel products and services to emerge. As the regulatory pillar, it is committed to nurturing an enabling policy and regulatory framework – one that fosters robust industry collaboration and flourishing partnerships while adeptly managing risks. It’s a harmonious symphony of progress and prudence, where innovation thrives in tandem with the unshakable pillars of security and stability.

Digital transformation plays a crucial role

BSP required all financial institutions to adopt QRPh fully by June 30, 2023. Proprietary QR codes have been disabled and can no longer be used. Entrepreneurs who want to reap the benefits of QR-enabled payments have to let go of legacy payment system processes. Digital payments through QRPh hold a potent key to amplifying an entrepreneur’s bottom line. By orchestrating financial exchanges with customers, suppliers, and governmental entities, you can offer an enticing trifecta of advantages: heightened convenience, fortified security, and cost-efficient operations. The result? A poised trajectory toward enhanced profitability, bolstering your business with every digital transaction. This powerful mechanism isn’t just about convenience; it’s a strategic gateway to bolstering an entrepreneur’s credit access. With each digital transaction, you’re etching a path toward a more robust financial standing, equipping you with a stronger position when seeking credit opportunities.

Brankas Solutions help merchants and their businesses take the road to smarter digital payments. Integrating Brankas payment APIs (application programming interfaces) into your operations will eliminate sluggish confirmations, time-consuming screenshots, and delayed disbursements – and no more juggling between different applications. With Brankas Merchant Link, slash recurring payment fees and resource costs while retaining the freedom to customize according to your needs. A solid payment infrastructure will enable you to forge dynamic alliances, broaden your customer horizon, unlock new revenue streams, and maintain a competitive edge.

Investing in Open Banking Solutions for Growth in Indonesia and Beyond (Part 1)

Indonesia is embarking on an ambitious project to build a new capital city in Kalimantan, Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN). Jakarta, the current capital, will no longer hold that title by 2024. This decision didn’t come out of nowhere. It has been an idea floated by past presidents Soekarno and Yudhoyono during their terms.

Jakarta struggles with overcrowding, pollution, and even natural disasters like earthquakes. Even worse, the city is gradually sinking into the Java Sea, posing serious challenges for its future. President Joko Widodo, affectionately known as Jokowi, wholeheartedly supports this plan. He officially ratified the transfer of the nation’s capital to Kalimantan in 2019.

Why Kalimantan? President Jokowi sees this move as a strategic solution to tackle the pressing issues that Jakarta faces. By shifting the capital to Kalimantan, the Indonesian government aims to ease the burden on Jakarta and foster a fairer distribution of economic activity across the vast archipelago. This bold decision promises a fresh start for the nation, with hopes of a brighter and more sustainable future.

Government Regulation No. 12 of 2023: Unlocking Business Opportunities

The Indonesian government wants to establish that local and international businesses have everything they need to thrive in this bustling new capital. It issued Government Regulation No. 12 of 2023 (GR 12/2023) in March 2023. It is a framework for how to do business in Nusantara and what incentives and facilities are available for investors. Bambang Susantono, Head of the IKN Authority, believes GR 12/2023 is the magic key that will unlock the full potential of Nusantara. With this regulation in place, they expect to witness a whirlwind of investments pouring in from private companies in Indonesia and across the globe.

Empowering Businesses with Advanced Payment Solutions

The need for efficient and seamless payment solutions becomes ever more apparent as businesses around the world set their sights on the promising opportunities in Nusantara. Amidst the region’s flourishing economic landscape, businesses must be equipped with payment platforms that not only cater to their financial needs but also align with the region’s growing digital landscape and regulatory framework. In this dynamic environment, innovative payment solutions play a pivotal role in empowering businesses to thrive and capitalize on the vast opportunities Nusantara has to offer. From local entrepreneurs to international investors, having a suitable payment infrastructure can make all the difference in seizing momentum and unlocking the true potential of this burgeoning economic hub.

As the transformative journey towards Nusantara gains momentum, the role of companies offering cutting-edge business payment solutions becomes increasingly vital. These forward-thinking FinTech companies step into the spotlight, offering tailored and innovative payment platforms that seamlessly align with the evolving needs of businesses in the region. By providing a comprehensive suite of payment solutions, these companies empower businesses to navigate the changing economic landscape with ease and confidence.

Efficient and secure financial transactions are essential for businesses to thrive. With the rise of a digital-first approach, these FinTech companies are at the forefront, championing modern payment methods that streamline operations, reduce transactional complexities, and drive financial efficiency. Whether it’s facilitating seamless cross-border payments or enabling real-time settlements, these payment solutions cater to the diverse requirements of businesses, both large and small.

Prioritizing Compliance and Data Protection

Financial service providers must ensure compliance with relevant laws, including those related to Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), personal data protection, and information and electronic transactions. By prioritizing legal adherence and data security, businesses can confidently rely on these payment platforms to conduct their financial affairs responsibly and with peace of mind.

As businesses harness the power of innovative payment solutions, safeguarding sensitive financial and personal information becomes paramount. The responsible handling and protection of customer data are not only ethical imperatives but also essential to building trust with clients and stakeholders. The importance of data protection cannot be overstated. Indonesia’s Law No. 27 of 2022, or Personal Data Protection Law, provides provisions businesses must adhere to.

Companies offering business payment solutions understand this critical responsibility and take rigorous measures to ensure the highest standards of data security and privacy. By employing state-of-the-art encryption and robust security protocols, they create payment platforms that fortify businesses against cyber threats, ensuring that sensitive information remains in trusted hands. As Nusantara embraces the digital future, a robust commitment to data protection strengthens the foundation of businesses, inspiring confidence and driving long-term success in this thriving economic hub.

Fostering Financial Inclusion for Equitable Growth

Financial inclusion also stands as a key catalyst for driving business growth in Nusantara. As the region opens its doors to a diverse range of businesses, ensuring widespread access to financial services is essential for fostering entrepreneurship and economic prosperity. By empowering individuals and enterprises with access to banking services, credit facilities, and affordable payment solutions, financial inclusion creates a level playing field, allowing businesses of all sizes to participate actively in the developing economic landscape.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) benefit from enhanced financial inclusion as they gain the resources and support necessary to expand their operations, invest in innovation, and access new markets. With an inclusive financial ecosystem in place, businesses across Nusantara can thrive, sparking a virtuous cycle of growth, job creation, and sustainable development that will propel the region toward even greater heights.

With the rise of Nusantara as Indonesia’s capital, businesses are entering an era of boundless possibilities. Business payment solutions firms act as catalysts, empowering businesses to seize every opportunity, grow exponentially, and contribute to the region’s economic success.

Brankas: Leading the Way in Business Payment Solutions

Brankas takes pride in being at the forefront of the ever-evolving business landscape, ensuring they are always up-to-date with the latest business laws and regulations. As a responsible financial services provider, they recognize the paramount importance of compliance in today’s dynamic business environment. With a dedicated team of experts, Brankas goes the extra mile to guide businesses through the intricacies of ever-changing legal frameworks, ensuring seamless adherence to regulatory requirements.

In line with their commitment to excellence, Brankas has diligently integrated robust measures to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations, safeguarding businesses against financial crimes and illicit activities. They prioritize the utmost security of customer data, adhering to stringent personal data protection laws to maintain the trust and confidentiality of their clients' sensitive information.

Beyond mere compliance, Brankas goes above and beyond to foster financial inclusion, empowering businesses with inclusive payment solutions. By offering access to financial services and efficient payment platforms, Brankas ensures that businesses of all sizes can actively participate in the thriving economy of Nusantara. Through their comprehensive range of payment solutions, they enhance operational efficiency and drive economic empowerment, enabling businesses to grow, innovate, and reach new horizons.

Brankas stands firm in its dedication to equipping businesses with compliant and innovative payment solutions, navigating the complex legal landscape confidently. With a strategic focus on compliance, AML/CFT adherence, data protection, and financial inclusion, Brankas can be a transformative force and help shape the economic landscape of Nusantara and the rest of Indonesia for a future of progress and prosperity.

References:

https://fulcrum.sg/the-nusantara-project-prospects-and-challenges/

https://www.cekindo.com/blog/investment-in-nusantara

https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/indonesias-capital-shift-to-nusantara-reflects-its-growing-strategic-economic-power-projection-ambitions20221105113346/

https://business-indonesia.org/news/govt-grants-incentives-to-attract-foreign-investors-to-ikn

https://www.pwc.com/id/en/media-centre/infrastructure-news/march-2023/promoting-ease-of-doing-business-at-ikn-govt-issues-government-regulation-12-2023.html

https://futuresoutheastasia.com/nusantara-new-capital-city-of-indonesia/

Understanding Disbursement and How To Streamline It in Business Operations

In finance, certain standard terms are used to describe specific activities. One of these terms is “disbursement,” commonly used in financial institutions such as banks. Still, it is also widely used in business, particularly in accounting. This article will explain what disbursement means and how it can benefit users.

What is Disbursement?

In a business context, disbursement refers to the release of funds by a company for specific purposes sourced from business accounts or other financial accounts owned. Companies use disbursements for various activities, such as distributing payroll funds, paying vendor invoices, settling rental fees, and more.

We can use various digital application products to make the disbursement process easier. Nowadays, there are even Application Programming Interfaces (API) based platforms explicitly designed for the disbursement process, which can be integrated into a company’s system, making it more agile.

During disbursement transactions, various terms are commonly used, including:

• Disbursement Fee: This refers to the cost of shipping packages from foreign countries to Indonesia. Logistics or cargo companies with regional or international reach typically handle this transaction.
• Disbursement Float: This represents the delay in withdrawing funds by the party that needs to pay for specific reasons.
• Disbursement Plan: This outlines the planned withdrawal of funds from a company’s account for a predetermined purpose.

Cash Disbursement, Disbursement Journal, and Receipt Journal

To ensure efficient cash flow management, it is essential to understand key terms in the disbursement transaction process, such as Cash Disbursement, Cash Disbursement Journal, and Cash Receipt Journal. These three activities are interconnected and involve recording transaction processes.

Cash Disbursement refers to the process of making cash payments by a company, which is crucial for meeting the company’s needs and avoiding errors in cash flow management. Companies can use a Cash Disbursement Journal, a ledger, or a cashbook, to record each cash disbursement transaction. This journal includes details such as the transaction date, payee name, amount of cash disbursed, and the purpose of the expenditure.

In addition to the Cash Disbursement Journal, companies can use a Cash Receipt Journal, another ledger that records every cash receipt transaction the company receives. By recording every transaction in these journals, companies can effectively monitor incoming and outgoing cash flow, leading to better and more accurate financial decision-making.

Benefits of Effective Disbursement Management

In business, effective disbursement management is crucial for optimizing fund usage and ensuring sustainability. As a result, business owners need to give proper attention to disbursement management in their operations, ensuring that each expenditure is accurate and targets the right objectives.

The benefits of good disbursement management are numerous, including preventing errors in spending. An organized and structured disbursement system allows businesses to ensure that each money expenditure is made correctly, in line with business needs, which helps prevent errors that could negatively impact business finances.

In addition, a well-structured disbursement system can also ease expenditure tracking. By recording each business expenditure, business owners can easily track each expense and ensure that it is necessary for business continuity. This helps optimize fund usage by prioritizing necessary expenses, enabling businesses to avoid waste and ensure sustainable operations.

Finally, a well-organized disbursement system can simplify tax management by recording each business expenditure. This makes it easy for businesses to calculate and manage taxes owed. This ease of compliance with tax regulations helps avoid penalties from tax authorities.

Disbursement Platforms for Business

The disbursement process can be simple and involve only a few transactions for a small business scale. However, additional tools are necessary for large quantities and nominal transactions that require detailed record-keeping.

Businesses can use various digital platforms to facilitate the disbursement process. One such platform is the API Disburse mechanism, which simultaneously simplifies sending funds to different banks and multiple accounts.

Brankas is a licensed service provider in Indonesia that offers many benefits. Firstly, it provides a flexible mechanism. With Brankas' disbursement services, businesses can disburse funds to bank accounts through an API connected to the company’s application or an easy-to-use dashboard.

Secondly, Brankas provides a real-time recording and status update system for fund disbursement transactions with guaranteed security for every transaction.

Brankas' Disburse API has affordable fees with free integration fees and a reliable system guarantee. With Brankas' API, businesses can simplify and automate their disbursement process, only needing to analyze transaction summaries. This automation also enables various payments, such as payroll or insurance, to be scheduled for a more streamlined process.

Musoni and Brankas Enhance Credit Scoring and Corporate Financing in Asia

Yangon, Myanmar, 14 Aug — Musoni System is excited to announce partnership with Brankas, a leading open finance technology company. Brankas is integrated with over 100 enterprise partners including banks and fintechs to facilitate instant account-to-account payments, bank account opening, and secure retrieval of financial data.

The synergy between Musoni’s core banking system and Brankas' integration network marks a transformative leap in financial innovation. By seamlessly incorporating loan management, credit scoring, and collection offerings, this integration empowers Financing Institutions with enhanced capabilities. Simultaneously, it offers Musoni customers a fast and streamlined route to access a diverse range of financial products. This collaboration not only uplifts the services of financing institutions and digital banks but also optimizes their operations, ensuring they remain leaders in an ever-evolving financial landscape.

This partnership will particularly benefit nascent digital banks and financial organizations that are just entering Asia, and non-financial businesses such as those in logistics or e-commerce that are introducing an embedded finance experience. Businesses and consumers looking to apply for loans can use Brankas’ data APIs to quickly and securely share the financial and bank data that is required for the loan entity. The loan entities can then rely on Musoni’s credit checking and collections systems to manage the entire loan process, and lastly use any preferred loan disbursement and payment method, including Brankas’ payment APIs.

“At Musoni, we firmly believe that the future of digitalization in financial services relies on the seamless integration of multiple technology solutions. This strategic partnership represents a significant milestone in our efforts to revolutionize and enhance the value of financial services in Asia. This integration significantly reduces time to market and integration costs for our customers, streamlining operations, enhancing customer experience, and expanding product offerings. Together with Brankas, we aim to unlock new opportunities and revolutionize the financial services landscape in Asia.” said Casper Gottlieb Busch, Head of Global Sales at Musoni System.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About Musoni System

Musoni is the leading digitalisation partner for microfinance institutions around the world: We help organizations improve their efficiency and extend their outreach through a variety of fintech solutions. These include a cloud banking system, digital field application, and Open APIs capabilities. We have over a decade of experience and now support 70+ organizations in 26 countries. We take pride in our hands-on and personalized approach, with local teams in the Netherlands, Kenya, and Myanmar. Visit Musoni at https://musonisystem.com/

BPD Digital Forum 2023 — A Resounding Success in Empowering Financial Services

Last week, the highly-anticipated BPD Digital Forum 2023 took place at the serene Anvaya Beach Resort in Bali. Hosted jointly by Brankas and Asbanda, this event brought together regional development banks from across Indonesia to explore the theme of “Maximizing Growth Through Ecosystems.”

Amidst the picturesque surroundings, the agenda featured engaging discussions on embedded finance, banking-as-a-service, alternative data, payments, and cybersecurity. Attendees were treated to informative keynote presentations and thought-provoking panel discussions led by Brankas experts, including General Manager Husni Fuad, Group Product Managers Eri Marina Yo and Stavin Deeswe, and Chief Operating Officer Mike Dickinson.

We were thrilled to have the support of TrustDecision and Yokke as sponsors, who provided valuable insights into KYC and payment processes tailored for the BPD community. Participants found ample networking opportunities during a delightful lunch at Kumyit Restaurant and an equally exciting afternoon filled with informative sessions.

As the sun set, we continued the camaraderie and dialogue over dinner at the vibrant Hard Rock Cafe Kuta, where participants bonded further through shared interests in exploring growth opportunities.

With the BPD Digital Forum 2023, we took a significant step forward in driving digital transformation through banking-as-a-service and fostering innovation in financial solutions for customers. The event has set the stage for even more collaboration and progress in Indonesia’s financial landscape.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to all participants, sponsors, and partners for making this event a resounding success. Stay tuned for updates as we continue our journey towards a stronger, inclusive financial ecosystem for all. Together, we are empowering financial services for growth and making a lasting impact on Indonesia’s financial landscape.

Brankas and Appsynth Team Up to Advance Banking-as-a-Service in SEA

Brankas and Appsynth have announced an exclusive strategic partnership in Thailand to drive technology innovation in the financial services industry. The collaboration between Brankas' cutting-edge financial technology platform and Appsynth’s expertise in mobile and web application development will help financial service businesses in emerging markets to accelerate the release of new open finance solutions.

About 70% of the population in Southeast Asia are underbanked and unbanked. Brankas is integrated with more than 100 enterprise partners to help emerging market consumers connect to the top banks and fintechs for e-wallet top-ups, loan and salary payments, and money transfers. Appsynth is Thailand’s leading digital innovation consultancy, creating successful digital products for market leaders including 7-Eleven, LINE, Sansiri, Honda, Rabbit and Kasikorn. The partnership is expected to facilitate fast and secure API connectivity to unlock banking-as-a-service offerings including virtual bank accounts and credit cards, instant payments at scale, additional eKYC methods, and Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL).

According to Brankas, creating a banking-as-a-service solution with traditional tech and consulting firms can take at least one to two years because of the tedious infrastructure migration required. Brankas and Appsynth can now help reduce the time-to-market by at least 40% with their hybrid, cloud, or on-prem API infrastructure and out-of-the-box developer portal.

“There is a perception that slower is safer, which penalizes professionals and vendors that have developed more modern and efficient processes. With the rise of digital banks and fintechs, businesses that can reach customers before their competitors are the ones that gain the most market share,” said Sarah Huang, Regional Director of Sales, Brankas, adding that “Appsynth has consistently demonstrated the ability to create intuitive and impactful applications used by the masses, and we look forward to developing open finance solutions that enable anyone to have access to modern financial services.”

“Appsynth and Brankas are committed to creating a more connected, accessible, and user-centric financial ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Brankas’s open finance technology has been used in applications as diverse as telemedicine, tollways, e-wallets, and lending,” said Robert Gallagher, CEO, Appsynth. “Increasingly large consumer businesses are enhancing their core offering with complimentary financial services. Combining Appsynth and Brankas’ expertise will help clients and other financial institutions build embedded finance and banking-as-a-service solutions that deliver impact for both their customers and their business,” he added.

Brankas’ extensive market coverage in Southeast Asia will help Appsynth to expand its geographic reach to countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia.

Businesses that are interested in offering an embedded finance experience can explore the Brankas API sandbox at https://auth.brankas.com/sign-up.

The Future of e-Commerce & Digital Payments in Asia

E-commerce transactions have shown remarkable growth in recent years worldwide. Apart from brick-and-mortar stores, shopping has advanced into an industry that uses multi-channel strategies, such as online stores, mobile apps, and e-commerce platforms. Asia is leading the way in B2C (business-to-consumer) sales. Statista reports almost 60% of worldwide e-commerce transactions came from Asia. By 2024, it will comprise 61% of global revenue.

The invention of the World Wide Web in 1990 and the development of an encrypted security protocol called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in 1994 laid the groundwork for online shopping as we know it today. The first online marketplaces were Amazon and eBay. There were not any reliable online payment systems at the time, but PayPal successfully filled this need in 1998.

Things did not move as quickly in Asia. Although Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999, this Chinese multinational primarily serves B2B (business-to-business). As internet connectivity improved and more people understood the power of the internet, online activity increased. Social media sites and instant messaging became very popular. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and governments encouraged people to stay home, the region saw rapid adoption of e-commerce. Many shopped online for groceries, medicine, and food delivery. China is currently the biggest e-commerce market in the world, nudging the US to second place after reigning for over ten years. Japan is fourth on Max Freedman’s list. South Korea follows closely, while India is ranked eighth in the world.

Why Asia is experiencing an e-commerce boom

Asia’s dynamic growth did not “just happen.” There are cultural and economic bases that support its rising progression.

The middle-class is growing. In a Brookings Institute paper, Homi Kharas stated the Asian middle-class population has overtaken those of Europe and North America since 2015. From 2.02 billion in 2020, there will be 3.49 billion middle-class Asians in 2030, and will account for 57% of consumption in this demographic worldwide.

Asian consumers are quick to embrace new technologies. 50.3% of worldwide internet users come from the region, which means they are more comfortable and open to using new technologies. They quickly adapt to digital marketplaces, purchasing products from social media sites, and using digital payment systems.

Amazon set the bar for delivery logistics, but Asia is getting there. The World Bank’s logistics performance index shows that 17 countries from Asia are among the world’s top performers, with Japan and Singapore within the top 10. The United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, South Korea, and China are not far behind.

As consumer behavior shifted, businesses innovated their sales and marketing strategies. The rapid growth of e-commerce comes from marketplaces that innovate and find unique ways to be better than their competitors. Video commerce, live video shopping, and social media are some trends that successful retailers are using.

COVID-19 also brought about the quick adoption of digital payments. Governments across the region encouraged consumers to pay digitally to decrease the risk of infection. In Singapore, the use of cash decreased from 74% to 56%, while mobile wallet usage rose from 31% to 41%.

E-commerce is a prime enabler of digital payment methods

Asia’s booming e-commerce is unsurprising, given that the area has the greatest number of internet users and a fast-growing usage of smartphones and other mobile devices. Easy access to mobile devices makes this a primary tool in empowering digital payments, even for the unbanked and cardless population. An iPrice Group study reported a spending increase of 57% for online services, and the use of shopping apps went up to 53% in the Philippines. Digital payments accounted for 30.7% of the e-commerce value, up from 21% in 2017, according to a 2021 GlobalData survey.

As more companies, merchants, and entrepreneurs transform digitally, there is a proportionate demand for quicker, transparent, and flexible payment solutions. “Payments modernization is crucial to your business growth. As technology, competition, regulators, and customers continue to raise the benchmark, your ability to respond at speed and scale becomes critical.” (2022 World Payment Report) Businesses need to strengthen their competitive position throughout customer segments while boosting revenue by offering the latest payment solutions.

E-payments will boost the expansion of the e-commerce landscape

“Digital payments are no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have, and a key part of every company’s business strategy. The ability of businesses to optimize their payment capabilities and operations according to geographical reach will also determine how they stay competitive, agile, and successful across the region.” -Aung Kyaw Moe, founder, and CEO of 2C2P

Customers prefer dealing with companies that offer a wide range of payment methods, especially digital options. Merchants who cannot identify the intended market’s preferred mode of payment will miss the opportunity to gain a wider customer base. For instance, consumers in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam favor mobile wallets. Including an e-wallet payment option will serve businesses in these countries well.

E-payments have changed the way people purchase goods and services and are a crucial component of any e-commerce venture. Besides existing digital payment systems, businesses will have a better advantage over competitors by implementing these next-generation payment technologies.

Regulations may affect BNPL progress

BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is a short-term financing method that enables consumers to buy now and pay for them later in installments. A newcomer to the Asian market, it has strong potential to grow. The Asia Pacific Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Markets Report in 2022 expects the BNPL Merchandise Value to rise from $139 billion in 2021 to $782.9 billion by 2028. BNPL enables customers to buy products they may not afford upfront and offers flexible terms. For business owners, BNPL helps increase revenue by offering their customers an easy payment scheme with no need for credit cards.

One reason BNPL is taking off in Asia is that regulations are infrequent on the product. Guidelines in Singapore serve as suggestions rather than rules. Malaysia, however, is setting policies in place and may signal other countries to do the same. Expect to see industry guidelines on credit assessment, payment authentication, and marketing practices.

Contactless payments beyond QR codes and e-wallets

Almost everyone is aware of contactless payments via scanning an establishment’s QR code and using an e-wallet or bank app on mobile devices to pay for purchases. There are up-and-coming innovations that will redefine friction-free payments. One is “tap-to-pay.” Consumers with credit/debit cards simply tap their cards on a terminal that uses RFID (radio frequency identification) or NFC (near-field communication) instead of handing their cards to a cashier. RFID and NFC technologies have inspired new ways to pay. Visa will launch a “tap-to-phone” function for Android smartphones, enabling merchants to make their phones into contactless POS terminals. At the cusp of AI (artificial intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things), some tech companies are developing apps for smartwatches and key fobs to “tap-to-pay,” as well. Another Visa project in collaboration with Honda is integrating voice assistants in their vehicles for in-car payments.

The major challenges in using QR codes, RFID, or NFC is ensuring that apps and payment channels connect seamlessly and there are robust security solutions in place. Intuitive POS terminals, merchant training, and end-user education are also additional things to consider as businesses plan to implement payment systems that use these technologies.

CBDC may give credibility to crypto

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency with no central issuing or regulating authority. Governments distrust crypto because they cannot regulate it and it enables users to sidestep capital controls. People bought crypto to use as digital payment and as an investment tool. Crypto might grow to be a staple rather than a trend, and countries are slowly accepting it to take advantage of its benefits — accessibility, transparency, secure and efficient cross-border payment system, reduced transaction costs, and faster transaction speed. CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) are cryptocurrencies backed by governments or central banks. As of June 2020, Asia comprised 43% of worldwide crypto transactions, according to Cointelegraph. Unsurprisingly, many countries in the region are developing CBDCs. China launched its CBDC in 2019. India and Thailand are in the late stages of their CBDC development, while Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore have proof-of-concept. Twelve other Asian countries are in research and development (R&D). Authorities are skeptical about crypto, but CBDCs may just give cryptocurrency the legitimacy it sorely needs. Integrating crypto with e-wallets, payment apps, and in-app platforms will increase financial inclusion and contribute further to the development of e-commerce.

Asian central banks, though, need to address the risk of centralization, cybersecurity, and the stability of virtual and physical currency as they develop CBDCs.

Open banking as a solution to financial inclusion

Open banking uses APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to connect customer data between banks and third parties. Just like on an e-commerce platform, open banking connects financial institutions, FinTech companies, and non-financial enterprises. Any bank or company can use APIs to embed its products into the non-financial entity’s sales platform.

Seven out of ten adults in Asia are under-banked or unbanked, according to a Bain research. There are also many SMEs (Small and Mid-sized Enterprises) that have funding difficulties. Open banking makes these traditional financial services accessible by implementing open-source digital solutions, such as hybrid cloud secure architectures, systems, and software.

As with everything digital, data security and the cultivation of trust may slow the widespread adoption of open banking. Some legacy banks will have difficulties in catching up with FinTech companies and the digitalization taking place, preventing their clients from benefiting from open banking.

What lies ahead for e-commerce as it converges with payment technologies

Statista’s forecast that Asia will account for 61.4% of global e-commerce revenue by 2024 will hinge on the pivotal role that e-payments will play. Merchants will need to plan their modes of payments strategically and prioritize the methods that will have the most relevance and acceptance in their markets. As e-commerce expands, so should the type of payment interfaces. Enterprises that do not offer digital or e-payment methods must seriously consider adopting them. They enable seamless transactions, especially on online sites where it will be extremely difficult to use cash. Cash used to be king, but e-payment is more efficient and convenient, especially when shopping online. A positive user experience has a tremendous impact on customer loyalty and must be one of the top priorities of companies.

Payment security

While retailers need to adapt quickly to fresh forms of digital payments, maintaining security is paramount to protect not only the financial components, but private data and information as well. Digital payments must be regulated, requiring basic levels of authentication (eg. Multi-Factor Authentication) from payers, and basic security standards for vendors and payment processors (eg. PCI DSS, SSL certificates).

Analyze the risks and benefits of a game-changing digital payment method and analyze its benefits and risks before implementation. It is crucial to understand the implications of the changes or additions. Businesses need to know if this is relevant to their target audience, if it complies with regulations and industry standards, and if it is secure. Without understanding the full implications of the changes, companies may not make the necessary adjustments to take full advantage of the new system.

Digital payment providers also have an opportunity to educate consumers and merchants by communicating the benefits and financial leverage they gain by availing their services. A PayPal study revealed that a significant number of Asian consumers are aware of digital payments, but the adoption rates are much lower than awareness rates.

The Asian e-commerce market is undoubtedly a massive growth opportunity for companies that will adapt and innovate. Its impressive growth in digitalization, ownership of mobile devices, and internet usage are crucial accelerators to make financial services more accessible to everyone, enabling them to leverage digital products. Customer behavior and preferences change quickly. E-commerce platforms and businesses must adapt just as fast and take advantage of current and emerging e-payment systems. It will not only be beneficial to consumers and businesses. It will also impact their countries’ economies. Digital solutions in a digital world will pave the road to success.

Event Recap: Open Finance Revolution 2023 in the Philippines

The inaugural Open Finance Revolution by the Fintech Philippines Association (FPH) took place on July 5 2023, at Shangri-La The Fort in Manila. A true milestone for all the drivers of embedded finance, open banking, and financial innovation in the region, the industry conference debut brought over 200 delegates and VIP speakers. As the chair of the FPH Open Finance Committee, Brankas played a pivotal role in organizing the conference and we are excited for what this means for the open finance industry.

Among the VIP speakers were SEC Commissioner Kelvin Lee, who revealed the intricacies of financial regulations and risk management to shed light on how the unbanked and underbanked can approach modern financial services securely. Undersecretary of DICT David Almirol also shared important plans by the government technology department to elevate the quality of financial services, in a bid to enable seamless government operations for Filipinos. 

Brankas CEO and Co-founder Todd Schweitzer set the stage with his opening keynote address for the banking and open finance opportunities that lie ahead for businesses and consumers in the Philippines. This helped to welcome relevant discussions about payment innovation, customer experience, and technology advancement in industries like ridehailing, public transportation, gaming, and law. 

On behalf of everyone at the FPH Open Finance Committee, we want to thank our sponsors Temenos, GrabForBusiness, DragonPay, Jointeff, and GoodTech. Special appreciation goes to the speakers and panelists who impressed the crowd with their expertise. But most importantly, we are thrilled to see the overwhelming reception to open finance in the region.

Driving the future of financial services requires the collaboration of consumers, fintechs, banks, and government agencies. Join Brankas and the FPH in unlocking the next wave of financial innovation and Banking-as-a-Service products.

For more information about providing an embedded finance experience for your customers, check out some of Brankas’ solutions for payments and data.

Brankas and RCBC Boost Open Finance in the Philippines

Leading digital challenger bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. is teaming up with Brankas Digital Technologies Inc. to further amplify its digital payment streams through a memorandum of agreement on June 20, 2023 at the RCBC Collaboration Hub (CollHub) at A.T. Yuchengco Tower in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

The partnership supports the open finance framework of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which aims to promote an enabling environment that fosters innovation, encourages coopetition and advances financial inclusion. The BSP launched the open finance initiative supported by the International Finance Corp. of the World Bank Group on June 21 at the BSP headquarters.

“With Open Finance PH, we are taking a big step towards unlocking equal access to financial services for all Filipinos and building a cyber resilient and open digital economy,” BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said.

The new partnership empowers RCBC to facilitate merchants in accepting payments from RCBC Digital and RCBC DiskarTech apps users via Brankas, offering automated bank transfers from RCBC or DiskarTech accounts to any bank account for both individual and bulk transactions, while enabling digital platform integration for seamless bank account enrollment for merchants.

“This is a big step forward for the bank towards realizing its common vision with the government to digitally transform the Philippines and bank at least 70% of adult Filipinos and convert 50% of retail financial transactions by the end of 2023,” said RCBC executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer Lito Villanueva.

“With this collaboration, the possibilities for a better life become countless in an emerging internet economy and creation economy, and empowerment for the underserved and unbanked becomes magnified,” Villanueva said.

“Brankas and RCBC are pioneers in unlocking digital financial services for Filipinos, accelerated by Open Finance technology. Our partnership enables RCBC and Diskartech customers to safely link their accounts to their favorite apps. Together we enable instant, low cost, and reliable funds transfers using the Brankas Direct payments solution. Online businesses can enjoy lower transaction fees on their sales, and customers can enjoy an ‘embedded finance’ experience with their favorite apps and wallets,” said Brankas chief executive Todd Schweitzer.

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider of API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers including banks, lenders and e-wallets and online businesses.

How Fintech Solutions help SMEs and Corporate Businesses

The emergence of financial services technology, more commonly known as “fintech,” has made it more convenient to pay for services and products. With just a button tap, a QR code scan, and other similar tools, fintech allows people to complete financial transactions quickly and securely.

While fintech seems useful primarily from the consumer perspective, small businesses and large corporations can also benefit from the technology. Learn the role of business fintech in this blog.

What is the Role of Financial Services Technology in SMEs and Corporate Businesses?

Through fintech, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporate businesses can operate in the digital age. For one, fintech startups are democratizing digital payments by facilitating instantaneous payments from anywhere in the world.

Check out this rundown of fintech roles and benefits for business productivity and efficiency.

1. Unlock banking-as-a-service for your organization

   Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) is a model where non-financial organizations or non-banks offer digital banking services to operate like licensed banks.

   That means even if you’re not a banking institution, you can provide services such as online payments, loans, management of mobile bank accounts, and debit card usage by integrating fintech into your system.

   What’s more, you can offer these modern banking features without incurring infrastructure or overhead costs. These benefits result in better customer experience, reduced market time, and lower expenses.

   Read: Banking Technology Trends: What’s to Expect?

2. Make traditional banking more open and accessible

   SME fintech gives customers easy access to banking services through innovative means. Considering that 1.7 billion people worldwide remained unbanked in 2021, fintech can make banking more accessible.

   With SME fintech, you empower unbanked consumers to create financial accounts, transfer funds, and pay digitally via your mobile app or company website.

   SME fintech can also benefit your company’s finance management. In particular, fintech solutions offer features and tools that help streamline your business expenses, taxes, loans, and payroll management.

   You can also use fintech to sign orders, invoices, and other crucial documents electronically instead of processing and distributing physical copies to concerned parties such as suppliers and banks. As a result, you can avoid delays in daily business operations and remain profitable.

3. Enable banking solutions through APIs

   Application programming interfaces (APIs) are procedures and functions for creating applications. APIs enable you to access third-party services, operating systems, data, etc. Since your app or website is API-enabled, it can connect to your customers’ bank accounts when they need to pay you for your products or services.

   Plus, SME fintech design is highly sophisticated in solving failed, inefficient, canceled, and other payment issues.

4. Digitalized lending for SMEs

   Strict lending requirements—from credit scores to financial documentation—can hold you back from securing business funding. When that happens, your competitive edge may suffer. Fortunately, you can still take out small business loans via SME fintech lending platforms.

   Through fintech, your chances of securing loans can significantly improve. Fintech’s digitalized lending enables lenders to assess creditworthiness through more advanced means like AI analysis. As such, your company can quickly find lending marketplaces that are willing to fund your business’s financial requirements.

5. Smarter digital payments

   Among fintech’s many innovations, the ones that stand out include features that can help your business facilitate secure customer payments.

   For instance, payee confirmation ensures customers or clients send payments to the correct business account instead of other companies, vendors, or suppliers. Similarly, the request-to-pay feature enables smart digital payments through unique codes delivered to the customer. Upon entering that code, the customer’s payment goes directly to your account.

   Ultimately, you can leverage these SME fintech features to offer installment plans and mitigate payment-related problems like late payments, payment failure due to customer errors, and digital fraud.

Fintech’s Future

The role of fintech in business is multi-faceted. For consumers, fintech offers a convenient mode of payment and access to banking services through an app, website, or wallet. Meanwhile, companies of any size can use fintech to connect with financial institutions, making business processes highly efficient and secure. Suffice it to say, fintech’s innovations will remain relevant and valuable in 2023 and beyond.

If you’re in the market for reliable financial services providers, consider Brankas. Established in 2016, Brankas aims to make financial services accessible to everyone in Southeast Asia. Our company has worked with over 80 financial institutions and banks in six different markets to improve accessibility, with 10 million monthly API calls and market coverage of 80%.

Brankas is committed to bridging the problem through robust support IT infrastructure and powerful solutions so the financial services industry can remain competitive and customer-centric. Contact us about our services today!

Why Banks Should Enable Open Source API into Their System

The rise in technology has changed the way people perceive banks. They are no longer just physical buildings where people keep their hard-earned money. Nowadays, many banking customers identify financial institutions with an app or a website, allowing them to access their finances conveniently.

Indeed, digital transformation is necessary for banks and other similar firms. By using open-source API, banks can diverge from siloed data and update their infrastructure to adapt to modern times.

So what is open-source API, and how can it help the banking industry?

What is Open-Source API in Banking?

Before knowing how this programming term works in banking, it’s essential to understand what an API is. An application programming interface (API) acts as a bridge that helps two or more systems communicate. In other words, the API provides an easier and more secure passageway for information to travel from application to application.

An open-source API has cross-application integration capabilities. You can think of this API as a “plugin” that your system can use to access others.

Financial institutions can allow their partners to connect to their systems and access customer information via open banking API. This way, both parties can provide a seamless customer experience for payments, fund transfers, etc.

Last but not least, turning to open-source banking lets banks create innovative products that can attract more customers.

Why Should Banks Enable Open-Source APIs?

Like any business, banks need more customers to grow. To attract more clients, banks must offer the best customer experience. Allowing open-source APIs into banking systems can help them provide a broader range of services that consumers need.

But how exactly does open banking benefit the industry? Here’s what allowing open-source APIs into banking systems can achieve.

1. Meet consumer demand

Trends in consumer behavior constantly change. For example, the recent pandemic has made e-Commerce more popular than ever as consumers shop online. According to research, online retail sales may reach $6.51 trillion by 2023. With e-Commerce on the rise, it’s best to include online channels and e-wallets as payment options.

Here, open banking APIs fit the bill. Firstly, open-source APIs enable e-Commerce platforms to integrate a bank’s system, eliminating the need to log in to different applications.

Moreover, open-source banking allows for accessibility and convenience. Take, for example, going cashless through e-wallets. Open-source APIs like Brankas' Direct API lets users top up their e-wallets securely and quickly through bank transfer. As a result, customers can secure funds faster without physically visiting a bank.

2. Keep up with third-party providers

There’s no denying that the digital age is fast-paced. Technological advancements continue to increase, requiring companies to improve their processes and create an excellent customer experience. Third-party providers (TPPs) are no different.

However, traditional banks may be unable to keep up with TPPs at this pace. As such, using open-source API in banking can help banks and other financial institutions be on par with TPPs.

Moreover, giving TPPs access to primary customer data—with the client’s consent—cuts processing time for relevant transactions like loan applications.

For example, Brankas’ Statement API provides a comprehensive look into a customer’s financial data. With this feature, banks can share the necessary information with their partners and enable a quick, paperless, holistic credit risk assessment.

3. Ensure regulatory compliance

Cybercrime has increased along with internet usage. In fact, 2022 set a new record for the highest global average cost of a data breach at $4.35 million.

That said, governments have created policies to reduce cybercrime risk. For its part, the European Union (EU) enforces two regulatory policies that directly affect banking operations.

• Payment Service Providers Directive (PSD2)

  The PSD2 is a regulation that financial institutions and companies receiving electronic payments in the EU must adhere to. This regulation aims to improve consumer protection, foster competition, and innovate security in the payments sector. It also prompts concerned bodies to provide customer information to TPPs securely.
  
  The regulation may not apply to companies and financial institutions outside the EU. However, those planning to expand to this region must comply with it.

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

  Investopedia defines GDPR as the “legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live and outside the EU.” GDPR regulates the processing and usage of personal data that companies collect from consumers based on their internet activities.

  Unlike the PSD2, the GDPR is a law that companies and banks must comply with if they want to continue serving EU citizens. This law applies regardless of where the firm is.

Ultimately, these EU rules can affect financial institutions entering the region. Banks can address similar regulatory compliance concerns with open-source banking solutions like Brankas' Open Core API. This solution helps banks and financial institutions comply with applicable data security regulations.

4. Enable banking-as-a-service opportunities

Open banking APIs have become a valuable asset for many financial services firms. Besides keeping up with partners, open-source APIs can give banks a competitive market edge. These APIs enable banks to enhance offers, improve customer engagement, and develop new digital revenue channels.

Moreover, banks can automate numerous processes through digital means, leveraging the benefits of banking-as-a-service APIs. These processes include account opening, payments, disbursements, cards, and loans. Doing so allows consumers to enjoy speedy financial services.

Additionally, solutions like Brankas' Open Finance Suite can give banks a secure plug-and-play gateway to extend their services to their partners. As a result, customers can connect to their core banking systems through their preferred partners.

Transform Your Bank Today

The world’s thrust into the digital age has changed the nature of banking services. Thanks to open banking, customers can conveniently access their financial accounts.

Indeed, moving into the digital scene is a must. Through open-source APIs, financial institutions can adopt open banking and enhance the customer experience while staying secure.

Consider financial services providers like Brankas to move your bank forward in the digital world!

Open Source vs Open Core Services: What’s the Difference?

Developing banking and payment software for your business isn’t always feasible since it requires enormous work. The painstaking processes of creating a capable system can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, too. As such, companies often partner with third-party organizations that provide the functionality they need.

In the past, businesses had two primary licensing approaches for third-party software:

1. Closed source: proprietary and comes at a cost; and
2. Open source: free to access, improve, and redistribute.

Meanwhile, a third option is gaining traction—open-core service, combining open and closed sources characteristics. With that, let’s dive into the details of open-core services and how they can help boost your operations.

Open-Source vs. Open-Core Services: How Do They Differ?

Open-source services allow free use, modification, and redistribution of the software according to the license terms. The licensing terms also determine whether the modified product is free or for a fee. Open-source software is usually in a public space that anyone can access.

On the other hand, an open-core service only offers a “core” part of its code as open-source. Meanwhile, more advanced features become paid add-ons. Open core is a newer model that builds on open source’s positives, providing room for improved security, better speed, vertical scalability, and more active technical support compared with the former.

Financial and e-commerce entities require effective systems from day one, so it’s essential to leverage software that offers a wide range of services yet is easy on the wallet. In particular, open-source core banking services can aid financial institutions without splurging on proprietary software or creating one from scratch.

5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Explore Open-Core Services

Now that you have an idea regarding open-core software, which includes Brankas’s Open Core solutions, let’s talk about how it can benefit your enterprise.

1. Reduced vendor lock-in

Closed services sometimes devise ways—like vendor lock-in—to prevent you from switching to another product. Here, they essentially trap you with the service they offer. Any changes in the vendor’s operations, including price increases, product changes, and even closure, can significantly impact your company, and there’s little to no way out of it.

Fortunately, open core’s foundation on open source minimizes the risk of vendor lock-in. For example, services such as Brankas Open Core lets you switch between your preferred banking and payment systems, thus reducing unnecessary costs and time needed to transfer data from one service to another.

2. No need to start at square one

Proprietary software services typically have enormous price tags, which may exceed your budget and encourage you to develop an in-house banking system instead. Then again, it’s an expensive task with no assurance of success.

Brankas’s Open Core solutions come with complete, modern, and end-to-end financial solutions to meet your needs, regardless of company size. The system can handle heavy transactions and tasks like loan management, so there’s no need to start at square one. Brankas also provides continuous enhancements, debugging, and other improvements to facilitate seamless operations.

3. Compliant with security and data privacy laws

Data protection is a primary concern of financial institutions, hence the need for a compliant system to protect your clients’ data and prevent penalties. Open-core software developers leverage the latest security trends to ensure their systems meet regulatory requirements.

You can expect similar capabilities and more with Brankas Open Core, built with best security practices: multi-layer encryption, authentication, and authorization. It also lets you log and audit system access calls, which you can incorporate into third-party API gateways and services, allowing in-depth configuration for dynamic and real-time monitoring.

4. Ability to select only the features you need

Most financial systems on the market are closed technologies with limited customizability. The vendor gives you no other options than what they already provide, which may be more than what’s required. In other words, you’re splurging resources on unnecessary features.

It isn’t an issue for modular systems like Brankas Open Core, which features discrete yet easily connectible modules you can customize with only the necessary functions. This characteristic also aids in compliance, letting you modify the system to meet local requirements.

5. Affordable and flexible pricing

Again, proprietary financial management software costs a lot, with licensing prices typically starting at $500,000 annually. The cost can be a barrier for many entities, especially small yet high-quality services, preventing them from growing and reaching more people. As such, there’s a need for reliable and affordable solutions.

Since it’s an open-source project, financial institutions can access and implement Open Core services for free. For more in-depth services, Brankas also offers flexible and affordable prices for add-ons to enable both large and small enterprises to compete in the financial landscape.

Secure Your Business’s Competitiveness with Core Services

Being well-equipped with capable services can secure your business’ success in the digital age. Unfortunately, despite the availability of many financial software choices on the market, some are too rigid or offer inadequate functions.

The good news is you can skip the risky guesswork and use core services for a powerful yet flexible tool that adjusts according to your company’s needs—not the other way around.

Constant innovation and collaboration drive the technological landscape, hence the importance of open finance in improving fintech services. As a leading financial services provider in Southeast Asia, Brankas’s Open Core service can help your business reach new heights without sacrificing your freedom and resources.

Contact us today to learn more!

State of Financial Technology Companies in Asia Pacific 2023

In the first half of 2022, the fintech industry witnessed a general investment dip due to global uncertainty, inflation, and economic factors. Investors became warier in their investments due to concerns about economies spiraling into recession while focusing on highly promising business models.

While the rest of the world was cautious, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) fintech industry remained resilient despite the economic factors at play. Digital transformation, open banking, and financial market infrastructures remained stable. APAC also had significant merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, including Block-Afterpay and Superhero-Swiftx.

How do these activities affect the state of fintech in APAC? From fast facts to the biggest fintech solutions and the future of fintech in APAC, this blog has got you covered.

Fintech Companies in The Asia Pacific

Currently, the global fintech industry is still in its infancy. Despite that, many fintech companies have already made enormous strides in creating innovative and valuable financial services that solve major challenges like financial inclusion and open banking.

In Asia, which has an estimated 290 million unbanked population, fintech solutions are already making a huge impact, making APAC the highest-growing fintech industry in the world.

Outlook: What’s the Future of Fintech in Asia Pacific?

1. Regulatory compliance will remain a priority

As the global economy recovers from one financial crisis after another, expect to see greater emphasis placed on data security and regulatory compliance. This may seem unfavorable, but it can actually strengthen the entire financial ecosystem, especially as cyberattacks on fintech companies become more common.

2. Virtual bank competition heats up

Traditional banks face intense competition from virtual banks. In Hong Kong, eight virtual banks are already competing to acquire, retain, and serve more customers. Singapore, another Asia-Pacific financial hub, has already awarded licenses to five digital banks, offering more competitive interest rates, faster transactions, and a better consumer banking experience.

What sets virtual banks apart from brick-and-mortar counterparts is the ability of the former to stay agile and adapt to industry trends, which many traditional banks may be unwilling to do. But many brick-and-mortar banks are already starting to integrate digital payments, so it will be exciting to see how this will impact the banking industry.

3. Consumer awareness is likely to increase

Countries with a low banking population in southeast Asia, like the Philippines, encourage their citizens to avail of digital banking services. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is optimistic about seeing digital banks as future partners in pushing financial inclusivity to APAC countries.

4. Open banking takes off

Due to upward fintech trends, more Asian citizens will bank digitally. In 2021, Brankas financial services grew more partners to increase the state of fintech growth in Asia with 80+ network partners, 33.7 million monthly API calls, 13x transaction growth, and 80% market coverage in APEC countries.

Fintech Asia is on an Upward Trajectory

Despite global issues, the future of financial technology in APAC remains bright. In the age of digitalization, there is a greater need for businesses and financial institutions to connect with the use of newer technologies. There are many fintech services in the game, but there is still so much room for development.

It’s an exciting time to avail of other financial services. To help your bank take advantage of newer technologies, contact us today.

The Importance of APIs in Banking for Businesses and Consumers

Application programming interfaces (APIs) have become more prevalent in the banking industry in recent years.

For instance, regulations promoting open API in banking have led to a 499% growth in banking platforms globally. Southeast Asia is gaining notable progress as well with open banking API. The Philippines is an excellent example of this, meeting its objective of reducing average financial exclusion from 44% to 30%.

API banking can break banking barriers through digitization. Whether speeding up and automating repetitive tasks or adding more functions, there’s untapped potential with what API banking can deliver to banks and other financial institutions in the years to come.

This article will cover API banking’s significance to banks, businesses, and the fintech industry.

What is API Banking?

Before understanding how APIs work in the banking industry, let’s tackle first what an API is. An API, or application programming interface, is a set of protocols enabling various applications to communicate with each other. It’s comparable to a common “language” that different software can use to share data among themselves efficiently and securely.

Similarly, the way of structuring data differs from bank to bank. This factor makes it difficult to provide integrated banking services to consumers amid the demand for digital payments.

This is where API banking comes in, allowing banks and financial institutions to communicate and interact with each other and with third parties.

Aside from consumer benefits, API banking also offers major benefits to banking operations, including resolving transaction errors, managing internal tasks, tracking successful or canceled payments, etc.

The Importance of API Banking for Businesses

At its core, API banking provides customers with better services and a seamless digital banking experience. Here’s how.

1. Improves customer engagement

   Customer engagement is crucial in the banking industry because communicating with your customers, addressing their concerns, and meeting their demands can lead to brand trust and loyalty.

   People expect convenient services when they go online to access their bank accounts, credit cards, etc. Here, APIs can improve customer engagement by providing customers reliable 24/7 access to their bank accounts and personal data.

   For example, implementing Brankas' Statement API offers a reliable and secure way for bank customers to track their finances digitally from any device without worrying about the security of their transactions.

2. Increases staff efficiency

   The finance industry is fast-paced. With cutthroat environments and demanding workloads, employees bear tremendous pressure to accomplish tasks and satisfy customers. Changes in work protocols and customer policies can also lead to a decline in performance. With APIs, increasing staff efficiency is possible, as they help make bulky data integration projects more manageable.

3. Enables better data accessibility and portability

   Image Source

   Data silos pose challenges among traditional banks when upgrading their legacy systems for the digital age. As competition in the fintech industry shows no signs of slowing down, banks must prioritize breaking down these silos to drive innovation and quality in their products and services.

   APIs' data accessibility and interoperability provide tremendous value to businesses. For example, Brankas aggregates APIs from various financial institutions into a single API that banks can use to build tailored services for their customers.

4. Builds new revenue channels

   Banks have an extensive selection of financial services to offer to customers. But without new revenue channels, bank operations might not be sustainable.

   How can APIs help banks in this department? Instead of developing a new product from scratch, banks can use APIs from third-party providers to expand their product features or use cases, reach international markets, etc. This way, banks can save time and continue making money.

5. Reinforces stringent data protection

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   Handling sensitive financial information demands the utmost security. Bank accounts, credit cards, and other digital assets are common targets of cybercriminals, which is why banks must implement robust security systems to prevent online theft, fraud, and hacking.

   APIs protect sensitive data via multiple layers of authorization, keeping cybercrimes under control. For its part, Brankas uses the highest security standards, such as HTTPS connections and AES-256 encryption, to maintain data security.

How API Banking Helps Financial Institutions in Southeast Asia

APIs are game changers for the banking industry. They empower banks to upscale their internal processes and maximize the potential that digital technologies have to offer.

In the case of Southeast Asia’s emerging markets, open banking APIs help the financial sector serve unbanked populations by making financial services more accessible. The push for API banking in these markets helps improve financial inclusion and address the needs of less privileged individuals and communities.

Here are successful use cases of API banking in Southeast Asia in recent years:

• E-wallets and mobile payments

  Southeast Asia has gained a reputation as the “wallet first” region, with API-powered mobile apps and e-wallets as the primary method of digital payments for online transactions.

• Telcos and bill payments

  Telecommunications and utility companies are using banking APIs to offer multiple payment options to their customers.

• Cryptocurrency

  Like e-wallets, cryptocurrency apps are popular alternatives to traditional banking in Southeast Asia. These apps use banking APIs to allow crypto holders to link their bank to their crypto wallets for making fund transfers, deposits, withdrawals, investments, etc.

• Lending

  Unlike the US, which uses a standardized system for creditworthiness via FICO scores, many Southeast Asian countries rely on data that traditional banks collect. Unfortunately, this approach puts unbanked groups at a disadvantage.

  The good news is that banking APIs are changing this by aggregating customer data from various sources to assess a person’s creditworthiness. As a result, vulnerable sectors, like those with no bank accounts or credit history or informal workers, can also avail of lending services.

• Insurance

  Insurance companies collaborate with banks through an arrangement called bancassurance, which allows insurance companies to provide their services more seamlessly through banking APIs.

The Future of API Banking

API banking has a lot in store for the banking industry. For banks that have yet to transition to complete digitalization, API banking is helpful in remodeling and restructuring digital operations for high-impact financial services.

A reliable financial service provider like Brankas can guide you in navigating the future of business. Brankas offers a comprehensive array of financial services for everyone in Southeast Asia in partnership with major banks and financial institutions.

Ready to boost your financial services? Contact us to learn more!

Open Finance: A Complete Guide and Key Benefits in Asia Pacific

Open Finance aims to enable everyone to securely access and utilise financial data from multiple sources. In this article, We explore what Open Finance is, its applications and benefits, and what the future holds for the industry.

What is Open Finance?

Open Finance centres around data sharing, specifically through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable the integration of various institutions’ data and workflows. This means that, with a user’s consent, data from one company can be automatically available to another through the use of APIs. Traditionally, data sharing is done through screen scraping, which is less secure and accurate. With APIs, consumers can share transaction data without needing to share their usernames or passwords, utilising a direct connection that delivers higher levels of security and faster speeds. Information shared can only be authorised by end-users and is transacted via an encrypted connection, with regulations provided by the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) in the US, for example. Read about Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in this whitepaper written by industry-leading tech enablers to find out more.

Open Finance unbundles financial services and products owned by banks, making them available to third parties. This unlocks huge opportunities, particularly in developing regions, where a large percentage of the population has little to no access to financial services. Companies can leverage Open Finance to find solutions that meet the needs of the unbanked, a large market ripe for growth.

Benefits of Open Finance

Open Finance has great benefits across the board, not just limited to the financial sector. It benefits both consumers and financial institutions by providing financial institutions with more revenue streams and consumers with more personalised products and services. Some of its benefits include:

Consumer control

Consumers have more choices and control over the data they share, and have access to a broader range of products and services. It provides convenience to consumers, through, for example, ‘embedded finance’, wherein all of a consumer’s financial needs are serviced within the same product.

New revenue streams

Open Finance creates more revenue streams for financial institutions, providing a secure way for them to enable consumers to share their data with third parties. Through this, financial institutions can uncover new ways to innovate their products and create a broader range of services for their customers.

Fintech innovation

Open Finance helps facilitate the creation of new ways to use data. Fintechs can utilise this to deliver innovative and unique products to meet consumer needs. They can gain access to a broader, more accurate basis upon which to create their products, and Open Finance also creates opportunities for collaboration with government bodies or traditional financial institutions.

Lender transparency

For lenders, the process of determining a client’s credit standing is often long and tedious, as they have to pull data from multiple sources to craft a clear picture of a client’s financials. With Open Finance, lenders can more easily pull data from multiple sources and automate the process.

Security and transparency

One of the major challenges in developing countries is the large population of individuals who have no access to financial institutions. With Open Finance, financial institutions and fintechs can better engage with potential customers by highlighting the security and transparency, along with faster processes, that come with Open Finance solutions.

Applications of Open Finance

Open Finance can be used in a multitude of ways and by different industries, offering a greater variety of uses and users than Open Banking. Some of these are discussed below.

1. Enhanced utility comparisons: Open Finance APIs will allow for greater competition, with businesses and consumers able to discover better deals from more providers.
2. Direct debit payment: users can make transactions more easily and monitor their payments through one platform.
3. Payment initiation services: with the boom in ecommerce, online shoppers can directly make payments from their bank accounts without entering their details each time, allowing for smoother transactions.

Open Finance opens up more avenues for innovation within finance, and increased collaboration among industries. Through secure data sharing, companies can innovate their product offerings further, and consumers benefit from a wider array of product options to choose from.

Open Finance: what lies ahead in Asia Pacific

In Asia-Pacific, there is a 44% year-on-year growth rate of Open Banking API platforms, largely coming from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines. This region, along with Latin America and the Middle East & Africa, has a large population and increasing regulatory commitments that make them attractive to emerging startups and fintechs looking to leverage Open Finance to create innovative products for the large population of underbanked individuals. The increased collaboration, novel product opportunities, and security established by Open Finance make it something that many companies should consider looking into to expand their reach.

Brankas is helping companies simplify their financial processes, providing customers with a wider variety of product offerings that are quick, safe to use, and accessible. In doing so, Brankas is shaping the Open Finance ecosystem in Southeast Asia – a pivotal role that can help businesses adapt to the current digital age.

Brankas and MPT Mobility Enable Instant Toll Reloading in the Philippines

The new partnership between Brankas and Metro Pacific Tollways (MPT Mobility) allows MPT DriveHub users to reload their e-wallets using their bank accounts via Brankas Direct.

Manila, Philippines, 18 April 2023 — Open finance leader Brankas has announced a new integration that will allow MPT DriveHub app users in the Philippines to reload using their active Philippine bank accounts. MPT DriveHub users can now choose from a wider range of reloading options as they top up their RFID accounts, with which their transaction history can be accessed too. Brankas and MPT Mobility expect the new integration to attract new app users, who will benefit from lower service fees when reloading through the app.

MPT Mobility, the innovations arm of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), enables Filipinos to travel more easily through its efficient, effective, and modern mobility solutions through one of its arms — MPT DriveHub, an all-in-one travel companion app that offers a variety of mobility solutions to improve motorists’ travel experience.

“Lower service fees are part of the brand’s commitment to improving the user experience within the app and making real-time reloading more accessible and convenient. We listen to our motorists’ needs and act on what we can, harnessing our resources and the power of digital technology.” said Gines M. Barot, AVP for MPT DriveHub Operations.

Brankas' APIs are used by companies offering e-wallets, online shopping checkout, lending services, insurance, and wealth management. Brankas Direct enables collections and retail “cash-in” for e-commerce, fund transfers, and recurring subscriptions. In MPT DriveHub, Brankas Direct gives users a seamless RFID reloading experience without needing to leave the mobile app.

“Our mission at Brankas is to provide modern and secure open finance technology that empowers our partners to create world-class solutions. The new bank integrations allow MPT Mobility to serve more motorists in the Philippines through more reloading options. In the spirit of financial inclusion, Brankas is proud to be contributing to the widespread adoption of the MPT DriveHub app,” said Todd Schweitzer, Brankas CEO and Co-founder.

In addition to providing digital payment solutions for a tollway company, Brankas’ open finance solutions are used in ride-hailing, agriculture, insurance, and healthcare companies to power digital transformation. This diverse range of open finance industry applications was also displayed at the Open PHinance Challenge in 2022, which saw applicants from industries including public utility vehicles (DyipPay), HR (Betterteem), and farming (Cropital). The 8-week accelerator program in the Philippines was launched by Brankas and Kaya Founders.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation

Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) is in the business of developing and operating toll roads in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. It is the biggest toll road developer in the Philippines, with a current portfolio of tollways that includes the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (CAVITEX), Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) and the NLEX Connector Road (NLEX Connector).

MPT Mobility houses products and services to satisfy the customers’ mobility needs and enhance their experience. It has seven business units under its fold, namely account management company Easytrip Services Corp., centralized customer response organization One Hub, expressway rest stop firm MPT Drive & Dine, outsourced manpower provider Southbend Express Services Inc., out of home advertising unit Spot On, parking solutions company Dibz, and innovation and diversification unit Business Development. MPT Mobility also maintains and operates the tollway group’s newest mobile application, MPT DriveHub.

About MPT DriveHub

The new mobility app from MPT Mobility is set to change the way Filipinos look at driving. With features like easy real-time RFID reloading and tap and track account management, and emergency roadside assistance, drivers and motorists can look forward to smoother rides.

How to Enable Digital Account Opening for Your Business

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.

But thanks to innovations by financial technology (fintech) companies, businesses can now take advantage of Digital Account Opening solutions to enable people to create bank accounts digitally and remotely.

Let’s discuss what digital account opening is, why you should enable it for your business, and the best practices for maintaining it.

What is Digital Account Opening?

Digital account opening allows users to conveniently open a bank account online without visiting a physical office. It is a three-step process that streamlines account creation and customer acquisition. The digital bank account opening method involves three core functions: customer acquisition, origination, and onboarding.

The main goal of implementing a digital account opening process is to empower your consumer base to open a bank account digitally, where they can accomplish it in the fastest, easiest, and most secure manner possible.

With the convenience of digital account opening, more people have adopted it in recent years. In 2022, 13.7% of the U.S. population had a digital-only bank account, with projections stating that by 2025, almost 20% of American citizens will have one.

While many benefits come with integrating digital account opening into your business, the implementation also presents challenges, such as security concerns, technical issues, and problems communicating your company’s services and products.

Although it’s a vast undertaking, digital account opening provides more pros than cons once implemented.

Why Digitalize Your Account Opening Process?

In a nutshell, digitalizing the account opening process makes it simpler for users to open a bank account, which in turn helps banks acquire more customers. As the fintech industry in Southeast Asia remains highly competitive, innovations like digital account opening can help banks and financial institutions stand out and gain a bigger share of the market.

Let’s take a look at the different benefits of digital account opening to businesses.

1. Get a better digital view of your customer’s data

   Today’s customer base not only expects but demands a highly-personalized experience. Implementing a digital account opening process allows businesses to obtain customer data with their consent, which helps personalize their onboarding experience.

   Customer data insights allow businesses to optimize their platforms to address customer pain points and provide tailored solutions.

2. Give users a better experience in the platform by offering regular payment modes

   Traditionally, banking activities require long-drawn-out processes, which many customers don’t have the patience for. The digitization of account opening can eliminate these nuisances and enable customers to open a bank account at home using a laptop or smartphone.

   Digital account opening allows your customers to fulfill any form of financial transaction, whether depositing, withdrawing, or sending money, whenever and as they see fit. With a guaranteed way to bank anytime and anywhere, most customers will be more willing to do so, which can mean more business for you.

3. Enable real-time reconciliation of transactions

   Implementing digital account opening processes benefit both your customers and your organization. It enables real-time transaction reconciliation, which is crucial in the accounting process.

   As your business gains more accounts receivable, payables, and payment channels, reconciling all customer transactions becomes more labor-intensive and complex.

   The digital bank account opening process allows you to compare internal and external records to verify data instantly and accurately, removing the hassle of going through information manually.

4. Disburse loans quickly

   Modern customer sensibilities have evolved to the point that every transaction requires instantaneous action—this also applies to banking and loans. With digital account opening, your customers can fill up an application form online, get an assessment, and find out if they’ve secured a loan in a matter of hours.

   Over-the-counter processes are no longer a requirement on your company’s end. You can process the transaction and transfer the loan directly to the borrower’s bank account without the customer needing to step into a traditional banking establishment.

5. Pay out salaries instantaneously

   Aside from helping customers, the digital account opening process also helps businesses, particularly in streamlining payroll. This method will allow the people in charge of disbursing salaries to employees to create dedicated accounts for specific departments and send the payments simultaneously.

   If you or your clients have a large corporation, digital account opening can make payouts more seamless and efficient.

6. Micro merchants can now serve rural areas effectively

   One of the most significant benefits of digital account opening is providing individuals the fundamental right to conduct banking. Unfortunately, in some rural areas, options are often limited.

   With digital account opening, businesses’ official micro merchant partners can start offering essential banking functions and varying payment methods to citizens in unbanked areas to begin their financial journey and secure the necessary loans.

Digital Account Opening Best Practices

Effective digital account opening implementation requires constant iteration, maintenance, and testing to determine what’s most effective for your business. The best practices when designing and maintaining a digital account opening system are as follows:

1. Set up analytics from day 1

   Data is crucial and should be ready whenever you need it, especially when implementing a digital account opening process. Thus, it is vital to set up analytics from the beginning, so you can have a baseline to monitor performance.

2. Keep in mind the principles of “Privacy by Design”

   You cannot undermine the value of security as the financial and business world transitions to digitalization. To ensure the safety of your digital accounting opening process, you must abide by the core principles of the privacy-by-design approach.

   The principles of privacy by design emphasize “data protection through technology,” meaning that privacy measures are in place throughout the designing, implementation, and deployment stages to protect sensitive customer data at every step.

3. Solve a customer’s need

   The primary purpose of adopting a digital account opening process is to make it easier for your customers. So, if your digital bank account opening involves more steps than necessary, it ultimately defeats the purpose of having one.

   It’s best to assess why and how customers enter your funnel, understand their needs, and adjust to the circumstances accordingly. Moreover, you can gain new insights on how to solve potential issues customers may encounter later.

4. Iterate, iterate, iterate

   Digital account opening solves many problems upon initial implementation. However, as time goes on, new problems will inevitably arise. It’s best to constantly iterate upon your existing systems and adopt new tactics and tools to provide the best experience to your customers.

5. Regularly conduct testing

   If your platform doesn’t work, no one can use it. While you can rely on customer feedback, that’s not always the case. Some customers may choose to look elsewhere instead of waiting for a fix.

   It will help to prioritize the testing of your platform. Conduct regular tests when updates roll out and constantly look for ways to improve your system. It’s best to get ahead of the problem than to look for a solution later.

The Potential of Digital Account Opening

In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, accessibility, efficiency, and speed are essential. Fortunately, integrating a digital account opening process help in those areas to help you stand out from the competition.

If you’re looking for the best financial services provider available, consider Brankas. With our Account Opening API, you can empower users to create new bank accounts on your platform and gain access to regular payments, customer loans, and more.

If you’re interested in what we offer and want to learn more, contact us today!

Why Digital Banking Services Are Becoming More Important

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.

Digital banking is gaining traction, with 65.3% of consumers using online platforms for financial management and transactions. In terms of age groups, PYMNTS states that younger generations— particularly 84.1% of millennials and 83.5% of Gen Zs—are more receptive to digital banking services. Meanwhile, only 45.7% of baby boomers and seniors adopt the technology.

7 Reasons Why Digital Banking Services are Important

The popularity of digital banking among younger, tech-savvy consumers may be due to several factors—convenience, security, and accessibility, to name a few. Let’s delve deeper into why millennials prefer using emerging digital banking services.

1. Convenience and 24/7 availability

   The importance of digital banking in a rapidly evolving world stems from its convenience. For instance, viewing account balances is achievable in a few clicks. Plus, the process makes money transfers check deposits, and bill payments more effortless.

   Since digital banking is mostly self-service, users can transact and manage finances from their end. Financial services are accessible anytime and anywhere, too, thanks to banking apps and online access portals.

   For your business, Brankas' Direct API lets you integrate convenient and accessible functionalities into your services, enabling instant and seamless e-wallet top-ups, loan repayments, and e-commerce checkout capabilities.

2. Real-time reconciliation

   Bank reconciliation involves cross-checking banking activity to identify inaccuracies and fraud. However, given banks' sizable clientele, this process usually takes time, which might delay detecting fraud.

   Fortunately, digital banking provides room for automation to minimize workload. For instance, Brankas' Statement API automatically reconciles transactions in real-time, making the task more effortless and accurate. From an account holder’s point of view, proper recording and check-and-balance systems mean greater security of their finances.

3. Immediate access to users' transaction history

   Before the arrival of digital banking services, financial institutions (FIs) only issued transaction histories and bank statements in print. The process took time; hence, requesting records had to be done days before. Today, account holders can generate transaction histories in a few clicks, showing all credits and debits.

   By integrating Brankas' Statement API into your operations, delivering digital account statements to customers is a breeze. Meanwhile, Balance API has balance checking and personal finance capabilities, providing clients with snapshots of their accounts in an instant.

4. Lower fees

   In 2021, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) found that approximately 5.9 million, or 4.5% of U.S. households had no bank accounts, with 21.7% claiming banking service costs as the main obstacle. This figure emphasizes the importance of low fees to grow banking clientele, especially budding millennial households.

   Digital banking solutions have significantly lower costs than traditional FIs. For example, digital-only service providers have no physical offices or branches and no tellers and customer services. This setup reduces operating costs, reflecting lower fees for account opening and maintenance.

5. Enhanced security and fraud prevention

   Surveying over 2,000 US consumers, PYMNTS found that millennials prefer digital banking services because they are more secure than legacy ones and enable access to the latest banking technologies.

   Your security capabilities can build your clientele’s trust, so it’s crucial to use protected APIs to ensure data privacy and safety. The good news is that Brankas' suite of APIs and platforms uses hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), industry-leading encryption technology for modern web applications.

   In addition, Brankas has a comprehensive set of security policies and certifications, such as the ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) credentials, to vouch for its effectiveness.

6. Less cumbersome financial management via automation

   The problem with traditional FIs is that requests for transfers, deposits, and withdrawals may take longer to process since tellers typically handle them manually. Real-time updates are seldom, which may be troublesome if clients need documents for urgent matters.

   Automated systems solve the problem of inefficiency, taking charge of transaction data between a bank and its users. It eliminates long queues and waiting times, making transactions more seamless for consumers. For instance, most of Brankas' products are automatic, including Disburse API, which automates company payroll and e-commerce services like payouts or refund flows.

7. Accelerated move to cashless

   There’s little doubt Southeast Asia is undergoing a digital boom, boosting tech-savvy millennials and Gen Zs. In turn, it has become a thriving ground for fintech. While 60% of Southeast Asians remain underbanked, digital banking services, such as Singapore’s Grab, Malaysia’s MoneyLion, and the Philippines' Maya, are triggering shifts toward cashless economies.

   Brankas, a financial service provider primarily operating in Southeast Asia, helps drive the region toward economic modernization. For one, partnering with online payment gateway Yokke brings e-wallets and digital financial management closer to Southeast Asian consumers and businesses.

Stay Competitive with Digital Banking Services from Brankas

Millennials grew up during the birth of digitization, witnessing the pros and cons of traditional and digital banking. However, in terms of finances, the latter is the clear winner.

Digital banking’s convenience, efficiency, cost, and security enhance legacy ones, hence its continuous popularity among millennials and Gen Zs. As 2023 progresses, it’s best to integrate digital banking services into your operations to stay relevant to the younger market.

As a top fintech provider in Southeast Asia, Brankas provides valuable data and payment APIs that drive results. Contact us to learn more.

Brankas Secures Payments Licenses in Indonesia and the Philippines

• Brankas is now a licensed payment service provider after acquiring the Bank Indonesia (BI) Payment Service Provider (PJP) Category 3 License and the Operator of Payment Systems (OPS) certificate from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
• As a BI-registered PSP, Brankas is authorized by BI to conduct payment transactions after demonstrating compliance with the regulatory body’s standards for companies conducting remittance services.
• As a BSP-registered OPS, Brankas is now under the supervision of the BSP and is expected to adhere to governance and risk management standards set by the regulatory body.

Jakarta, Manila, 15 March 2023 — 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.

Brankas has an extensive range of banking APIs that enable instant and direct payments without the extra cost and risks of “middleman” settlement accounts. Brankas’ payment APIs are used by companies offering e-wallets, online shopping checkout, lending services, insurance, and wealth management. Brankas Disburse is a multi-bank API enabling automated fund transfers for salary payouts, vendor payments, loan disbursements, and more. Brankas Direct enables collections and retail “cash-in” for e-commerce, fund transfers, and recurring subscriptions. Brankas Merchant Link is a turnkey merchant management system for banks and large merchants to offer in-house payment processing.

With over 100 enterprise partners worldwide, Brankas is committed to the security of its open finance solutions. Brankas is ISO 27001 and PCI DSS certified, and undergoes regular external IT audits.

“We understand how important trust is to our customers, that’s why it is important that we hold ourselves to the highest standards of security. As a leading open finance company globally, Brankas owes it to our customers to not only demonstrate compliance to internationally recognized frameworks, but also to contribute to the evolving risk management framework for payment systems worldwide.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas.

The payments licenses equip Brankas to offer end-to-end Open Finance infrastructure to its bank partners, from local and cross-border payments, to new banking-as-a-service solutions like account opening and card issuing.

“Brankas is proud to obtain the PJP license, which confirms our commitment to data security and privacy for both our customers and partners. As we expand our list of embedded finance offerings to support our customers, we want to ensure that we provide the widest bank coverage in the country.” said Husni Fuad, Country Manager of Brankas Indonesia.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Open Banking API: Its Role in Financial Inclusion & Literacy

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.

Yet despite widespread adoption, some people still don’t have access to open banking or even a bank account. For instance, the number of account holders in the Philippines nearly doubled from 20.9 million in 2019 to 42.9 million in 2021. Unfortunately, many adult groups of the country’s population remain unbanked, including farmers, retirees, and homemakers.

Open banking APIs can resolve this problem in the Philippines and the rest of the world. This article will discuss everything you need to know about open banking and its role in promoting financial inclusion.

What is Financial Inclusion?

Financial inclusion or inclusive finance refers to individuals and businesses having access to affordable and convenient financial products and services, regardless of economic standing.

Financially included people can save, apply for credit and loans, start and expand a business, and invest in their holistic financial health. On the other hand, financially included organizations can manage financial risks, grow their investments, and make long-term data-driven plans.

How Does Open Banking Pave the Way for Financial Inclusion?

Over the past decade, financial innovations such as mobile banking, peer-to-peer payments, and online trading platforms have empowered individuals and businesses in various aspects of their financial journeys.

With open banking entering the scene, you may wonder how it fits into the financial inclusion discussion. Open banking and financial inclusion support each other in several ways.

1. Enables personalized products and services

Open banking APIs give financial institutions access to personal and financial customer data such as bank usage and transaction history. As a result, financial institutions can personalize their products with this information to better address customers' financial needs.

For instance, a bank can offer microloans to small business owners to cover damages or losses incurred from a natural calamity like a typhoon. The bank can also help first-time home buyers anticipate real estate rates and payments and build a good credit score based on their savings and transaction history.

The more personalized and “human” banks are, the more their customers will avail of their offerings. After all, 72% of banking customers today already see personalization as “highly important.” Therefore, there’s no better time to adopt open banking than today to create unique and more targeted banking experiences.

2. Promotes improvement of financial offerings

Open banking encourages financial institutions to partner with emerging financial technology companies, diversify their offerings, and take advantage of growth opportunities in the finance sector.

Financial institutions can also shift to a more flexible banking-as-a-platform business model by adopting technologies like chatbots, user-centered apps, and virtual and augmented realities.

Consequently, these technologies can eliminate paperwork, disburse products and services in real-time, and boost customer satisfaction. Not only do these benefits lower costs for financial institutions, but they also help unbanked and underserved customers achieve financial inclusion in no time.

A 2022 study found that 53% of bank account holders trust financial service providers more when they deliver “integrated, consistent, cross-device experiences.” Another 70% said they use online accounts, while 33% transact with online-only banks.

3. Allows for more informed financial decision-making

Without personalized financial products and services, unserved and underserved individuals can’t independently understand their finances or take advantage of wealth management opportunities that can improve their quality of life.

Open banking resolves this problem. When financial institutions share customer data with third parties, those in unserved and underserved communities, including banking novices, can enjoy new financial management tools and make better-informed decisions. Data sharing can also help them build a credit history to qualify for credit and loans and lower interest rates and fees.

Additionally, open banking supports financial apps that give users an overview of their savings, expenses, and overall financial health. For instance, the rise of super-apps in recent years has given users a one-stop shop for many services, such as food delivery, retail shopping, and ride-hailing.

Many banks are now catching up with this trend, consolidating and offering their products and services—such as payments, loan applications, and fund transfers—in one app. With this financial innovation, many more individuals can access their money, understand their financial standing, and even seek professional help without physically visiting their bank.

4. Improves financial literacy

Since open banking enables fintech firms to create and improve personal finance management tools, users can have an accurate view of their financial health and achieve financial literacy.

For instance, some mobile banking apps help users track their spending habits, save for necessary expenses, and set financial goals. Then, based on user data, these apps can provide personalized recommendations on how users can achieve their goals—whether to build their wealth further, invest in lucrative assets, or enhance their overall financial well-being.

5. Supports micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

Beyond the individual level, open banking can also contribute to the growth of MSMEs, which account for up to 99.9% of total establishments in Southeast Asia. They also contribute 85% to employment, 44.8% to GDP, and 18% to national exports.

Open banking ensures MSMEs can automate their accounting and cash management tasks. Delegating these business functions to a third party helps MSME owners focus more on enhancing other parts of their operations and looking for more growth opportunities.

Most importantly, open banking provides MSMEs easy access to capital. Traditionally, MSMEs would manually submit requirements to qualify for a loan. With open banking APIs, banks can have a real-time view of an MSME’s financial health and performance and offer customized loans for the latter to expand their offerings or investments and fund their short- and long-term plans.

6. Supports contingent workers

Over the years, freelancers or independent contractors have had difficulty qualifying for more advanced financial products such as credit cards and loans because of their unstable income. This predicament leaves them underbanked and hinders them from improving their quality of life until they have accumulated enough wealth to save and cover their expenses.

Open banking now allows them to access financial offerings, which can help fund their resources, education, and more. For instance, data sharing will enable lenders to pull financial information from a freelancer’s bank account and assess their creditworthiness.

Meanwhile, open banking enables freelancers to upload invoices and receive payments through their preferred payment gateways, streamlining their bookkeeping process.

7. Encourages economic participation

Again, open banking enables and streamlines digital transactions, makes financial products and services more accessible, and helps unbanked and underserved individuals understand their finances.

With the majority benefiting from open banking, this financial innovation can contribute to local and global economies. The more financially literate people are, the more they can enhance their living standards and, ultimately, contribute to the economy.

Promote Financial Inclusion with Open Banking

Financial inclusion goes beyond giving individuals and businesses access to affordable financial products and services. Being financially included means participating in the global economy and improving critical infrastructures that support daily life.

With open banking fast becoming a norm, financial institutions can finally serve the unbanked and underserved while empowering individuals and businesses to achieve their financial goals.

If you want to experience the benefits of this financial innovation, reach out to open banking API providers like Brankas. We’ll help you integrate open banking APIs into your systems to improve your products and services and onboard more unbanked and underserved customers. You can also cross-check customer data across multiple partners to make credit, loans, and other financial services more accessible.

Visit our website to learn more about open banking APIs and how we use them to enable financial inclusion.

Unblocking the Road to Financial Inclusion in Southeast Asia

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?

The state of financial inclusion exists when everyone has access to various financial products and services, including vulnerable sectors. These often excluded sectors include MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), startups, the agriculture industry, and low-income populations.

Access to financial services and products isn’t the end-all and be-all of financial inclusion. Without quality in such services, addressing the varied requirements of those who need them will be challenging.

Why Does Financial Inclusion Matter?

Financial inclusion is not just about giving financial access to individuals and organizations but also about helping them achieve their long-term needs. For example, accessible banking enables unbanked persons to open an account and save for retirement or emergencies. Meanwhile, MSMEs—which generated 64.67% of the Philippines' employment in 2021—can expand their organization.

However, according to the Financial Inclusion Steering Committee (FISC), the lack of financing and capital is one of the most significant obstacles for MSMEs, making financial inclusion vital for economic growth.

What are the Main Obstacles to Financial Access?

While stakeholders recognize the importance of financial inclusion, understanding the challenges is crucial to attaining this inclusive state. Here are some obstacles that hinder financial inclusion.

1. Lack of access to financial institutions

One of the most prominent challenges to accessing financial services is the limited availability of financial firms.

Based on the FISC study, an area’s population and income level can highly influence financial institutions' presence—or the lack of it—in that particular location. Specifically, financial firms are more accessible in higher-income and densely populated areas.

However, lower-income regions with sparse populations don’t have the same accessibility. This scenario makes availing of the proper financial services and products unfeasible, negatively affecting the economy as some populations lag.

2. Infrastructural gaps in the country

Adequate infrastructure can drive economic growth, so it’s no surprise that it also plays a vital role in financial inclusion. Therefore, infrastructural gaps may hinder this goal.

Beyond a lack of infrastructure for brick-and-mortar banks, inadequate telecommunications infrastructure may affect the availability of digital financing services. For example, telecom companies cannot cater to far-flung areas their towers can’t reach.

These factors can delay the creation and delivery of innovative banking products and financial services to communities and consumers.

3. Lack of support systems

Again, MSMEs are critical for the country’s economic development due to the employment opportunities they create. However, financing and capital are significant obstacles these businesses often face. Moreover, the lack of support systems like guarantee programs and credit information systems may exacerbate the effects of this obstacle.

According to the Tech for Good Institute, small businesses often do not have “conclusive credit history or records required for formal loans.” Due to this, over 60% of Southeast Asian MSMEs encounter difficulties acquiring loans to finance their businesses.

4. Lack of trust and awareness regarding financial institutions

Among vulnerable sectors, many might not be knowledgeable about taking advantage of financial services or products suitable for their resources. As such, they forgo availing of saving, insurance, or investment products that can help them secure their financial goals.

Also, the FISC reports that the formal setups of banks and other financial firms tend to intimidate 31% of unbanked persons, especially if they have not transacted with them. The perceived high costs of banking services have discouraged many of them, too.

How Can We Improve Financial Access?

1. Encouraging structural reform

To effectively provide access to innovative banking products and financial services, policy development and implementation should be the starting points.

Thankfully, organizations like the Asian Development Bank lends support through the Inclusive Finance Development Program (IFDP). The IFDP is a public policy loan that empowers local banks to modernize their banking services through digitalization.

ADB’s partner in this project, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), also works with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) in training, building the capacity, and raising the awareness of the rural banking sector toward digital banking systems as part of financial inclusion efforts for the underserved populations in the country.

With public policies supporting innovation in the finance sector, others can follow suit.

2. Modernizing rural banks

Rural banks are financial institutions that cater to small-scale businesses in local communities. These financial institutions play a crucial role in breaking boundaries, allowing underserved areas to avail of banking services. However, there is still a need to improve these institutions.

With the rise of technology, many have shifted to a more digitized form of banking. This shift has made it necessary for rural banks to catch up through modernization.

By adopting new banking technologies into their operations, such as banking-as-a-service, rural banks can compete with other industry players. In particular, they can increase efficiency with reduced costs and provide better service to their target markets.

3. Innovative products and services

Fintech’s contributions to the industry include accessible banking services, which make transactions easier and processes quicker. Adding more innovations can facilitate a quicker transition toward financial access for all.

For instance, APIs can give way to open banking that can help vulnerable sectors manage their finances, starting with opening accounts via mobile devices.

Plus, APIs’ secure financial data sharing enables open finance, which can help banks design products and services that best suit their customers' needs.

Unblocking the Road to Financial Inclusion

Accessible financial services and products have become crucial in boosting a nation’s economy. It doesn’t just help businesses grow and create opportunities. This inclusivity also allows individuals to achieve long-term financial goals that can help with personal finance advancement.

However, the road to financial inclusivity is long. But understanding the challenges and having concrete plans to address them can help eliminate these roadblocks and mobilize nations toward financial access to all.

Reach out to financial service providers like Brankas to start navigating a financially inclusive future. Learn how our Open Finance Suite can help you.

Benefits of Banking-as-a-Service for Enterprise and MSMEs

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.

For instance, technologies such as Banking as a Service (BaaS) make financial data exchange between services easier, even among non-banking enterprises. Meanwhile, open banking lets companies access critical financial data from multiple sources to improve their services.

The banking landscape is rapidly developing, emphasizing how efficient and convenient financial services are more crucial than ever. Data suggests that by 2028, BaaS' global market size will reach $51.2 billion, with a growth of 15.6%, setting a precedent for what everyone can expect in the banking sector.

Let’s delve deeper into what BaaS is and how it can improve the services of non-bank organizations.

What is Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)?

Banking as a Service is a system in which non-bank businesses partner with banks and offer financial products and services to their customers. This system is possible with the bank’s application programming interfaces (APIs), a way for computer programs to communicate.

As this technology dominates the fintech landscape, it’s best to collaborate with banks and financial institutions to stay competitive. Fortunately, there are plenty of Banking-as-a-Service providers to choose from.

A top option is Brankas' Open Finance Suite, which can unlock BaaS for your organization with world-class open banking technology. This service provides an all-in-one platform for remittance, payment, loan origination, and other similar capabilities that let you build and host financial APIs to onboard partners and merchants into your ecosystem.

BaaS vs. Open Banking

Given their similarities, there’s bound to be confusion between BaaS and open banking. However, it’s crucial to differentiate the two to understand how they work.

• BaaS
  Non-bank businesses use APIs to integrate banking services into their products, much like how you can opt to finance transactions with credit cards on e-commerce sites.
• Open banking
  Non-bank businesses use APIs to collect financial data for their products and services. A typical example is how car dealers connect with banks to examine a customer’s credit score.

5 Benefits of Banking as a Service for Enterprises and MSMEs

As more businesses shift online, taking advantage of the opportunity to provide convenient banking services is becoming essential for brand loyalty. Here are some benefits BaaS delivers to expand your operations.

1. Potential to increase revenue
   
   Navigating an increasingly competitive market requires diverse income sources. However, given the digital expansion of critical industries, some revenue streams might become insufficient. Utilizing digital services like BaaS can open doors to higher income by providing customers with various financial services.
   
   For instance, e-commerce platforms may issue debit cards to their customers, charging recurring fees and facilitating revenue-sharing agreements with the bank for additional profits.
2. Access to consumers' financial data
   
   In the digital sphere, data is good as cash, offering critical insights into your customers' behaviors that can help adjust the company’s operations to maximize success.
   
   BaaS lets you gather information about your clients' spending habits from partner financial institutions. Knowing how and when customers receive, spend, and save money can help you leverage their habits through promotions and marketing campaigns.
3. Opportunity to diversify the client base
   
   While providing services to a particular group of customers is beneficial, tapping into other market sectors can open up more significant opportunities for growth. BaaS lets you focus on creating a more accessible front end built around the existing data it provides. In turn, customers from various sectors who require your services may become prospects, diversifying your client base.
4. Greater scalability
   
   As your business expands, so does the demand for a service that can keep up. Fortunately, BaaS makes growth easier as an adaptable service without the overhead needed for traditional banking platforms. It prepares your operations to proliferate into new markets cost-effectively.
   
   Given the platform’s API-driven capabilities, the entire system is modular. You may develop strategies based on the company’s needs, such as your preferred partner bank.
5. Maintain digital competitiveness
   
   With access to customer spending habits, you can implement campaigns that boost your brand visibility and customer loyalty, giving you an edge over competitors.
   
   Moreover, creating a scalable system where customers can purchase your products or services directly on your website prevents you from interrupting their customer journey. Making transactions effortless for customers can entice them to choose your brand over others, which is vital in the highly competitive digital landscape.

Simplify Your Customers' Finances

BaaS benefits lead to one central idea—grow your business by improving customer experience. Integrating financial services directly on your website makes transactions seamless. In turn, you can increase revenues and remain competitive while significantly enhancing the customers' experience with your brand.

Are you interested in leveraging BaaS for your enterprise? Our Open Finance Suite offers world-class open banking technology that makes BaaS integration seamless for enterprises and MSMEs. Contact us to learn more.

Brankas Launches APAC's First Multi-bank API for Instant Account Opening

Brankas’ Account Opening API is integrated with four banks in Indonesia and the Philippines, enabling an “embedded finance” experience in any app.

Jakarta, Manila 28 February 2023 — Open finance leader Brankas has today announced a new feature enabling instant bank account opening as an “embedded finance” experience on third-party applications. The API is the first of its kind in the region, launched first in Indonesia and the Philippines. As a bundle with Brankas’ market-leading data and payment solutions, any merchant or consumer app can provide fintech experiences to their users.

Using the new Account Opening API as part of Brankas’ wider banking API suite, companies offering financial management, e-wallets, brokerages and more can now offer their users interest-bearing, regulated savings accounts as an embedded feature. HR platforms, ecommerce marketplaces and lenders can also provide users with savings accounts for collections and disbursements. The new Brankas solution also helps small businesses to unlock new revenue by onboarding newly banked customers in hard to reach areas.

Brankas expects banks and merchants to partner up to offer attractive sign-up bonuses, while consumers and corporate customers can enjoy a fast and rewarding sign-up experience. According to Brankas, most businesses will be able to onboard and go live in less than a week.

In Indonesia, more than 50% of the population are unbanked, defined as not having access to the services of a bank or similar financial organization. This denies them access to basic financial services including loans, credit cards, and interest savings accounts.

“As a Bank Indonesia (BI) licensed financial services provider, Brankas sees tremendous potential in reaching out to the unbanked and underserved population across the region to get access to modern financial services. Banking-as-a-Service helps to power everyday financial services relevant to communities as diverse as fisheries, farms, drivers, accounting, and HRMS. We are excited to see our new Account Opening API being used to give consumers and SME/UMKM access to loans, investments, and a wide range of payment methods.” said Husni Fuad, Country Manager, Brankas Indonesia.

Brankas’ Account Opening API currently supports account creation for OCBC NISP, Danamon, and BNC in Indonesia. Brankas also offers retail and corporate account creation in the Philippines, powered by Netbank. With an established network across the Asia-Pacific region, Brankas is integrated with over 100 enterprise partners to enable broader financial inclusion, and just recently announced a partnership with Arab Financial Services to strengthen the open finance infrastructure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

“We are continuously expanding our menu of embedded finance offerings to support our customers across Asia-Pacific. Our Account Opening API provides a single integration across multiple banks that enables access to the unbanked and provides essential infrastructure for the next generation of fintech solutions.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas. “Open Finance can be a catalyst for financial inclusion, and requires close partnerships between forward-thinking banks, API technology experts, and our enterprise customers onboarding new account holders. We are proud of the impact and access that Brankas and our partners have created, and I hope this will encourage more industry participants to consider new ways to reach the unbanked and underserved.”

About Brankas
Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Open Banking vs Open Finance: Is there a difference?

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.

Although people usually interchange the two, key distinctions surround open banking and open finance. This article will tackle those differences, helping you learn their purposes and benefits for your business.

What are the Differences Between Open Banking and Open Finance?

Open banking is a model that lets third-party financial service providers access customer data to facilitate banking transactions. It uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable fast and secure movement of banking information.

On the other hand, open finance encompasses open banking and offers a broader scope of financial products and consumer services like insurance, mortgage, pensions, and wealth management. Open finance supports customers through greater control over their financial data.

The following areas can give you a clear picture of what open banking vs. open finance means.

• Range of services
  Open banking focuses on banking services, such as fund transfers. Third-party providers (TPPs) can initiate such transactions between customers' accounts when making online purchases or setting up automated savings.
  
  Meanwhile, open finance extends the fund transfer feature in the example above by allowing bank account owners to move money from a savings account, to say, an investment account. Ultimately, open finance covers your customers' entire financial footprint.
• Data ownership and control
  Open banking only shares data relating to transactions that bank customers typically perform via mobile banking apps or in bank branches. In this context, the banks decide what customer information to share with TPPs.
  
  On the other hand, open finance promotes more extensive data sharing by consolidating them in one place and giving its owner a holistic view of their financial situation. Since consumers decide what information to share with third parties, open finance leads to greater control and security of financial data.
• API providers
  With open banking, banks are the only API providers authorized to collect and process consumer data. But with open finance, other financial organizations, such as online payment solution companies, online lending platforms, and other financial service apps, can also become API providers.

What Do Open Banking and Open Finance Mean for Banks, Businesses, and Consumers?

Because of open banking and open finance, the future looks promising for consumers and businesses. Through these financial developments, banks can reach a broader market. Consumers who value ease and convenience can benefit from seamless transactions and the personalization of products and services.

What’s more, remote and underserved populations can access better financial services through open banking and open finance. As these innovations offer more functionalities and benefits to low-income consumers and small businesses, they move closer to the goal of financial inclusion.

• Open banking
  Open banking encourages banks to centralize their data and services, streamlining many functions for consumers. It also promotes collaboration with startups and fintech companies to develop and diversify new products and services. Working with non-bank organizations and other providers can also compel banks to outsource their services, which can help reduce overhead costs.
  
  For other businesses, open banking helps provide multiple payment options, lower processing fees, and eliminate chargebacks. Open banking also allows enterprises to understand their customers' needs through data APIs and simplify operations like accounting.
  
  As for consumers, open banking supports various online financial transactions conveniently and cost-effectively. Open banking also gives customers real-time updates on their finances and better access to financial services like credit and financing.
• Open Finance
  Meanwhile, open finance empowers various stakeholders by amplifying open banking’s capabilities. With the help of API banking, open finance can speed up transactions, simplify financial management, and enable data sharing safely.
  
  For instance, borrowers can build an ideal credit score since open finance systems consider all of their financial data—from bank accounts to income and investments. Meanwhile, lenders can use aggregated data to make more informed decisions regarding loan approvals. Third-party financial service providers can also use consumer data to develop products and services that cater to their target market’s needs.

The Open Banking and Open Finance Tandem

The fintech industry continues growing thanks to open banking and open finance innovations. They’re instrumental in making transactions seamless and convenient for consumers while enabling banks and non-banks to use data to tailor financial products and services.

Whether you want to explore open banking or open finance, Brankas can help. As Southeast Asia’s leading open finance technology provider, Brankas offers financial solutions that cater to your customer needs and business requirements. Learn more about Brankas' services.

AFS selects Brankas to Strengthen MENA Open Finance Infrastructure

In this new partnership, AFS will work with Brankas to create direct bank integrations to allow for easy credit scoring, payroll disbursements, account-to-account payments, and new bank account openings.

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.

Brankas is a leading open finance technology company with an established network across the Asia-Pacific region. Founded in 2016, Brankas technology enables embedded finance and banking-as-a-service for the region’s top financial institutions and is integrated with over 100 enterprise partners to enable broader financial inclusion.

This new partnership with AFS will see Brankas bring its established open finance practices to MENA to promote more inclusive financial services in countries including Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The APIs that will be made available through AFS’ platform are critical in allowing tech platforms to offer essential financial services such as credit scoring, payroll disbursement, account-to-account payments, and new bank account openings.

Samer Soliman, Chief Executive Officer of Arab Financial Services (AFS) said: “Today, AFS already works with over fifty regional banking institutions. This strategic move to integrate with the banks’ infrastructure is a natural step in our expansion and innovation. Our vision is to empower our clients to deliver relevant and customer-centric products that positively impact the lives of customers, and we are proud to partner with a well-established open finance vendor like Brankas to help us achieve our goal.”

In 2020, the Central Bank of Bahrain (“CBB”) launched the Bahrain Open Banking Framework (Bahrain OBF) to ensure holistic implementation of Open Banking services by the industry. The framework includes detailed operational guidelines, security standards and guidelines, customer experience guidelines, technical open API specifications, and the overall governance framework needed to protect customer data.

For Brankas, this move represents its entry into new MENA markets as it sets its sights on establishing a global open finance network following successful partnerships in 2022 with Visa, CRIF, among others.

“Financial inclusion forms the foundation of everything we do at Brankas. We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to work with AFS to hone our open finance expertise in a new market with its own regulatory bodies. Bahrain is leading the charge in the region to drive the holistic adoption of open finance, and we look forward to working with the visionaries here to improve the availability and quality of financial services for the everyday person.” said Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas.

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About AFS

Arab Financial Services was formed in 1984 to provide payment products, services and expertise to banks and merchant groups and deliver customized payment solutions in an increasingly divergent, disruptive, and dynamic payment ecosystem.

A key to the growing and continued success of the company was an executive team determined to invest in the most up-to-date, leading-edge technologies. AFS is owned by a total of 37 banks and financial institutions and serves over 60 clients in more than 20 countries across MEA.

Today, AFS is the region’s leading digital payment solutions provider and Fintech enabler, regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

AFS’s innovative approach to the provision of financial services is evidenced by a series of pioneering payment services that covers card processing services, merchant acquiring, fintech solutions and an impressive array of value-added services.

The emphasis that AFS places on innovation has positioned the company as a driving market force, delivering a rich portfolio of payment solutions including digital mobile wallets, customer orientated Merchant Acquiring services; Bahrain’s leading digital payroll solution Al Rateb, global Contact Centers and much more.

Trusted by businesses across the region AFS has been recognized as the “Best Payments Solutions Provider – Bahrain” by MEA Finance Awards 2022, “Best New Payment Solutions Provider for MSME Business Bahrain 2022" by Global Business Magazine, “Leading Payments Innovator Bahrain 2022” by Global Business Outlook and “Best Payment Solution Provider Bahrain 2022” by Global Banking & Finance Review.

Visit www.afs.com.bh for more information and join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Hylobiz, a B2B Supply Chain Network Fintech Launches in Indonesia

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.

Highlights for businesses:

• Seamless linking of ERP and bank accounts to Hylobiz
• Faster invoice collections, auto reconciliation, and automated reminders enabling strong cash flow
• Digitisation of invoice collections
• Real time tracking of payments with dashboards and reports

JAKARTA, Feb 03, 2023 - The partnership of Hylobiz, a Vayana group company, with Accurate and Brankas would facilitate businesses in Indonesia with connected business software, especially accounting & POS (point of sales) and connected banking services supporting them with faster collections and strong cashflow for steady business growth.

With this, M/SMEs in the Southeast Asia market will see a positive transition. Businesses will be able to digitize invoices and collections overcoming the crippling issues related to cashflow and business growth.

With Accurate, Hylobiz shares a joint vision to enable Accurate’s SME customers to achieve Cashflow and Compliance automation and thereby offer Credit (Embedded Trade Finance) through partner FIs, with Accurate ERP continuing as the customers' primary application interface.

“We (Accurate) are very happy to be partnering with Hylobiz. As we enter the modern era, we believe that everything must be efficient, everything needs to be fast. Hopefully accurate as business software especially Accounting Software & POS can be a solution for SMEs customers with a takeline #Bisnisjadimudah on developing their own business,” said Yosep Stephen as CEO Accurate.

With Brankas, Hylobiz shares a joint vision to enable business growth for Indonesia’s SMEs with cashflow automation by leveraging Open Banking technology.

“Embedded finance is set to have a massive impact on business innovation in the coming years, and we believe the use cases today are only just the beginning. We are excited to see the increasing usage of Brankas APIs by organizations across a variety of industries in Indonesia, and share Hylobiz' vision to drive faster collections for its customers,” said Husni Fuad, Country Manager Indonesia, Brankas.

Digitization of receivables, collections with payment links, automated payment reminders, automated reconciliations in real-time, and smart tracking of payments are some of the top and most needed features available with connected ERP and connected Banking capability established through the synergy of the trio.

Vishal Gupta, CEO, of Hylobiz, said, “Hylobiz has been addressing the cash collections, payouts, and real-time reconciliation for the businesses across India, UAE and the USA helping 250K businesses for growth on their cashflows. With Accurate and Brankas we aim to serve b2b SMEs in Indonesia better through ZERO process change, for faster invoice collections and embedded finance for their business growth.”

About Brankas

Brankas is a leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas' secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users. Headquartered in Singapore.

About Accurate

Accurate is a business software to help people manage, monitor, and present their business financial reports easily.

Proven by 21 years of consistency and won top brand awards consecutively for 7 years, with outstanding features that will simplify business operational processes such as preparation management processes, recording and presenting more than 200 types of financial reports automatically, tax management and reporting, integration into various applications and other business support software and many more.

Accurate has served hundreds of thousands of businesses in various industries in Indonesia as their trusted Accounting Software and POS, with easily administer, manage, and as an easy financial system known for its features completeness and operational flexibility. This has led to Accurate Is widespread acceptance by trading companies, distribution companies, contractors, and manufacturing companies. Headquartered in Tangerang Selatan, Banten.

Visit website: https://accurate.id/

About Hylobiz, a Vayana group company

Hylobiz is a Fintech serving to simplify the processes in the B2B ecosystem and is currently operational in India, UAE, and the US and is now launching in Indonesia. With its Connected ERP and Connected Banking capabilities, the unified solution simplifies invoice collections and cashflow in the B2B space and simplifies working capital access. Headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra in India.

How Open Finance Shapes the Economy

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?

With open finance, these use cases are possible. Let’s look into open finance and how it can pave the way for an open economy.

How Open Finance Shapes the Economy

As discussed in a previous article, open banking refers to connecting banks and third-party providers (TPPs) via application programming interfaces (APIs) to make financial services more accessible and convenient for consumers. This model typically covers bank-related transactions, like fund transfers and deposits.

On the other hand, open finance builds on open banking to include more than just bank-related transactions. As such, in the context of open banking vs. open finance, their difference lies in the scope of data involved. While open banking focuses on banking data, open finance extends the coverage beyond banking to include other financial data, such as investments, mortgages, insurance, pensions, etc.

The end goal of open finance is to provide consumers access to their entire financial footprint for more control over which financial services they can use.

Currently, various ways are in place to shape and improve the economy. With open finance at the core, banks and financial institutions can bridge the gap between customers and next-level banking.

1. Leveled playing field
   
   Banks with physical branches that mainly offer deposit and lending services enjoy a high degree of control over their consumers’ personal information. Moreover, they also have access to other transactions based on their customer interactions.

   With open finance coming into the picture, the ownership of financial data shifts from banks and financial institutions to consumers. This framework levels the information playing field, empowering consumers to take control of their data while incentivizing competition among financial services providers.

2. Interconnected financial products and services
   
   A common frustration among consumers is the limited services that a financial institution provides. For example, banks may focus on getting more customers rather than developing new services for their existing ones because it is more profitable for their bottom line.

   This is where open banking comes in, allowing banks to open their financial data to TPPs who can develop new features and services for their customers. As a result, banks can still focus on their core function, while customers now have access to better financial services. It’s a win-win for everyone.

   Open finance aims to extend this interconnectivity beyond banking. Innovations in open finance can encourage more partnerships between financial institutions and businesses, fostering a more collaborative financial ecosystem and better and interconnected financial products and services.

3. A more resilient financial system
   
   Traditional banking puts control of consumers’ financial data on banks. Unfortunately, this model makes switching to different banks a pain and often causes lock-in effects where consumers have no choice but to keep using a particular product or service because there isn’t a better option.

   With open finance, consumers have more options so that they don’t have to stay locked into a particular vendor. In addition, better data access and portability means customers can simply “plug in” their financial data to a third-party service their bank doesn’t offer.

   Moreover, open finance can reduce structural reliance on large banks, leading to a more diverse financial ecosystem that can sustain severe shocks amid government regulations. Should financial institutions fail, along with tons of private information, open finance will make it easier to share such data with prospective new lenders. It can also reduce the costs of institutional failure.

4. Better competition among financial institutions
   
   Unequal information between financial institutions results in tremendous barriers to the entry of new, more innovative, and possibly better competitors. With open finance leveling the information playing field and improving the entire transactional footprint of customers through data portability and interoperability, it can ensure a large, diverse, and competitive universe of players.

   Since stiffer competition among financial institutions inspires them to deliver higher quality, cost-effective, and more personalized products and services, consumers can benefit from a more dynamic and efficient financial services industry that offers them better choices.

5. Unlock Banking-as-a-Service for your organization
   
   Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) supplies banking products and services via non-bank businesses. Examples of BaaS include setting up transfers between banks, depositing checks via smartphones, and online shopping with debit or credit cards.

   BaaS aims to win customers away from traditional banks. Meanwhile, open finance allows access to one’s financial records and sharing them through APIs. The result is better services for consumers. Once you unlock BaaS with open banking technology, you can lead the market with an all-in-one channel for remittance, payments, loans, and more.

6. Monetize your existing APIs
   
   APIs enable two software components to exchange data using various protocols. In banking and other financial transactions, APIs help process payments, facilitate conversion between currencies, and more.

   Monetizing APIs means charging fees for its endpoints. First, businesses sell API access directly to software developers. Then, they use it to access data or perform other actions.

   Meanwhile, the open finance suite allows secure third-party access to services like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), virtual credit card issuance, remittance, and insurance and authorizes more monetization opportunities.

7. Automated account opening, payments, disbursements, cards, and credit checking
   
   As consumers consent to make their financial information available, it’s easier to have automated account opening, payments, disbursements, cards, and credit checking. These processes provide customers with seamless and smooth financial transactions whenever and wherever. Plus, automation lets bank professionals focus on quicker and more high-profile tasks.

The Future of an Open Economy

As open finance becomes the predominant trend in the financial ecosystem, so do we get closer to a future of an open economy, where all data is shared among financial institutions and non-financial industries. This vision provides consumers with limitless possibilities for integrating their financial data, thus allowing them to do everything digitally.

We’re not quite there yet, but more and more organizations are creating solutions that push for the growth of the open finance ecosystem. For instance, Brankas offers Open Finance Suite, which has already helped financial institutions in Southeast Asia take advantage of open banking technology.

In the Philippines, PERA HUB built its Digital Remittance Platform on top of Brankas’ Open Finance Suite. This helped them manage their API endpoints in real-time, connect with more partner services, and achieve their mission of becoming the one-stop platform for cash and payment-related transactions in the Philippines.

Wrapping It Up

Open Finance makes financial transactions seamless. In today’s generation of consumers who rely heavily on technology, it’s time for companies to include such software in their systems that will adjust to their business processes and customer needs.

To improve financial technology in your businesses, reach out to Brankas and make way for new revenue streams. We have the expertise, technology, and teams to design solutions tailored to your business needs. So say hello to new customers, unlock BaaS for your organization, and bridge access to financial services today!

What is Open Finance and How Does It Work?

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.

For this reason, many banks and other financial institutions now use different technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, bank-as-a-service, and smart contracts to serve customers in real-time, process transactions faster, and mitigate or avoid risks.

One other innovation that’s revolutionizing the finance industry is open finance. If you have yet to adopt this framework, this article will discuss everything you need to know about open finance, including its benefits.

What is Open Finance?
Open finance is a data-sharing system that connects banks and third-party finance companies to make financial products and services more convenient and accessible for consumers.

For this system to work, financial institutions use application programming interfaces (APIs) to access customers' financial information, ranging from insurance policies to pension funds and utility bills.

How Does It Work?
Before open finance, banks and financial institutions accessed customer data through open banking. It allows regulated third parties to use APIs to build tools that gather and refine financial data from traditional banking. When done right, open banking makes financial products and services safer, more accessible, and personalized.

Open finance is the extension of open banking. Like open banking, open finance applies the same general process to other financial services such as mortgages, savings, pensions, and insurance—basically your entire financial footprint. Thanks to open finance, consumers can better control and more readily access their finances.

As financial technologies improve and banking customers demand better products and services, financial institutions are now stepping up from open banking to open finance to accommodate a broader range of customer needs quickly and efficiently.

4 Benefits of Open Finance

Open finance doesn’t solely serve banks but also benefits utility companies, mortgage lenders, pension funds, and e-commerce businesses. Here are several benefits of open finance.

1. Access to more services
   Open finance allows banks, financial institutions, and other businesses to offer more services for customers. For instance, this innovation enables e-commerce businesses to strengthen their security systems, offer more flexible checkout options, and enhance customers' overall shopping experience.

   Governments can also largely benefit from open finance by offering improved tax and other assessment services through open finance APIs.

2. Personalized products and services
   
   Open finance allows banks and financial institutions to develop more artificial technology or AI-enabled products and services, give customized and targeted recommendations, and simplify payment or financing solutions for individuals and businesses.

   Personalized financial products and services can help consumers support their unique needs and lifestyles. For instance, open finance APIs can help banks access a loyal customer’s credit history and record and decide what type of credit card suits them.

   Ultimately, these personalized products and services can give financial institutions a competitive edge.

3. Faster and safer transactions
   
   Open finance enables bank-to-bank transactions. This system takes intermediaries out of the equation, allowing consumers to save on additional banking fees while financial institutions access customer data faster.

   When it comes to credit and loans, open finance helps lenders assess borrowers faster. It helps them access and evaluate borrowers' credit history, spending behaviors, and other indicators of financial health that help streamline the process for both parties.

   Open finance also makes online shopping more convenient. For instance, e-commerce businesses can adopt open finance APIs to allow their customers to make direct bank transfers or debit card payments. Once their bank processes the transaction online, it will direct the payment to the e-commerce business’s account.

4. More freedom and control for consumers
   
   With data privacy becoming more important than ever, open finance allows financial institutions to be more transparent with how they use customer data. Consumers can then control where and how they want companies to use their data and choose the products and services that support their needs.

   With more freedom and control, consumers can understand their financial options better, manage their expenses, savings, and investments, and enjoy faster transactions.

Welcome to the Age of Open Finance

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s only fitting for the finance industry and other business players to embrace technology and innovation to keep up and meet consumer demands. With open finance, it’s now easier for financial service providers to personalize their products and services and for individuals to achieve financial security.

Look no further than Brankas if you want to integrate open finance into your system and reap its many benefits. Contact us to start learning about the latest innovations in the finance industry.

Financial Technologies: Its Role in Countries like the Philippines

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

One of the companies in this industry is Brankas—Southeast Asia’s leading open finance technology provider. Brankas offers payment solutions, data management, and other financial-related processes to streamline the financial services of different countries and companies.

But why is FinTech becoming more of a staple in emerging economies like the Philippines?

The Problem of Financial Services in the Philippines

Driven by the rising digitalization of economies, traditional financial institutions have more reasons to streamline their services. However, much of the Southeast Asian region remains largely unserved or underserved when it comes to banking and financing. Although financial technology solutions in the Philippines are on the rise, consumers and businesses can significantly benefit from further developments.

For one, no Philippine banks offer complete external data application programming interfaces (APIs), which are crucial for businesses, particularly those working with third-party developers. There’s also only one Philippine bank that has a fully functional payment API. These factors can severely limit people’s finance management options, leading to lengthy bank transactions with multiple steps and costly transaction fees.

Filipino consumers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may benefit from interim or temporary solutions. But, even if banks already have APIs, they can still fail and require fallback solutions. Fortunately, although the Philippines is years away from an open finance regulatory requirement, Brankas is one step ahead.

Financial Inclusion: How Does Brankas Help?

Brankas utilizes robotic process automation—or RPA—which modernizes businesses by making processes easier, faster, and more reliable. All industries and open finance jurisdictions employ RPA for many reasons: it streamlines labor-intensive financial processes, boosts productivity, and saves time and money.

As one of Southeast Asia’s leading financial services providers, Brankas, has made tremendous efforts to support and promote open finance for businesses and financial institutions. It’s an essential step because RPA technology can enable Open Finance in the Philippines.

Through RPA, the fintech sector can collectively provide Filipinos access to alternative and better financial products and services with superb quality and reasonable cost. Since secure bots are behind RPA, it doesn’t sacrifice consumers' financial and data privacy rights.

What has Brankas accomplished so far?

In 2022, Brankas and the investment firm Kaya Founder launched an 8-week open finance accelerator program—the Open PHinance Challenge— to encourage financial inclusion and accessibility. Early-stage startups in the Philippines benefited from this campaign as experts dove into informative discussions, mentorship, and product development.

Brankas also introduced “Brankas Open” after realizing that open finance technology requires a modernized open-source framework. Brankas Open is an open-source license promoting digital banking and fintech innovation. It helps neobanks, startups, and traditional financial institutions lower cost barriers.

For Brankas, this structure is ideal for securing community contributions, providing open access, and satisfying financial institutions' data protection and security standards.

In addition, Brankas strongly supports the efforts of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as it continues to establish open financial frameworks in the country. It aligns with Brankas’s initiative to lead Filipino consumers toward holistic fintech and financial inclusion.

How does Brankas help consumers and businesses?

Brankas provides personalized financial services and product options to cater to specific demands. Brankas users can retrieve and access financial data in real-time, securely transfer funds across accounts, and fast-track transactions through these services. A good example is the fast and seamless disbursement of funds to multiple recipients at any bank.

Brankas also enables consumers to access authorized third-party systems, giving them control over their funds and the option to choose how they wish to interact with them. As for businesses, Brankas provides access to consumer data, such as spending habits, so that they can tailor their products accordingly.

With Brankas' streamlined processes and easy payment options, customers can avoid long transactions that can be a dealbreaker to some. These improvements help companies better understand their customers and boost their experience and satisfaction.

Banks also benefit from the concept of open finance. It lowers the cost of client acquisition and onboarding, allowing banks to increase access to underserved customers. In addition, open finance brings more opportunities to partner with third parties and develop more financial service solutions that can improve customer experience and rev up profits.

Developing FinTech in the Philippines

The fintech sector in the country has made much progress. But there’s still a vast opportunity for development, and one of those is exploring APIs, RPAs, and open finance. These technologies can do wonders for customer experience and business efficiency. Ultimately, the fintech industry can expand further and accomplish more things.

Whether you’re running an organization or an individual consumer, Brankas offers numerous financial solutions you’ll surely appreciate.

As a financial services provider, Brankas is all out in supporting the BSP and financial institutions with the same vision of achieving greater heights and bringing the country closer to fintech and financial inclusion.

2022 In Review: Brankas as Global Open Finance Leader

Key Highlights

• Brankas and Kaya Founders pave way for financial inclusion via inaugural Open PHinance Challenge 2022
• Visa and Brankas go live with global partners, unveiling new Open Finance products
• Brankas Announces World’s First Open Software License for the FinTech Community
• Brankas and CRIF jointly launch APAC’s first ever open banking credit score product
• Brankas Open Core: All-in-One Cloud Based Core Banking Platform
• RPA Whitepaper done in conjunction with industry-leading tech enablers - Download here
• Brankas has been appointed as Open Finance Committee Chair by Fintech Philippines Association

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.

Our combined efforts throughout the year also resulted in Brankas being appointed as Chair for the inaugural Open Finance Committee by the Fintech Philippines Association.

Facts & Figures

It was a groundbreaking year for Brankas in terms of social media following and fostering more partnerships in our ecosystem. Our partners have recognized the endless possibilities of open finance, and more clients adopted Brankas to serve their customers allowing them to build their financial use case of choice. However, the highlight goes to the staggering number of unique end users which saw a growth of 1507%, and continues to grow today.

Data Privacy & Legal

The Philippine government recognized head of legal Arvin Kristopher Razon as a finalist for Data Protection Officer of the year. Among applicants in various industries across the Philippines, Brankas' rigorous standards for data security, under Arvin’s leadership, stand out as a best practice across the country. It was in the same year that we had multiple officers certified under the National Privacy Council. As an organization that is at the forefront of pushing for higher security and data privacy standards, Brankas continued to be certified under PCI/DSS and ISO 27001. In 2023, Brankas intends to continue contributing and leading to Open Finance regulations globally.

Notable Partnerships

Our need to serve the community has been paramount, leading to a significant year for Brankas where we had more partners join us to push the agenda on building new financial use cases.

For example, our partnership with Visa started with us being selected as one of the top 5 startups under their accelerator program. Visa’s confidence in us led to their Series B contribution. To top it off, Brankas and Visa co launched a product and continue to work on open finance/data initiatives.

Key Appointments

Head of Demand Generation : Yang Teo

Yang Teo is a seasoned marketer with experience in demand generation and has immediately impacted the organization by organizing events, streamlining processes and growing the team to gear us up for a great Q4 in 2022. Prior to joining Brankas, Yang led the marketing team at Horangi, a SaaS cybersecurity company, and is also a wine connoisseur in his leisure time.

Country Head, Indonesia : Husni Fuad

Joining as Country Manager of Brankas for Indonesia, Husni has more than 20 years of experience in technology and financial strategy, and has helped organizations adopt new technologies to reach markets and achieve rapid revenue growth, by bringing localized expertise in his focus market. Husni has worked in Singapore and the US, and has long been involved in fintech software, core digital banking and payment platforms.

Events

With the pandemic easing, it was great for us to participate in trade shows across APAC that also resulted in acquisition of good partnerships. Brankas also held its own client dinners and CEO roundtables that helped identify open finance champions in various regions and establish crucial relationships with them. As we approach 2023, serving the ecosystem further continues to be important for us. Check out our event recap video here.

Product Developments

Our offerings have continued to allow us to stand out from our competitors, and 2022 was no different with the release of six new products. In 2023, we continue to serve the unbanked and underbanked to provide financial inclusion to the unbanked/underbanked population, and is always a key motivator in structuring our products. Check our complete set of products here!

We want to thank all our partners, clients, regulatory institutions, and everyone who have been involved in the advocacy of open finance and look forward to your continued support. Let’s all have an amazing 2023 year ahead!

Brankas Introduces Advanced Fraud Detection with Element

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.

In Southeast Asia, one in every three people experienced online fraud amidst this digital transformation last year. Meanwhile, online fraud emerged as a top critical enterprise risk for Southeast Asia-based businesses. This was on top of the US$260 million that they already lost in 2019 to digital fraud. ¹

Brankas, the comprehensive Open Finance API platform stand to revolutionize the growth of the MSMEs in the Asia-Pacific region and provide financial access to the underserved while protecting consumer data, confidentiality, and financing via its products and services.

Element can play the critical role of the identity verification layer for Brankas’ Open Finance Products such as Brankas Direct or Statement. Direct is currently available in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Businesses can replace manual bank transfers as a checkout option, enable direct e-wallet top-ups, expedite loan repayments to multiple banks via a single flow. This allows you to speed up day-to-day transactions, freeing up that time spent manually reconciling data for further innovation and customer-centric activities.

For example, when a user is making a payment using Brankas Direct, they can authenticate themselves using Element’s state of the art liveness detection product. This provides an additional layer of security on top of OTP, making transactions more secure.

In addition, Brankas is also exploring ways to capitalize on Element’s extensive eKYC [Electronic Know Your Customer] capabilities to complement its composable cloud native core banking system, the Brankas Open Core. This enables a seamless onboarding process for customers opening new bank accounts or Loan Management Solutions using the Brankas core banking solution.

Brankas CEO and Co-founder, Todd Schweitzer said “Element has the most comprehensive eKYC offering in the region, localised for specific markets. Their liveness check products and connectivity central databases for identity checks can make Brankas’ Open Banking products more fraud proof.”

Added Adam Perold, CEO and Co-founder, Element Inc said “Brankas has been a leader in open finance and continues to advocate for adoption across the region. Element is looking forward to supporting open finance products to make onboarding and authentication much easier and safer for our end users, and this product paves the way for more use cases in the future.”

About Brankas

Brankas is the leading global open finance technology provider. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About Element

As the world demands digital delivery of products and services, Element is delivering a persistent, private, and portable unique digital identity designed with intention. Element - the first modern artificial intelligence company focused on digital identity - laid the foundations for deploying deep learning on mobile devices. Our universal solution provides a mobile digital identity for anyone, anywhere.

We partner with forward-thinking financial institutions, governments, and healthcare organizations to transform how they deliver their services. Our partners choose to work with us because we deliver faster access without compromise – securely connecting anyone to any service while retaining the right to privacy. Together, we’re building a frictionless future. Learn more at www.elementresearch.com.

¹ https://fintechnews.sg/55845/security/how-southeast-asias-biggest-economies-can-boost-their-fraud-management-systems/

Open Finance Suite vs API Gateway: What's the Difference?

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.

It’s a crucial development, given that the World Bank emphasized that growing access to affordable financial services is vital for economic growth and reducing poverty.

It helps to maximize your resources to grow your retail banking business. Teaming up with open finance API partners such as Brankas will enable you to expand your reach and achieve your objectives.

How API Gateways Work

An API or Application Programming Interface Gateway serves as a single point of entry for the clients of an application. It sits between the clients and a set of backend services for the application. It takes the user’s requests, matches them to the backend service or station most suitable to fulfill them, and sends them back to the user.

API Gateways Features and Function

API Gateway features aggregate numerous data exchange operations that could’ve clogged your system, creating a slower user experience.

Below are a few features and functions you can perform with an API Gateway

• Enforce authentication and security policies: An API Gateway adds another layer of security between user inputs and your application’s backend, making it easy to manage and more secure.
• Monitor, log, analyze, and bill users: It’s straightforward to sift through customer data through the API Gateway; most software can create reports and logs for easy and simple management.
• Cache user data: This feature prevents your backend services from loading unnecessarily, improving overall performance.
• Load balancing and circuit breaking: API Gateways act as the middleman to help moderate and balance the data traffic from user inputs. This feature helps to ensure that your application continues running smoothly, even during high-traffic times such as limited-time sales or product launches.
• Protocol translation and service discovery: A core function of API Gateways is to translate API protocols from the devices customers use—whether laptop or smartphone—to your microservice protocols.

How Brankas' Open Finance Suite Works

Brankas' open finance suite uses Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to provide you with an all-in-one digital platform for different financial services, including payment, remittance, and loan origination. Clients can access all these services through their bank of choice, or partner merchants.

The open finance suite doesn’t replace or overlap with your existing API management tools. Instead, it complements them. The problem with most open finance API implementations is that you’ll still need to meet a customer’s need. This entails adding weeks or months of work to build new sets of APIs per partner, delaying your operations.

In contrast, Brankas typically takes only days to weeks to build the open finance suite for partners. Moreover, Brankas' available finance suite partners have standardized APIs, enabling you to scale partner onboarding, reduce your time to market, and facilitate faster onboarding through the Brankas Sandbox and user acceptance testing (UAT) environment.

Features and Functions of Brankas Open Finance Suite

Brankas' banking-as-a-service platform and open finance suite provide you with functionalities to help you gather new customers and accelerate operations, such as the following:

• Monetize existing APIs: Open Finance Suite is a comprehensive, banking-as-a-service platform that allows for more monetization opportunities as you continuously onboard new partners.
• Host multiple financial services: The platform provides access to third-party services to expand the monetizable financial services you offer your customers. These include virtual credit card issuance, remittance, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL).
• Adhere to the latest global security standards: Brankas' platform complies with Bank Indonesia SNAP and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) standards. It also adheres to the latest global security (ISO 27001 and PCI DSS) and local standards covering static code analysis, change management, and asset inventory.

Unlock Your Organization’s Banking-as-a-Service Potential with Open Finance Suite

As digitalized financial services become more mainstream, it helps to continuously innovate the internal operations of your business to capture the growing market. API Gateways are effective in managing your backend operations. However, most providers won’t give you a full API platform.

Partnering with financial services providers allows you to propel your business forward, staying competitive and relevant to your growing customers. Brankas' Open Finance Suite works with your existing API management tool to help you give more value to your customers in less time and keep your business up to date on the latest banking trends.

Get in touch with us to learn more about the Brankas Open Finance Suite and other banking products, such as Brankas Direct, to help you extend the reach of your services and connect more customers to your core banking system.

PERA HUB Runs Digital Remittance Platform on Brankas Open Finance Suite

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.

PETNET’s mission is to serve the community in the Philippines with an array of transactional financial products and services such as Western Union money remittance, loans, insurance, payment facilities, foreign exchange, and more from over 3,000 locations nationwide. They also have a line of reputable partners including GCash, Maya, Remitly, Ayannah, Diskartech, and Rural Net to provide its users with a one-stop platform for all their essential financial services.

To provide better financial services to its community, PERA HUB seeks to deliver complementary products, cash, and payment-related solutions such as foreign exchange, bill payment, airline ticketing, cellphone loads, ATM withdrawals, micro-loans, and micro-insurance. Through its partnership with Brankas, the leading global Open Finance technology company, PERA HUB has its open API hub to commodify these products through its partner network, enabling its partners to easily integrate into its core remittance system.

The development of PERA HUB’s Digital Remittance Platform open API hub featured these key considerations:

• Provide real-time management of partners and partner endpoints, giving PERA HUB the ability to select the unique services and data available to each partner
• Allow Digital Sub-Agents (DSA) to instantly consume the APIs
• Facilitate fast reviews of every DSA application

In fact, by offering these remittance services on their applications, DSAs can potentially open new revenue channels to earn commissions on every customer transaction.

“PERA HUB aims to be a household name in the Philippines for essential financial services. With Brankas, we are well-positioned to be a leader in driving financial inclusion across the country. Aside from being able to implement the Open Finance Suite more quickly than expected, our partners and we are very impressed with how it has been to use and continuously manage the APIs.” said Bryan Makasiar, Digital Business Head at PETNET.

The full-scale Brankas Open Finance Suite allows banks and institutions to unbundle their banking stack into composable components. These can be sold and offered to third-party service providers to create new financial solutions as they innovate and present new ways to embed relevant financial services to improve customer experience.

Brankas and Kaya Founders Pave Way for Financial Inclusion

Quick Facts

• Out of 30 teams and startups which applied for the Challenge, 11 were selected for their problem identification, product relevance, innovation, and team dynamism.
• Brankas and Kaya Founders, along with local partners, provided mentorship, support, and product development.
• The representatives from the 3 finalists Mochi, Dyipay & Cropital went on to present at the Singapore Fintech Festival between 2nd and 4th November 2022, fully sponsored.
• Cropital emerged as the winner of the inaugural Open Phinance Challenge 2022 and would be eligible for USD 100K in investment and much more!

Introduction

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.

During those eight weeks, participating teams underwent week-long intensive discussions centered around product ideation, business development, user validation, regulatory compliance, pitching and fundraising.

Under the guidance of subject matter experts, participants developed a unique product and pitch. The teams were evaluated based on their product and pitch on the Demo Day in Manila on October 14, 2022. They were judged by a panel of investors, leading startup founders, and open finance experts on various metrics, including product and business viability, investability and pitch quality.

Demo Day

Finalists of the inaugural Open PHinance Challenge 2022

The Demo day was a roaring success with 80 people attending in support. Brankas would like to specially thank all our judges who volunteered their valuable time to provide feedback and encouragement to the participants. The event had really engaging presentations and the judges had a rather difficult time choosing the winners.

After much deliberation, the judges awarded the top prize to Cropital, an agriculture crowdfunding platform that provides farmers access to scalable and sustainable financing. Cropital took home USD 100,000 in equity capital and an offer to onboard as a venture with Kaya Founders.

First runner-up went to Mochi, a B2B “Buy Now, Pay Later” startup that aims to help MSME merchants purchase supplies without worrying about cash on hand. Second-runner-up was awarded to DyipPay, a fintech startup servicing the public utility vehicle sector that has developed an app for automated fare collection systems for cashless and cardless transactions.

The top three teams each received USD 15,000 worth of AWS credits, and got a chance to present their innovative ideas at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022, which was held from November 2-4 in Singapore.

Cropital emerged as a winners of the inaugural Open PHinance Challenge 2022

Singapore Fintech Festival

The 3 finalists were given the opportunity to showcase their technology at both Singapore Fintech Festival and Philippine Fintech Festival. In Brankas, we believe in enabling Startups, MSMEs, and institutions to provide high-value services centered toward financial inclusion. The top 3 winners of Open Phinance Challenge 2022 ring true in this endeavor and deserve all the support they need to build a more financially inclusive future for everyone. We couldn’t be more honored to be one of their early supporters in their pursuit of success. Congratulations again on a wonderful presentation at Singapore Fintech Festival 2022!

OPC Finallists presenting at Singapore Fintech Festival 2022

Conclusion

This growing wave of new Philippine startups involved in Open Finance is sparking the future of financial inclusion across the world. Brankas is incredibly excited about the new opportunities and we look forward to taking our accelerator program to other cities in 2023.

Special Mention to Participants, Speakers, Mentors, Judges, and Partners

This would not have been possible without the support of our partners, speakers and mentors and on behalf of Brankas and Kaya Founders, we would like to thank all of you for making this a huge success!

Finalists for Open PHinance Challenge 2022

Partners of Open PHinance Challenge 2022

Panel of Judges for Open PHinance Challenge 2022

Speakers and Mentors for Open PHinance Challenge 2022

Brankas Announces World's First Open Software License

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

“Brankas' Open license allows our team to build and contribute in a way that is fair, equitable, and open to independent developers, FIs, and to our partners. With this license, Brankas is able to continue to invest in the greater open source community, and to share our code freely with the world,” stated Brankas co-founder and CTO, Kenneth Shaw.

The “Brankas Open” license also grants continued, ongoing access for first-party and third-party codebases built on Brankas’ “Open Finance Suite” and “Open Core” products. With the “Brankas Open” license, Banks, Financial Institutions (FIs), Insurance, and other organizations can benefit from the developer community and ecosystem built by Brankas over the last 6 years, finding additional third-party vendors, developers, and support in addition to Brankas’ leading first-party support.

Brankas worked with Baker McKenzie’s Singapore-based Intellectual Property and Technology practice group to create the “Brankas Open” license after evaluating many other open software licensing models. Together, Brankas and Baker McKenzie have created a new framework under which Open IP and Technology can be fairly and equitably shared between commercial and non-commercial entities alike.

Creation of the “Brankas Open” license was partly supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), who partnered with Brankas in November 2021 to develop the APIX Open Core, an innovative way to develop core banking applications in a sandboxed environment. The APIX Open Core was built using Brankas’ Open Core solution, and is available in production on the Synfindo APIX Platform.

Brankas and Visa Launch New Open Finance Products with Global Partners

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 has successfully integrated Visa Cardholder Transaction Score (VCTS) and Visa’s broad range of payment rails into its core solutions to deliver new out-of-the-box credit decisioning and payment products. Appointed by Visa as the first partner regionally to provide live access to its Open Data products, Brankas will enable financial institutions to utilize the transaction data available today to immediately improve their solution offerings.

Digital banks, BNPLs, alternative lenders, ecommerce platforms, and Insurtechs seeking to enhance their credit decisioning capabilities can now get access to valuable, verified data that reveals a cardholder’s aggregated spend insights and creditworthiness. This dramatically improves risk evaluation methods and enables automated credit decisioning to facilitate faster processing of services such as loans and credit card issuance.

Brankas and Visa have also jointly developed a new Account-to-Account payment solution to enable more ways for domestic and cross-border money movement. Using Brankas' established banking network in Asia and Visa’s global payment rails, banks and merchants can now provide customers a new way to make instant payments while saving on transaction fees. An e-commerce customer, for instance, would be able to make secure cross-border payments directly from his or her bank account without having to enter card credentials.

Todd Schweitzer, CEO and Co-founder of Brankas said, “The shift to digital banking in Southeast Asia brings increased customer expectations from their trusted financial institutions. We recognize a real opportunity to bring to market a solution to help businesses offer a superior customer experience. With this partnership, businesses are unlocking accelerated transaction processing and payment alternatives to bolster their offerings. We are very excited to team up with Visa to increase financial inclusion across Southeast Asia, and we believe that our joint solutions will do just that.”

Brankas is no stranger to growth enablement for its 80+ enterprise customers across Southeast Asia in banking, fintech, payment, and e-commerce. Its flagship product, Open Finance Suite, enables financial institutions to open up new revenue and distribution channels in a matter of weeks. By becoming API-enabled, these financial institutions can allow authorized third party partners to facilitate payment, account opening, lending, and data sharing services for them. Earlier in 2022, Netbank launched its first suite of digital banking solutions in the Philippines on the back of Brankas' Open Finance Suite.

Tareq Muhmood, Group Country Manager, Regional Southeast Asia & SVP Global Client Management at Visa, said, “As a trusted engine of commerce, Visa is uniquely positioned to help people, businesses, and governments make more confident financial decisions and move money securely. Brankas is a company that combines core banking, data, payments, and issuance products in a single stack, enabling their customers to rapidly launch new and innovative solutions. Visa is excited to partner with Brankas and take advantage of its extensive banking network in Southeast Asia to better serve the underbanked.”

This announcement comes on the back of months of collaboration between Visa and Brankas on data and money movement initiatives, where the two companies had been leveraging each other’s expertise in Open Finance, global payments, and data intelligence. Visa previously participated in Brankas' Series B funding round, after Brankas participated in Visa’s AP Accelerator program.

About Brankas

Brankas is the leading open finance technology company in Southeast Asia. We provide API-based solutions for data and payments to financial service providers (eg. banks, lenders, and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with financial institutions to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open finance technology, online businesses, fintech companies, and digital banks can create new digital experiences for their users.

Brankas and CRIF Launch APAC’s First Open Banking Credit Score Product

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.

Brankas Indonesia’s Country Manager, Husni Fuad commented: “Borrowers that could be financially strong but without credit history can be excluded from accessing credit by lenders' credit policies mainly relying on traditional credit data. As such, lenders lose out on thousands of these potential borrowers every month. To resolve this, Brankas and CRIF have joined forces to co-create N.E.O.S. This move will improve financial inclusion, decisioning automation and customer experience, supporting financial institutions to reduce credit risk and generate enhanced customer insights through open banking technology solutions and analytics.”

Added Simone Lovati, Managing Director, Asia of CRIF: “Financial institutions are lacking data to build critical knowledge and valuable insights to expand their market reach and serve the new-to-credit population. Brankas and CRIF’s open banking suite will allow banks and fintech players to fill this gap, enabling them to make relevant and reliable credit decisions, while improving the upselling potential to existing customers. The alternative credit scoring revolution has just begun.”

What is the Product?

N.E.O.S is a risk score based on verified customer identity and transaction data from bank accounts all powered by CRIF’s world class categorization engine. N.E.O.S is an essential lever for financial inclusion, unlocking credit access for applicants with a limited credit history such as micro-entrepreneurs, freelance and gig economy workers, and more.

How does it work?

Brankas enables the consent collection and a secure and smooth connection to bank statement data and other alternative data sources through a simple and secure user experience. CRIF then applies an advanced machine learning algorithm that enables an innovative credit score. Brankas’ open banking secure data sharing solutions unlock next generation alternative credit scoring. As a result, you benefit from instant and automated statement retrievals over a secure and compliant platform.

How can it benefit your industry/company?

With over 400 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are developed for the assessment of credit worthiness and business opportunities, businesses would be able to derive any red signals much earlier and thus improve default prevention.

Lenders would get access to up to 12 months’ worth of income and expense data, and help understand the customer spending behavior across categories such as groceries, electricity bills, investments, memberships, insurance, loan repayments, and subscriptions in a much reduced overall turnaround time.

Be an early adopter

Be the first financial institution in Southeast Asia to benefit from a credit agency open banking score, increasing HB competitive advantage. We are looking for early adopters who can benefit from this product and companies would be given a free of charge trial period!

Interested in learning more about this product? Email us at sales@brankas.com.

About Brankas

Brankas is the leading open finance technology provider in Southeast Asia. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their open finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

About CRIF

CRIF is a global leader in credit bureau, business information, and credit risk solutions. Established in 1988 in Bologna, Italy, CRIF operates in 40 countries across four continents. Over 10,500 banks and financial institutions, 82,000 business clients and 1,000,000 consumers use CRIF services on a daily basis. Since 2016, CRIF has been included in the prestigious IDF FinTech Top 100 Rankings.

CRIF has a strong presence in Asia with regional headquarters in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as in key cities including Beijing, Bishkek, Cebu, Dushanbe, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Mumbai, Pune, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, Taichung, Tashkent, and Zhongli. For more information on CRIF Asia, please visit www.crifasia.com.

Whitepaper: Unlocking the Potential of Open Finance with RPA-based APIs

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.

The framework highlights the central goals of Open Finance: greater competition in the financial services market, enabling more informed financial decisions for financial consumers, and encouraging financial consumers to exercise greater control over their data and finances.

The leading tech enablers and ardent Open Finance advocates of the Philippine financial services industry provide our full support towards enabling Open Finance in the Philippines, a pioneering move in the region. We welcome an open discussion on the technologies that are necessary to achieve a vibrant Open Finance ecosystem. On this note, we believe in the aspirational goal of having bank-managed APIs securely available to verified third parties.

As even major jurisdictions are taking years to have these in place, we support the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to develop RPA-based APIs that accredited third parties can have secure access to. Consistent with advanced Open Finance industries like the EU, US and Australia, the use of RPA technology is both a necessary interim solution prior to bank-supported open APIs being made available by the thousands of financial institutions in the Philippines, and a necessary “fallback solution” to ensure financial consumer choice when bank-managed APIs are offline, underperform or are otherwise unavailable.

The implementation of the BSP Open Finance Framework will potentially change the lives of Filipino consumers and lead us a step closer towards holistic financial inclusion in the Philippines. Customer-consented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the crucial technology that we need to get there – by allowing the safe and secure use of RPA, we as an industry can collectively enable Filipinos to avail new and alternative financial products and services, with better quality and at an affordable cost, without compromising their financial consumer and data privacy rights.

How can we move towards the use of RPA-based APIs in a safe, legal and secure manner, thus directly enabling financial inclusion?

This white paper published by Brankas, FinScore, Finverse and Smile API, with support from the recently formed Open Finance Committee of the FinTech Philippines Association, demonstrates how RPA-based APIs directly support and enable the goals of the BSP Open Finance Framework. They enable customers to securely access their bank’s or financial institution’s online services, and are also readily used and trusted by customers globally and in the Philippines for credit scoring, reconciliation and accounting operations, eCommerce payments, and transfers to digital bank accounts.

In this white paper, we discuss how:

• RPA-based APIs are the only readily available technology that can enable a fully inclusive fintech ecosystem and achieve financial inclusion.
• RPA-based APIs are globally recognized and legal around the world.
  • Europe – RPA-based APIs are endorsed under PSD2 as a “fallback” to ensure reliable customer access and a supplementary means for data retrieval under the Regulatory Standards.
  • United Kingdom - The nine largest UK banks adopted an open API standard while allowing RPA to continue.
  • Australia - RPA was endorsed as part of the Consumer Data Right (ASIC) and Competition Commission (ACCC).
  • United States -RPA continues to be the essential technology and is supported by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for consumer-authorized financial data sharing and aggregation.
• RPA-based APIs are legal in the Philippines under prevailing laws and are enabled by key policies under our competition, consumer protection, and privacy laws. In particular, it implements the financial consumer’s data privacy rights to access and data portability.
• RPA-based API technology is implemented with robust technical and security measures. Leading Open Finance providers using RPA-based APIs like Plaid have been instrumental in creating Open Finance Data Security Standards.
• We acknowledge the concerns and perceived risks surrounding RPA technologies, and we welcome an open, fact based discussion among industry and regulatory bodies to enable an Open Finance sector that protects consumers, empowers customer choice, and enables the next generation of Open Finance solutions.

Download our white paper today!

About Brankas

Brankas is the leading Open Finance technology provider in Southeast Asia. We provide API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their Open Finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure Open Banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

Banking Technology Trends: What’s to Expect?

Introduction

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. Gone are the days when banking was seen as a tedious process; individuals can now access their bank accounts remotely, make transactions instantly, use digital wallets to make payments, and much more.

As new technology emerges, the banking industry continuously adapts to it. Technology has put the world at our fingertips – everything is a tap away and more connected than ever. With innovations coming at the speed of light, it is important for banks and FinTechs to keep up with trends in order to stay competitive. Customer satisfaction is now driven by ease of use and seamless user experience brought about by the latest technology. Thus, the ability to continuously innovate through keeping up with technological trends is ultimately what will dictate success in the financial industry.

Banking Technology Trends: What’s to Expect?

Banking is now being driven by technology, with large financial institutions and FinTechs alike incorporating technology into their business activities. Digitalization is changing how business is being done, with banking technology as the main driver of the future of financial services. With a growing young and tech-savvy population demanding digital banking experiences, the industry is transforming to meet their needs. At the core of these changes is the growing demand for expanded financial services, instant connection, upskilling, and consolidation of services. With these in mind, below are some of the top trends to expect in the banking industry.

1. Bank-as-a-Service (Baas)
   BaaS is a system in which financial institutions can provide access to their services to non-banking institutions through the use of open APIs, 5G, and other related technologies. This allows for greater integration and services available to consumers, ultimately creating an open ecosystem for the banking industry to continuously share resources and encourage innovation across the board.
2. Super-app
   Super-apps act as a marketplace that consolidates the services a company offers – such as food delivery, digital wallets, and more – into one app, providing greater accessibility and ease of use to consumers. This trend is becoming prevalent in banking as well, with companies consolidating all their services into one application for their customers to use, ranging from making payments, accessing your account balance, taking out a loan, and many more.
3. Cloud Technology
   Cloud technology allows companies to store all their information in a virtual space – the “cloud” – allowing for information sharing through the internet without physical space limitations. This provides better storage, scalability, and collaboration and is being used in banking through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to deliver more efficient customer data consolidation and interaction.
   
4. Artificial Intelligent and Machine Learning
   AI & Machine Learning, some of the most exciting technological trends, provide a hyper-personalized customer experience that can drive high customer satisfaction and retention in the increasingly competitive banking industry. AI can also help reduce operational costs, automating and expediting manual processes within companies.
5. Smart Contracts
   Smart contracts are programs stored in a system that automatically runs when certain conditions are met. These can help ensure that claim processing, KYC processing, transparent audits, and more are rolled out more quickly and can allow these to be done simultaneously.
6. Digital Currencies
   Digital currencies are starting to be taken seriously by central banks, with some already in the process of launching digital currencies of their own. This opens up large opportunities for the banking industry to provide faster, more secure payment options and to widen its customer base.
7. New Talents and Upskilling
   With banks heightening their technological capabilities, it demands skills in new avenues such as programming and software engineering. New talent and upskilling are critical, with current employees needing to be trained in digital competencies and new talent being focused on finding those who have the necessary digital skills to continuously provide innovative services.

Conclusion

Technological advancements will continue to change the way we live, and banking services are no exception. It will continue to evolve as technology advances, and it is critical that these trends are adopted by companies to stay ahead of the tight competition within the industry. At the end of the day, customer satisfaction is at the heart of success; and with customers increasingly demanding digitalization, the banking industry must be able to keep up with trends and incorporate these into business activities moving forward.

For companies who are looking to stay ahead of the curve, Brankas is here to provide technological solutions to suit your needs. Brankas provides open banking services, enabling financial access through our ready-made and customizable API solutions.

Want to learn more about how we’re building open banking in Southeast Asia or Interested in partnering with us or trying out our products? Sign up or Contact us to learn more about what we can offer.

The Ultimate Guide to Open Banking: What It Is and Why It Matters

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. Financial inclusion is a crucial pillar in the open banking industry, and it is an ongoing global initiative that can reduce poverty and give equal opportunities to everyone. This principle is one of the key components of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Bank’s Universal Financial Access 2020 Initiative.

How does open banking or decentralized finance enable financial inclusion?

It is by democratizing access to financial services through application programming interfaces (APIs). Through smartphone applications and partnerships with major financial institutions, open banking providers are bringing the bank to the people. The industry is revolutionizing access to global banking services. According to research firm Statista, the number of global open banking users is forecast to grow at an annual rate of about 50 percent between 2020 and 2024, reaching 132 million by 2024. In addition, the value of global open banking payments is expected to hit USD $116 billion in 2026.

What is Open Banking? And How Does It Work?

Open banking uses APIs to enable third-party developers to create or customize applications and services (e.g., payment gateways and e-wallets) for financial institutions. In the traditional banking model, individual banks own their customers’ data because transactions can only be made through specific apps and branches. With decentralized finance, transactions like opening accounts, sending and receiving payments, and applying for loans, are democratized and centralized in smartphone apps, allowing non-banks to compete. The potential of open banking is massive, considering that there are currently 6.6 billion smartphone users globally, according to Statista. That number is expected to grow to nearly 7.7 billion by 2027.

In an open banking system, a financial institution allows access to customer data and financial information to third-party providers (TPPs), which consumers must consent to before using the apps. The APIs aggregate customer data across different platforms/transactions to suggest personalized products and services that suit the users’ needs. All these transactions and data analytics are done within secure networks using various encryption security protocols like SSL (secure sockets layer).

Benefits of Open Banking

For businesses:

The main advantage of open banking for financial institutions is that they can use one system to monitor and control all their existing products and services. In addition, by centralizing data and services, institutions can have a holistic view of their customers’ needs, behavior, and preferences. Another benefit of open banking is that it allows banks to diversify their services, transitioning from traditional operations to the more flexible banking-as-a-platform model. The platform-based model also allows banks to embrace future technologies, including more intuitive chatbots, user-centered app designs, and virtual and augmented (VR/AR) realities.

With financial institutions shifting to better ways to reach their customers, they can expand their market reach, particularly to young people who prioritize convenience and accessibility. Using open banking, financial institutions can also encourage more people to avail of services by eliminating paperwork and providing a more streamlined online experience. In addition, the more banks collaborate and partner with fintechs and startups, the more they can create new services or enhanced offerings. As financial institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses, they can outsource some of their services to other providers, reducing long-term operation costs.

For customers:

What draws customers to open banking is how it makes everything accessible and convenient. Users no longer have to go to the nearest physical bank that might be too far from their locations. Instead, they can conduct multiple financial transactions through just one app or digital ecosystem. The next advantage for clients is that requirements to access products and services have been streamlined or minimized. This feature doesn’t mean that transactions have become unsafe or random; it means that excessive paperwork has been eliminated, and users can monitor or track their transactions in real-time. As a result, clients have faster access to credit and financing.

Another strength of open banking is the ability to use the consumers’ collated data across platforms to curate relevant product and service options. Data analytics can detect how customers utilize the apps and suggest further improvements in the user interface and experience (UI and UX). In addition, the decentralized finance industry has been proven to be as safe as traditional financial institutions in handling consumer data. Open banking security standards follow the latest global regulations, such as ISO 27001 (Information Security Management Systems) and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

Finally, open banking has enabled on-demand payroll, where employees can get paid whenever they want without waiting for paydays. For example, in many countries (like the UK, US, and Spain), the Flexible Earned Wage Access (FEWA) on-demand pay solution allows employers to coordinate with banks to release checks for employees with financial needs. Workers who have financial emergencies can now request advances on their salary.

Challenges in open banking

Cybersecurity

Perhaps the main concern people have over open banking is the security risks. Because APIs force banks to re-organize themselves, the organizational structures may also change, including who has the final say on cybersecurity measures. This confusion can lead to conflicting internal interests, which might open IT infrastructures to weaknesses. Another security concern is that hackers and cybercriminals may use TPPs as their entry points into financial databases. These API developers tend to be relatively new fintechs and startups, so they might not be as prepared for cyberattacks as established companies. Finally, security for endpoint devices such as tablets and smartphones is still relatively weak and will take time to mature.

Lack of customer awareness

Another challenge facing the industry is the lack of customer awareness. Most people are still used to traditional institutions when it comes to financial transactions and may be wary of new technologies that seem “too good to be true.” In particular, the older generation is not used to conducting all transactions online and may distrust apps in general. For example, consultancy firm Accenture’s research showed that most consumers in the UK are unwilling to share their personal information with TPPs. Because there’s a lack of education about open banking, consumers may not form a solid foundation on what the industry is about and think of it as another “unsafe” technology that will take advantage of consumer data.

Lack of compliance standards

Finally, there is still a lack of global compliance standards to govern the industry. So far, Europe has the most fleshed out policy like the Payment Services (PSD 2) - Directive and the UK government’s Open Banking Initiative. In emerging economies where decentralized finance is just being established, it might be difficult to gather stakeholders together and agree on open banking policies for the region. Global standards are necessary because they dictate how applications should be built, including mandatory cybersecurity measures.

Conclusion

Even with these challenges, open banking still has a great potential to promote and advance financial inclusion, particularly in developing nations. According to a 2020 report by consultancy firm McKinsey, Asia has been a breeding ground of digital banking innovations for the past five years. Examples are China’s WeBank, South Korea’s Kakao Bank, and Japanese e-commerce platform Rakuten. These technologies have made financial transactions accessible for millions of people in the region, and these innovations will only continue to accelerate.

How can Brankas assist you in your journey?

Brankas has the expertise, technology, and teams to customize solutions to your business needs. Our Open Finance Suite can build the right infrastructure to integrate into your existing systems, enable third parties to deploy new products through APIs, and quickly deploy these systems using the cloud. We also have solutions for payments, account management, and disbursements. If you want to know more about our open banking solutions, reach out to us!

Brankas and KlinikGo: Digitizing Health Services in Indonesia

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.

There are six major challenges:

• Limited capital. Clinics don’t have enough funds to scale up infrastructure.
• Inadequate technology exposure. The staff is not exposed to the latest technology and equipment.
• High operational costs. This includes outdated equipment that requires regular maintenance.
• Unclear business strategy. Healthcare operators don’t know how to maximize their business potential.
• Financial management difficulties, such as balancing books and setting up long-term financial strategies.
• Underdeveloped marketing strategy. Most small clinics don’t have an online presence that can offer benefits such as online booking and payments.

KlinikGo is addressing all these challenges by providing a one-stop online platform for healthcare services. The company created an app that consolidates a network of independent clinics where users can book appointments and pay online. The result is a democratized and convenient way of accessing healthcare across major Indonesian cities.

KlinikGo at a glance:

• 200+ registered clinic partners
• 500,000+ registered users
• 50+ corporate clients
• 15+ drive-thru services
• 500+ OTC delivery
• 10,000+ home care served
• 15,000+ vaccines administered
• 7 coverage cities: Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bandung, Surabaya

Digital healthcare ecosystem features:

• Homecare, walk-ins, and telemedicine appointments
• Standardized clinic facilities (including free Wifi, beds, 24/7 service, flat-screen TVs)
• Financing solution support (loans, procurements, etc.)
• Marketing strategy

How Brankas helped solve KlinikGo’s challenges

KlinikGo needed a versatile and holistic API system to provide a seamless online service that could handle payments and disbursements. They needed a user-friendly app that could manage the entire process and give real-time information and updates. In particular, the company is using the following Brankas services:

Brankas Products:

• Statement. This service allows users to conveniently retrieve and share up to six months’ worth of transactional data. Additionally, Brankas doesn’t store end-user credentials to protect data privacy. For KlinikGo, Statement is essential for clinics applying for loans to improve their equipment and boost capital. This feature allows them to improve their credit scores and reduces paperwork that makes loan applications inaccessible.
• Disburse. This feature allows automated payments from a corporate account to multiple third-party bank accounts through one API request. The service also integrates well with any payroll system. KlinikGo uses Disburse to pay the salaries of doctors, nurses, and other clinic staff. Disbursements are also made for home care services.
• Pay. This service is a payment gateway that allows merchants to send invoices to customers, receive payments, and track transactions. KlinikGo uses this feature to accept payments from registered users via the convenient Brankas Tap, connecting customers’ banks to the Pay app. This also allows payments through the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) national QR code. By having a centralized payment system, this service eliminates multiple transaction fees.

By bringing different clinics on one online system, KlinikGo has transformed how healthcare services are managed, operated, and standardized. The company has established strong partnerships with community healthcare facilities, enabled competitive pricing for its network, provided financial support (assisting loan applications and facilitating affordable payment schemes), and empowered clinics by providing reliable and quality services.

Through KlinikGo’s partnership with Brankas, clinics in Indonesia will finally step into a digital future that can make healthcare more convenient and accessible than ever.

Interested in learning more about Brankas’ products? Check out www.brankas.com or email us at sales@brankas.com.

Brankas Open Core: All-in-One Cloud Based Core Banking Platform

Last year, Brankas was awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof-of-Concept (POC) grant to back the development of an innovative open-source core banking system (CBS), designed to help traditional and digital banks, fintechs, cooperatives, and non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) provide reliable financial services in the emerging markets.

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.

What is Brankas Open Core?

Brankas Open Core is a core platform that gives you all the functionalities to build an all-in-one digital financial service experience. Our extensive set of components offers flexibility to implement financial functionalities custom-suited to your businesses. From onboarding new accounts, servicing loans, to generating reports for your CRM, Brankas Open Core is made for you to deploy quickly and securely.

Brankas Open Core components include:

• Client Onboarding and Management
  Our systems are designed from the ground up to handle different client types, from retails to corporates. We streamline your onboarding process to improve efficiency and help you manage your data easily, allowing you to successfully onboard more customers in less time.
• Transactions
  Our platform can handle a large volume of daily transactions, from cash-in/cash-out operations, fund transfers, to P2P or P2M transactions. All transactions within your and your agent network’s channels can be viewed as a list or with specific details.
• Loans Management
  Our entirely configurable loans management system enables you to offer your clients loan servicing tasks via digital channels. This includes loan origination - from application to approval - booking to repayments. Our integrated components are designed to work seamlessly in managing all loans issued to your clients.
• Agents and Partners
  Our system is scalable to fit your business requirements - empowering your institutions to build and manage an agent network expanding beyond your core business.

Is Brankas Open Core Affordable?

Brankas Open Core is designed to disrupt the banking status quo and make financial management more affordable. Currently, for many financial institutions and fintech companies in emerging markets, a core banking system remains a costly and challenging aspect where the cost of licensing often exceeds the potential value of the business.

Our cloud-based CBS is built in an open-source environment without licensing costs, allowing your business to grow with us. We offer an affordable and flexible pricing structure, catering to financial institutions of all sizes.

“We are currently offering heavily discounted fees for financial institutions who would like to join the pioneer round of Open Core adopters. Reach out to sales@brankas.com to learn more.”

Benefit from Brankas’ Networks and Experts

Brankas Open Core gives you the flexibility to tap into Brankas’ growing network of partners. With over 90% coverage in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, we provide access to a self-service API portal and sandbox for developers in the region.

Our team of Open Finance pioneers - seasoned engineers, product managers, and business development managers - is available to help you manage everything from migration to implementation and maintenance, allowing you to deliver digital financial services and further drive financial inclusion in the region.

Want to get started with Brankas Open Core? Learn more about how our technology could achieve your financial service digitalization goals here.

How Brankas Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) can solve your payment 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.

Brankas’ IPG products and services

An IPG system serves as a reliable and secure bridge between financial institutions/merchants and their clients. Through our open APIs, we can build an in-house payment hub that allows financial institutions to process payments directly instead of relying on third-party providers. Brankas offers a holistic IPG system that can manage all kinds of payments and integrate other crucial features such as promotions and fraud detection.

For example, we can help an e-commerce platform handle multiple transactions and promotional schemes for their vendors. The merchant will also be able to track every transaction and configure the types of payments allowed, all within one centralized dashboard.

Here are major benefits of our IPG system.

Flexible. Unlike most providers that can only integrate specific payments platforms, we can accommodate all kinds of payment options. This allows us to incorporate any platform in the market that has partnerships with merchants.

Secure and certified. Like all our products and services, we prioritize cybersecurity and compliance in our IPG. We are ISO 27001-certified and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Level 1- certified. In particular, the PCI-DSS is crucial as it is an information security standard mandated by the PCI Security Standard Council (composed of major credit card brands) for all organizations that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information. We can also add all kinds of security authentication for APIs, such as mobile keys, one-time pins, and 3D secure.

Centralized. Our one-stop payments management dashboard is able to handle multiple tasks.

Here are the features of Brankas IPG.

• Transaction and fraud management. Our dashboards can show real-time, cross-border transactions that are easy to navigate and understand. Additionally, fraud management gives merchants the option to implement numerous security layers, such as restricting IP addresses, virtual private networks (VPNs), and credit card issuers.
• Merchant management. For large companies managing hundreds of merchants, our IPG can provide all the necessary information to easily identify every merchant, down to the smallest details such as their payment terminal IDs. This allows for more transparent tracking of all transactions.
• Promotion management. Managing e-commerce platforms that have hundreds of merchants with their own promotional codes, discounts, and bundles can quickly get overwhelming. Our IPG solutions easily allow merchants to set their individual pricing schemes that can be applied as soon as items are added to the cart.
• Integration & processing system. We ensure that our ecosystem facilitates seamless and secure financial transactions by building the API and the necessary database systems to support it, and integrating them with the merchant’s network infrastructures.
• Currency management. We use the global nature of payments transactions to the merchants’ advantage by enabling real-time currency conversions, eliminating unnecessary fees and long processing times.

Use cases for IPG services:

• Banks that handle numerous merchants and customer transactions
• Insurance companies that regularly process hundreds of payments and claims
• E-commerce platforms and sites
• Micro-merchants that need a one-stop IPG system

Interested in an IPG API for your business?
Brankas has the expertise, technology, and teams that can help jumpstart your payment gateway systems. Our portfolio of API partnerships with major financial institutions in Southeast Asia has given us the knowledge and experience to implement solutions that work.

If you want to know more about our IPG and open banking solutions, please reach out to sales@brank.as.

Innovate, Digitialize, and Scale Earnings with Brankas Open Banking Suite

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.

Brankas Open Banking Suite

The Brankas Open Banking Suite is a custom, ready-to-use system compatible with any core banking system. Through it, banks and financial institutions can share some of their systems and products to third parties, who can test them on the Open Banking Suite platform. This opens up avenues for new ways existing products can be used, allowing banks to roll out new product offerings and collaborate with other players.

Brankas’ Open Banking Suite is a means of promoting collaboration within the financial industry, providing a streamlined way of testing products through its sandbox feature. The increased innovation it brings about is especially beneficial in Southeast Asia, which is seeing rapid technological advancements.

Benefits of an Open Banking Suite

• Direct fee revenue
  Build commercial APIs for disbursements, customer payments, and data feeds.
• Platform revenue
  Establish a marketplace and curated “app store” for your API products.
• Customer engagement
  Enable customers to link their account to FinTech apps.
• Product innovation
  Enable third parties to initiate, test, and deploy new products via APIs.

Features

• Turnkey API orchestration
  API orchestration configurable with any core banking system.
• Developer & Documentation Portal
  A ready-to-use documentation and developer portal, complete with scalable connection between developers.
• Ready to use & custom APIs
  Banking APIs can be bundled together to serve specific use cases.
• Third party API onboarding
  Easily enable third party partners and integrate third party APIs.
• API management solution
  Manage, monitor, analyze, and improve API products with cutting-edge open API management tools.

Functions

• Sign-up Screen
  Empower third parties to sign up easily to be a Developer Partner.
• Developer Dashboard
  Allow your developers to get an overview of all their test/production transactions and volumes.
• OAuth 2.0
  All of our implementations follow industry-standard authentication, ensuring security.
• Credential Management
  As your developers move from the sandbox to production, easily manage their API credentials.
• Bank Account Management
  Enable your developers to easily open Test and Production accounts for integration requirements.
• List of Channel Transactions
  Allow your developers to dive into any transaction and view specific details.
• Subscription
  You can create modular plans and subscriptions based on the developer’s requirements.

Partnerships and Use Cases

In 2022, Netbank, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, rolled out Netbank Virtual where anyone can test their financial products. Brankas built their Open Banking Suite, exposing some of their services to other players. Perahub, a remittance company from the Philippines, was also able to create an Open Banking Suite in partnership with Brankas. In the fourth quarter of 2021, they launched an API Developer portal to create innovative solutions with third parties.

Banks and financial institutions looking to implement an Open Banking Suite can work together with Brankas to build the platform from scratch. Clients can customize the Open Banking Suite in whatever way they choose. The entire system is secured by OAuth 2.0, industry-standard security that ensures the safety of all users. Once the product is launched, banks can promote it to their existing partners and forge new partnerships through promoting it on their website, reaching out to FinTechs to sign up for the platform, and more.

An Open Banking Suite provides a myriad of benefits for banks and financial institutions. It can provide added revenue streams through the new products launched, or through the use of APIs by third parties. It helps banks create new and innovative products, leading to a wider customer base. Overall, an Open Banking Suite opens up a bank’s offerings to new and exciting opportunities to better serve its customers.

Conclusion

Now more than ever, the switch to digital is crucial to any company’s success. With Brankas’ Open Banking Suite, banks and financial institutions can open up their services, paving the way towards an inclusive financial ecosystem and more product offerings.

Interested in partnering with us or trying out our products? Sign up to learn more.

Learn How Brankas Is Helping Lenders Acquire More Customers

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. However, in the age of open banking providing innovative solutions to these pain points, Brankas has an answer.

Brankas provides a suite of solutions to create a seamless consumer lending experience. A large amount of time is often dedicated to the credit review process, but with our Statement API, borrowers can simply provide their banking credentials and instantly share their financial and non-financial transaction history such as phone number, home and office location, spending behavior, and more with the lender. Whereas the manual process may take weeks or months to complete, with Brankas, it can be done in minutes.

On the lenders’ side, once the loan is approved, many manual processes still take place to disburse the funds. With Disburse API, lenders can disburse loans to multiple borrowers quickly, while being able to track the status of the funds in real-time. Similarly, lenders can use Direct API to allow borrowers to repay the loan via direct bank transfer within the lender’s app, doing away with manual bank transfers. This reduces their churn rate due to a more seamless process that allows the lender to track repayment instantly.

Buy Now Pay Later and Peer to Peer Lending companies can benefit greatly from Brankas’ suite of products. Buy Now Pay Later – which allows consumers to make purchases now and pay for them at a future date – and Peer to Peer lending – which enables individuals to obtain loans directly from other individuals – have both grown in popularity amidst the pandemic. Similar to traditional financial institutions, they require a credit review process prior to approval of a loan. With Statement API, the necessary financial data can be collected instantly, expediting the credit review process. When the loan is approved and is ready to be provided to the borrower, Disburse API can help lenders disburse loans quickly to multiple borrowers. Direct API then allows the borrower to repay the loan directly on the lender’s app. With these three API products, companies are able to innovate and automate their entire business model, an avenue to reach consumers more easily and effectively.

In the past, enabling consumer lending was consumed by manual work – lenders and borrowers alike are subject to manual processes that take many weeks to complete. With Brankas’ API solutions, the entire consumer lending process is made more efficient, creating a quick and seamless experience.

Brankas is helping consumer lending companies, traditional financial institutions, and more to simplify their financial processes, providing customers a wider variety of product offerings that are quick, safe to use, and accessible. In doing so, Brankas is shaping the open finance ecosystem in Southeast Asia – a pivotal role that can help businesses adapt to the current digital age.

Open banking is paving the way towards innovative, technologically-advanced opportunities in the financial industry, leveraging on Banking–as-a-service (BaaS) for more streamlined services. Partnerships with other institutions are made more accessible, opening up new revenue streams and allowing for better products to suit an expanding and evolving customer base.

Choose from Brankas’ current product options or have APIs custom built to suit your company’s needs. Want to learn more about how we’re building open banking in Southeast Asia? Reach us via support@brankas.com Wherever your business is on its journey, we can help.

Brankas is PCI-DSS Level 1 Certified as of December 2021

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.

This certification adds to the list of certificates that Brankas currently has, ISO 27001 – a widely accepted standard security compliance framework, same with PCI-DSS certificate.

Protecting Card Transactions

PCI-DSS is an information security standard comprising policies and procedures to ensure the security of credit, debit, and other cash card transactions and protects against misuse of personal information. Developed by the major credit card companies Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express in 2004, it has become the industry standard for organizations that accept, process, store, or transmit card transactions. A PCI-DSS-certified organization maintains a highly secure environment when handling payment information.

As a set of security regulations and procedures that organizations voluntarily agree to uphold, PCI-DSS are designed to keep payments secure while preventing fraud. Organizations such as issuers, acquirers, processors, merchants, and banks that are PCI-DSS-certified commit to robust security measures that ensure consumer protection. Non-compliance with these standards generally means fines, recurring charges and higher fees.With its recent PCI-DSS certification, Brankas commits to strong information security controls when storing, processing or transmitting cardholder information. We understand our crucial role in driving open banking and open finance throughout the region, and being the pioneer Open Finance provider in Southeast Asia to obtain PCI-DSS compliance only strengthens our mission to provide innovative services with topnotch security in mind.

In being PCI-DSS certified, Brankas is aligned with the main objectives and requirements of PCI DSS.

1. Building and maintaining Network Security

Properly configured firewalls protect the card data environment in which transactions are facilitated. These firewalls must be able to restrict incoming and outgoing traffic, based on the organization’s criteria. Brankas implements software firewalls, and has set configurations to ensure protection for every internet connection, as well as between any DMZ and the internal network zone.

We Implement anti-spoofing measures to detect and block forged source IP addresses from entering our internal networks. Likewise, we maintain user access controls on an as-needed basis and to as few individuals as needed.

2. Implementing Strict Access Control and Access Authentication Measures

Our user access provisioning follows the Principle of Least Privilege, which entails that user access is granted strictly based on the job function and only to the extent necessary to perform day-to-day activities. The Brankas access control system is configured to ensure access is based strictly on job classification, integrated with Single Sign-On authentication. Additionally, account passwords must follow strong password requirements and Multi-Factor authentication. Data is protected with strong cryptography during transmission and at rest.

3. Maintaining and Developing Secure Systems and Applications

Security is an end-to-end concern throughout the software development process. As such, Brankas commits to secure coding practices, among others by ensuring that we prevent injection flaws, SQL injection, XSS flaws, cross-site request forgery (CSRF). We then implement a rigorous code-review process to identify any residual coding vulnerabilities not earlier detected, prior to release to production for consumption of customers.

4. Maintaining a Vulnerability Management Program

It is important to ensure that any attempt to exploit cardholder data is immediately addressed. We apply preventative measures to protect against malicious activity, and to protect our systems against bugs and vulnerabilities. Our vulnerability management program makes use of periodic Approved Scanning Vendors (ASV) vulnerability scanning and use of trusted sources to keep abreast with security vulnerability information. Brankas performs penetration testing periodically. Our policies ensure that any exploitable vulnerabilities found during the vulnerability scan and penetration testing are remediated immediately. Rescanning processes are also carried out so that the fixes to the identified vulnerability scan or penetration testing results are confirmed.

Our continuous commitment

Our PCI-DSS certification is an important moment for Open Finance in Southeast Asia, as we set the standard for information security practices and compliance standards that must be followed by Open Finance participants providing their services throughout the region. With this certification, Brankas continues its commitment to maintaining security in card data, as we move towards accelerating the implementation of open banking or open finance throughout the region.

Misconceptions about Open Finance Cybersecurity in SEA

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. While it is a complex topic that is constantly evolving as we strengthen the infrastructures, decentralized finance is a far cry from the lawless digital landscape that some people imagine it to be. In fact, the industry is constantly looking for ways to collaborate with governments, non-profits, and financial institutions to make open banking the safest that it can be.

Let’s look at three common misconceptions about open finance security and the real situation behind them.

Misconception 1: The industry is unregulated.

Open APIs streamline the process so that end-users can seamlessly make financial transactions through apps, such as sending money or making payments. The process has been simplified, but that doesn’t mean the regulations and oversight have been skipped. After all, the operations of third-party finance APIs are still subject to global standards and certifications.

Let’s take a closer look at two certifications that Brankas recently obtained and how we implement them in our products and services.

• ISO 27001, also known as ISO/IEC 27001, is an information security standard that certifies that an organization complies with the best practices for information management and safekeeping. Some controls include secure application development life cycle, data protection, resilience against cyberattacks, reduction of information security costs, business continuity readiness, and staff awareness training.
• PCI-DSS, or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is mandatory for organizations that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information. The PCI security standard has 12 requirements created by the PCI Security Standard Council (PCI SSC). Being PCI-DSS certified means that an organization maintains a highly secure environment when handling payment information, including payment cards and credit cards.

How Brankas implements some of these controls:

• Establishing and monitoring network security through a detailed firewall configuration, oversight of incoming and outgoing traffic, admin access restrictions, and anti-spoofing measures to prevent fake IP addresses from entering the private network.
• Continuous security and applications development such as secure coding practices and regular code reviews.
• Creating and maintaining a Vulnerability Management Program, which regularly identifies network vulnerabilities and implements scheduled penetration testing. Countermeasures are applied as soon as any flaws are detected.

Misconception 2: It’s dangerous for banks to share their financial data with third-party open API providers.

As open banking is still being established in most of Southeast Asia, banks are generally hesitant to share their data, including customers’ payments habits and spending patterns. This is closely tied to the first misconception - third-party API vendors are not regulated and, therefore, can’t be trusted to handle data correctly. Some people even think APIs are potentially phishers that harvest login information for identity theft.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. Our certifications show that the correct handling and transmission of data are essential for global compliance.

Here are some of the ways that Brankas complies with data privacy policies:

• Designated a Data Protection Officer accountable for ensuring data privacy compliance, creating and evaluating data protection policies and its implementation, as well as providing advice on data privacy impact assessments.
• Enforces “data minimisation,” which means we ensure that we only collect and process personal data that we truly need.
• Uses secure protocol while data is in transit (TLS v.1.2 encryption) and while data is at rest (AES-256 encryption), so that the data can no longer be associated with a particular subject without requiring additional information.
• We do not store, process, or transmit Payment Card Industry (PCI) data. However, we implement “least privilege” access controls, which means employees have access only to information or systems applicable to their job function. We perform periodic review to limit system access.
• Uses Multi Factors Authentication (plus integrating it with employee Single Sign-On) to ensure that only authorized persons have access to the system and data.
• Established the incident response process to notify supervisory authorities and data subjects in the event of a personal data breach.

Open API providers are just as concerned with data breaches and cyberattacks, and are constantly working to improve their cybersecurity measures. There has to be a balance where financial institutions can share their data and be assured that they will remain safe. Data sharing encourages innovation and growth. It can lead to a more intuitive, relevant, and resilient financial industry that benefits everyone, especially those who don’t have access to banking.

Misconception 3: The industry is not establishing standardized policies.

While it would seem that open banking policy development in Asia is lagging behind other regions, this doesn’t mean that the industry is not actively mobilizing and coordinating with related organizations to implement and comply with global open finance standards.

Open finance companies in Asia aim to establish a standard similar to the European Commission’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which outlines a clear policy on open banking payments and consumer protection (including data privacy). In November 2021, a group of global fintech and security compliance firms, including Plaid, MX, Flinks, and Secureframe, proposed the Open Finance Data Security Standard (OFDSS) framework. OFDSS aims to address the consumer financial data security risks that challenge new fintech companies. In connection with data sharing, the framework assures banks that APIs will protect consumer information. We at Brankas agree that this is a huge step in the right direction.

Aside from supporting open finance security policies, Brankas creates various opportunities to educate and encourage discussions about financial inclusivity in the region. In December 2021, we joined the non-profit Open Banking Exchange (OBE) Asia as a founding member. Already established in Europe, OBE aims to build a community in Asia to help create common standards by sharing best practices and experiences from other regions. Through OBE, Brankas aims to turn regulatory standards into actual operational measures.

Open banking is an exciting development that will continue to revolutionize financial services in the region. There are still challenges ahead, but the industry is committed to partnering with everyone to identify and address all concerns, and anticipate potential growth. The key is to create an environment where stakeholders and thought leaders can freely share their ideas and discuss their challenges. This is the only way we can continually innovate, provide solutions, and discover new opportunities for financial inclusivity.

Brankas and Paynamics Build Open Banking Avenues for e-Commerce

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.

More and more companies are seeing the importance of an omnichannel approach to their business model, which allows them to tap into a larger market. Especially in Southeast Asia, e-commerce is a thriving industry with all players aiming to provide the most convenient, innovative, and accessible services to its customers.

Paynamics, a Philippine-based payment provider, has been successfully helping businesses provide easy online payment options with low transaction fees. Through Paynamics, online shopping has never been easier.

Brankas is a proud partner of Paynamics, connecting it to various payment options they do not currently have available. Brankas sets itself apart through utilizing an agnostic payment gateway, versus other providers that connect to each of their partner banks individually. This entails having separate dashboards for each partner. With Brankas, all of our commercial partners’ information are consolidated into one dashboard for easier communication and information sharing. Paynamics uses Brankas’ Direct API to provide seamless bank transfers for its partner e-commerce businesses. Direct allows businesses to have simple and secure bank transfers, providing businesses a competitive advantage that sets it apart. Providing a more streamlined way to reconcile transactions, it allows businesses to focus on what’s most important – its customers.

Direct is currently available in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Businesses can replace manual bank transfers as a checkout option, enable direct e-wallet top-ups, expedite loan repayments to multiple banks via a single flow. This allows you to speed up day-to-day transactions, freeing up that time spent manually reconciling data for further innovation and customer-centric activities.

Brankas offers a wide variety of APIs, empowering companies with the tools to facilitate easy bank transfers, statement retrieval, and more.

• Pay: Enables seamless bank transfers. Send customers one-click payable invoices and track their payment status in real-time.
• Statement: Receive comprehensive transaction data from multiple banks. Allows merchants to easily reconcile transactions across multiple corporate accounts.
• Account Opening: Create bank accounts easily. On top of advertising discounts for account holders, these users can open a bank account directly on the merchant’s website.
• To learn about all of our product offerings, check out our website.

Brankas is helping e-commerce companies, traditional financial institutions, remittance companies, and more to simplify their financial processes, providing customers a wider variety of product offerings that are quick, safe to use, and accessible. In doing so, Brankas is shaping the open finance ecosystem in Southeast Asia – a pivotal role that can help businesses adapt to the current digital age.

Open banking is paving the way towards innovative, technologically-advanced opportunities in the financial industry, leveraging on Banking–as-a-service (BaaS) for more streamlined services. Partnerships with other institutions are made more accessible, opening up new revenue streams and ultimately, allowing for better products to suit an expanding and evolving customer base.

Choose from Brankas’ current product options, or have APIs custom built to suit your company’s needs. Whether you are a thriving e-commerce company, just starting out, or anywhere in between, we can provide the tools to help you succeed. Want to learn more about how we’re building open banking in Southeast Asia? Visit https://www.brankas.com/. Interested in partnering with us or trying out our products? Sign up at https://auth.brank.as/sign-up to learn more about what we can offer. Wherever your business is on its journey, we can help.

If you want to know more about our open banking solutions, please reach out to sales@brank.as.

Brankas API Capabilities for Cryptocurrency Services and Platforms

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.

Financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to ramp up their cryptocurrency initiatives in 2022, according to US-based credit rating firm Fitch Ratings. A recent example is Jakarta-based venture capital firm BRI Ventures partnering with crypto exchange platform Tokocrypto to launch Indonesia’s first blockchain-focused accelerator program in January 2022. The program will focus on funding startups within the decentralized finance space, including play-to-earn systems and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

To support the growing market for cryptocurrency products and services in the region, Brankas is offering our open API system to partners who want to create a customized interface that can seamlessly process cryptocurrency transactions.

Brankas’ cryptocurrency products and services

Currently, the process of converting cryptocurrency tokens to fiat (currency-based money) is complicated and requires different third parties with varying fees. With all the various providers and tokens available, the whole process of token conversion can be overwhelming.

Through our technology and experience in decentralized finance, we have the expertise to eliminate these pain points and create open APIs that are:

• Tailored to the cryptocurrency needs of any company. A primary use case in the region is the play-to-earn space where guilds or teams are formed to play for tokens. Investors in this segment would benefit from a holistic, automated interface that can handle payments, cash-ins, or even cryptocurrency transactions in the local currencies, which we can build and connect through our network of partners.
• User-friendly. We prioritize the user experience when creating APIs, ensuring that these interfaces have clean designs and an intuitive navigation. From creating accounts to storing assets to facilitating payments, we make sure that your users never get lost in the process.
• Platform-agnostic and flexible. We offer open banking suite solutions that can be integrated into multiple platforms. For example, we can embed solutions into Discord with API functionalities relevant to play-to-earn companies. We can also expand services, depending on any additional business needs.
• Data-driven. Using our existing capabilities in providing data analysis, we can incorporate the same processes to track user behavior patterns that companies can use to improve their offerings and customer service.
• Secure and compliant. We take data privacy and compliance very seriously. We follow all the necessary steps to comply with regional and local policies regarding digital transactions and data protection. The protocols we use are SSL/TLS and AES-256 encryption methodologies, HMAC and OAuth 2.0 standards, and OWasp practices. We are also ISO 27001-certified and PCI DSS-compliant.

Use cases for crypto services

• Play-to-earn token transactions and fiat pay-outs.
• Cryptocurrency companies that are looking to streamline their transactions and asset management processes.
• Banks that want to explore the digital or cryptocurrency space.

We plan to offer more interconnected cryptocurrency products and services in the future, such as one-stop apps for the entire cycle of cryptocurrency management. This includes:

• helping banks to connect to the crypto market and opening instant bank accounts for liquidated/exchanged currencies
• helping institutions that store and move assets between third parties
• investing assets
• facilitating pay-ins and pay-outs, bill payments, and other financial transactions

Interested in a cryptocurrency API for your business?

Brankas has the expertise, technology, and teams that can help jumpstart your cryptocurrency digital services. Our portfolio of API partnerships with major financial institutions in Southeast Asia has given us the knowledge and experience to implement solutions that work.

If you want to know more about our cryptocurrency and open banking solutions, please reach out to sales@brank.as.

2021 In Review: Open Finance Reaches New Heights in SEA

Our incredible 2021 in a nutshell

Overview:

• 80+ network partners
• Over 33.7 million monthly API calls across 6 product categories
• 13x transaction growth
• 80% market coverage
• 6 countries (Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh)
• 120+ team members across 17 nationalities
• Inclusive Fintech 50 Award
• Founding member, Open Banking Exchange Asia

Partnerships:

• VISA (April 2021) – selected to be part of Visa’s first-ever APAC Accelerator 2021; co-created Southeast Asia’s digital credit card issuance API, bringing together Brankas' Open Finance capabilities and Visa’s global network.
• 2C2P (April 2021) – API integration across 30+ financial institutions in Indonesia, including major banks.
• PERAHUB / Western Union (August 2021) – launched the Philippines’ first Digital Remittance Platform covering 70 million merchant locations worldwide and more than 2000 remittance centers in the Philippines.
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (December 2021) – received the prestigious Financial Services Technology Innovation grant to develop the world’s first open source core banking system.
• Open Banking Exchange (December 2021) – Brankas joins as founding member of the leading Open Finance industry association, launched in Asia to promote financial inclusion and collaboration.

Funding:

US$20 million Series B investments (led by Insignia Ventures Partners and VISA, with participation of existing investors Beenext and Integra Partners).

2021 Brankas Highlights

Customer trust

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.

We expanded our network to over 80 partners by the end of 2021. Our track record has led us to be selected for the VISA Accelerator Program for Asia-Pacific and a Grant from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In November, we were also awarded as part of the 2021 Inclusive Fintech 50, which recognizes companies that support MSMEs and low-income individuals to recover and thrive during the pandemic.

Strategic partnerships

Our success was driven by our partners, who worked with us to develop API solutions to all financial transactions, removing pain points commonly associated with these activities – from remittances to payments to transfers.

Some of the pivotal partnerships we had across 2021:

• VISA Accelerator Program (March). We were selected as part of VISA’s first round of startups included in their Accelerator Program for Asia-Pacific. Our task was to create a prototype of a streamlined, digital payments solution that’s user-friendly and scalable, which we presented during Demo Day in September.
• Komo’s instant app deposit (May). We worked with EastWest bank’s digital service, Komo, to add the top-up feature within the app. Now, users can receive and deposit money through all major Philippine banks within one interface.
• Aiah’s expanded payment channels (July). We collaborated with Aiah, a process automation company in the Philippines, to add debit bank transfers to its payment channels. Aiah’s MSME and enterprise clients can now link their Brankas Pay app account to receive direct debit as payment.

Together with traditional banks, governments, fintech companies, and e-commerce platforms, we made it our goal to make financial products and services accessible to all, regardless of location and scale.

One-of-a-kind products

Where there was an opportunity or needs gap, we thought of ways to close the gap and make open banking even more user-friendly. Aside from releasing new products, we continued to review, improve, and add features to our existing offerings.

• Pay app mobile version (March). We launched the mobile version of our Pay app, which allows for seamless bank transfers for merchants.
• Balance (June). Our new product, Balance, went live, enabling users to check their balance data and better understand their financial health.
• Income (October). We launched Income to give financial institutions insights into their users’ financial standing, which is helpful for credit scoring and income verification.

Data privacy & security milestones

Data privacy and cybersecurity are central to our operations. We uphold Privacy By Design and use the latest technologies and industry-best practices for authentication and data handling, including SSL/TLS and AES-256 encryption methodologies, HMAC and OAuth 2.0 standards, and OWasp practices. We are ISO 27001-certified and PCI DSS-compliant - one of the first Open Finance providers in Southeast Asia - reflecting our commitment to keeping our information security management systems safe and reliable. As an industry leader and first mover, we are working closely with regulators and our partners in building data privacy and security standards that will accelerate the implementation of Open Finance throughout the region, in a safe and secure manner.

World-class talent

In November, we welcomed senior industry talents to our global team in our efforts to ramp up our growth and regulatory compliance.

• Arvin Razon as Director for Legal, Compliance, and Regulatory Affairs. Formerly the Legal Counsel and Data Protection Officer for ING Philippines, Arvin’s solid experience in data privacy will help Brankas create policies and procedures for data protection strategies and controls, such as handling consumers’ consented data.
• Simo Figuigui as Head of Business Development and Growth. Brankas is committed to expanding our support across Asia, and Simo, through his extensive experience in sales and fintech market strategy, will help us transform open banking in the region.
• Piyush Sinha as Director of UX, who will be helping take the Brankas user experience to the next level. He is a very experienced UX practitioner having built and scaled the UX practice for startups (SimpleRelevance (TechStars ‘13, Acquired) , Xendit (YCombinator ‘15, B2B Unicorn)) as well as Fortune 100 (Agoda.com (Booking Holdings Group)). He brings extensive experience from having built UX practices, managed teams, conducting user research in more than 14 countries across North America, Middle East and Asia, and introducing and scaling human centered design practice across product teams.

What’s new in 2022?

We plan to build on our current momentum and expand our products, capabilities, and teams. We are looking forward to breaking new grounds and promoting open finance across the region.

• New Markets: We have started groundwork in Vietnam to build up an office and team to support local banks and fintech companies by replicating our success in Indonesia and the Philippines. We are also targeting Bangladesh to be set up and operational by the end of the year. We also plan to double our current workforce of 100.
• New Products: We have in total 8 products across data and an exciting product roadmap as we look to expand and grow our customer base through 2025.
• Open Finance Enablers: We will continue to engage with various sectors and industries to create educational series across Southeast Asia to showcase how our customers can benefit from more collaborative use cases.

We look forward to partnering with governments, enterprises, and non-profits as we continue to build the path toward a more financially inclusive Southeast Asia.

Reach us to know more on how Open Finance and Open Banking works through support@brank.as

Brankas Raises USD $20m from Insignia Ventures and Visa in Series B

[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. With this round, Brankas aims to scale its network of more than 40 financial institutions and 100+ technology companies, expand its product menu of banking-as-a-service APIs serving customers across 6 markets in Asia, and look to double the 100-person strong team.

This latest round accelerates Brankas’ journey to provide the most reliable and comprehensive finance API platform in Asia. Since 2016, the company has been democratizing access to financial and identity data, payments initiation and other developer tools to power the next generation of fintech solutions. With a large unbanked population, Brankas has worked with non-bank providers like remittance companies and e-wallets to offer Open Finance solutions that reach previously untapped customer segments. Brankas aims to serve any company that needs financial data and embedded fintech services to empower their end users in Southeast Asia: technology companies, traditional brick-and-mortar leaders with online channels, and even financial institutions looking to provide a financial marketplace or embedded finance experience to their customers.

According to Samir Chaibi, Principal at Insignia Ventures Partners, Brankas is well-equipped and well-positioned to achieve this as the open finance movement accelerates in Southeast Asia. “The Open Finance industry is powering the next generation of fintech services and Brankas is at the forefront of this movement in Southeast Asia. We are thrilled to partner with a team with a world-class API-driven infrastructure built across key Southeast Asian markets to serve the largest fintech players as they scale. We have also been impressed by Brankas’s approach to market development and their ability to launch and scale their products in a regulatory compliant manner while ensuring that developers benefit from a reliable and stable source of banking and financial data and beyond.”

Visa also participated in the round, marking the global payments network’s commitment to the fast developing Open Finance ecosystem in Southeast Asia. AFG Partners and Treasury International (backed by veteran fintech founders Jeff Cruttenden of Acorns and Eli Broverman of Betterment) have also joined the round along with existing Brankas investors Beenext and Integra Partners. Brankas was selected as one of the 5 participants in Visa’s 2021 Accelerator Program and jointly developed with Visa, a digital credit card issuance proposition using Visa’s data capabilities. The solution was showcased at the Visa Accelerator Demo Day in September 2021.

Leading the way for Southeast Asia’s Open Finance Development

Brankas’s network of financial institutions and tech companies rely on its menu of embedded finance APIs to develop, rollout, and manage digital experiences across various use cases for Southeast Asia, from digital banking, online credit scoring to e-commerce and gig economy payments.

For financial institutions, Brankas’s API platform unlocks digital capabilities and new revenue streams such as online payments, identity verification and account opening, and by extension scales their reach, especially to users who have historically been difficult to serve with traditional financial services. For fintech companies, Brankas is a bridge to critical data needs for verification or scoring processes that would have otherwise taken much longer to develop and optimize for users. These use cases also extend beyond financial services, with companies in sectors like e-commerce also using their APIs to verify and secure payments on their platforms. Across industries and use cases, Brankas offers a compliant, reliable and secure system at scale to simplify the local complexities of building and operating fintech products and services.

Todd Schweitzer, CEO of Brankas, emphasizes the immense possibilities of Open Finance especially in Southeast Asia, “Open Finance is about more than just payments or banking. Our work at Brankas building Southeast Asia’s next-generation financial services infrastructure has unlocked opportunities for new financial product development, in a region that has historically been dominated by large brick-and-mortar incumbents. Thanks to our growing network of partners and customers we are continuously deepening our understanding of these opportunities and leading the development of solutions to open these doors for them here in Southeast Asia.”

As Brankas has grown to cater to more use cases and include more partners and customers in their network, the company has consistently led the way in developing Southeast Asia’s open finance ecosystem. For example, Brankas is the first in the region to launch banking-as-a-service APIs for account opening and credit card issuance.

Brankas has also gained the trust of regulators as an open finance pioneer and leader. In October 2021, Brankas was awarded a prestigious grant from Singapore’s Central Bank to develop an open-source core banking system. The company also participated as the first approved financial API service provider in the Philippines’ Open Finance pilot.

Bringing Unprecedented Choice and Access to Southeast Asia

Following this Series B round, Brankas is deepening the capabilities of its payments, data, and banking-as-a-service API product menu in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The company is soon to announce partnerships with top digital banks and fintech leaders in Vietnam and Bangladesh, going live in early 2022.

Operating as a distributed, remote-first organization since its founding, Brankas now has more than 100 staff in 17 countries. Recent senior hires include Simo Figuigui as Head of Business Development and Growth, and Arvin Razon as Head of Regulatory, Legal and Compliance Affairs.

In order to further develop their menu of products for open finance, Brankas looks to ramp up its hiring across multiple roles in product, sales, and engineering. More details on the roles can be viewed on the company’s career page and LinkedIn.

With new investors, partnerships, and hires, Todd shares his outlook for Brankas: “At Brankas, our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 2021 has been a breakout year for Brankas, enabling financial institutions and companies to partner in new ways and offering unprecedented choice and access for Southeast Asia consumers. All this has happened as we see open finance adoption gaining traction greater than ever before in the region. As a leader in this movement, we are primed to pioneer new products and use cases for Southeast Asia’s next generation of financial services, and we’ll need as many hands on deck to follow through on this. This means continuously growing our network, building out our team’s capabilities, and working closely with our new investors. We are proud to join the Insignia portfolio, and we welcome Visa as a new investor and strategic commercial partner. Thanks also to Treasury International, AFG, and our existing investors Beenext, Integra, and Plug and Play for their continued support and mentorship.”

About Insignia Ventures Partners

Insignia Ventures Partners is an early-stage technology venture capital firm partnering with unstoppable founders to build great companies in Southeast Asia. Since 2017, we have invested in 70+ emerging technology companies across industries and geographies in the region, including unicorns Carro, Ajaib, GoTo, and Appier, and category leaders including Payfazz, Shipper, tonik, and Flip. We partner early with founders and support them from seed through growth stage as their companies create meaningful impact for millions of people in Southeast Asia and beyond. With our team of 30+ investment and operating professionals who bring together decades of experience and proprietary networks, we equip our founders with the tools they need for growth. Learn more on our website and Insignia Business Review. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Brankas Develops an Innovative, Open-Source Core Banking System

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.

The FTSI POC grant was received to back APIX Open Core: an innovative, progressive, and open-source core banking system (CBS) designed to increase access to digital financial services for the unbanked and underbanked in the region.

Brankas creates APIX Open Core for traditional and digital banks, non-bank financial institutions (NBFI), fintech, and cooperatives in emerging markets. With support from the POC grant, we are set to develop a proof of concept of an open-source CBS to enable rapid financial product development. It aims to do so by removing licensing costs, providing easy integration with third-party services, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

A core banking system is essentially the heart of all the systems operating in a bank, responsible for the bulk of financial services offered by the service providers. Unfortunately, for many financial institutions and fintech companies in emerging markets, CBS remains a costly and challenging aspect. This puts an unnecessary barrier that is preventing millions of consumers from accessing better financial services.

“APIX Open Core is designed to disrupt the banking status quo. The aim is to solve current barriers to entry in the banking sector. For instance, commercial CBS from established players available tend to be very costly, restricting banks to a closed environment that allows minimal integration and customizability,” said Mike Dickinson, Chief Product Officer of Brankas.

“On the other hand, available open-source CBS in the market are often rudimentary, inflexible, and lacking technical support. Brankas’ APIX Open Core addresses the concerns of traditional banks, digital banks, and other FIs by offering an affordable and reliable solution for these institutions looking to compete in the digital age,” he added.

APIX Open Core’s provide a CBS environment with eight retail banking modules, including Customer Onboarding, Account Management, General Ledger, Savings/Wallets and Time Deposits, Regulatory Reporting, Retail, and SME Loan Booking, Payment and External Settlements, as well as Risk, Fraud, and AML Management.

Meanwhile, the platform’s customer-facing platform allows seamless integration with external fintech partners, the bank’s mobile or web apps, and external card or payment networks.

The development of APIX Open Core will give financial institutions and fintech companies access to a new CBS that is free to use, easy to customize, and designed for integration with Open Finance APIs. In Singapore, where the technology will be deployed first, local fintech companies will benefit from a faster and smoother entry into new markets as adoption of the APIX Open Core expands across ASEAN, while the local software engineering community can directly contribute to a “homegrown” open source project that helps to narrow a persisting gap in the region’s financial services infrastructure.

Financial inclusion continues to be a work in progress in Southeast Asia due to a lack of access to financial products and services. More than 70 percent of the population in the region remain unbanked or underbanked, with credit card penetration as low as 3% for emerging countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Open-source solutions such as APIX Open Core allows financial institutions to deliver a complete range of financial services needed to ensure inclusion.

Financial service providers in Southeast Asia interested in adopting Brankas’ open-source CBS can be a part of APIX Open Core testing by contacting Brankas here.

Decoding Technology Investment Opportunities in the Philippines

Speaking in the panel were Todd Schweitzer - CEO of Brankas, Clarence Bondoc - Business Development Lead of Brankas, Lanie O. Dormiendo, Officer-in-Charge Director for the International Investments Promotions Service (IIPS) of BOI, and Remedios “Medy” F. Lim - Officer-in-Charge of Services Division, Infrastructure, and Services Industries Service of the BOI.

Brankas - which currently operates in six countries - started its journey in the Philippines in 2019. BOI and other  Philippine government agencies played a significant role in facilitating Brankas’ foothold in the country, giving the company a “pioneer tech” status and providing the right ecosystem to grow. Now fully established, Brankas works with multiple top tier financial institutions to enable Open Finance solutions and accelerate financial inclusion in the Philippines.

Brankas and BOI examined the current tech investment landscape in the Philippines in the webinar. Here are the three main takeaways:

Promising climate for investments

Lanie O. Dormiendo, BOI Officer-in-Charge for the International Investments Promotions Service (IIPS), shared how the Philippines remains attractive to investors, including tech companies, particularly because of the resilience it has shown before and during the pandemic. 

Prior to the lockdowns, the country’s GDP growth stayed consistent at 6.6% from 2016 - 2019, citing a May 2020 report from The Economist, which ranked the Philippines 6th among emerging market economies (EMEs) and first among its Southeast Asian peers during the pandemic. 

“We recognize that the global economic situation is still very challenging, but we are also happy to note the continuous business interest of foreign investors to the Philippines. BOI supports investors by providing due diligence assistance, business registration facilitation, and after-care service.”

- Lanie O. Dormiendo, BOI.

Incentives for investing companies

BOI Officer-In-Charge Division Chief Remedios Lim explained the benefits of Republic Act 11534 or Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE Act), offered to current and future investors in the country. Tech companies looking to invest in the Philippines can take advantage of a list of investors’ incentives such as income tax holidays (ITH), special corporate income tax, enhanced deductions, exemption on importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts or accessories, VAT exemption on importation, and VAT zero-rating on local purchases. 

“CREATE Act covers all investment promotion agencies (IPA) like the BOI, Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), among others. This means all IPAs are adopting a uniform policy and offering a single menu of incentives that will provide options to firms to choose which IPA they opt to register.”

- Remedios “Medy” Lim, BOI.

A smooth journey

Brankas CEO, Todd Schweitzer, and Business Development Lead, Clarence Bondoc, shared insights on how the BOI helped throughout their initial stages and opened ways for Brankas to focus on developing products and services as a start-up in the market. 

“We obtained pioneer tech status in the Philippines, which is a way for the government to endorse and provide incentives for technology companies that are bringing something new into the Philippines. It was a very smooth experience.” 

- Todd Schweitzer, Brankas.

“These incentives eased those burdens. Instead of worrying about taxes or financial concerns, the incentives provide a conducive environment so that a start-up is able to focus on providing a good product to the market. Brankas’ tech status also further empowers Brankas to promote Open Finance in the Philippines.”

- Clarence Bondoc, Brankas.

The Philippines has been one of the most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia. The country has been seeing a steady growth in FDI (foreign direct investment), hitting $5bn in 2019, according to data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2020. In fact, the last decade has seen FDI stock in the country rise from $20bn in 2010 to $88bn in 2019, signaling a growing trust.  

Meanwhile, tech remains a key sector of interest for investors in the country. As of January 2021, the country has 73,91 million internet users and 82,3 million smartphone owners. However, underbanked and unbanked population rates remain high, with credit card penetration as low as 3%. BOI’s progressive incentive schemes are likely to catalyze the growth of the investment in the tech sector, allowing Open Finance technology providers like Brankas working to drive financial inclusion in the country. 

Watch the full recording here to hear more about Brankas’ collaboration with the BOI in establishing operations in the Philippines. To learn more about incentives that come with the BOI registration, please review the BOI investor’s guidebook.

Unlock Open Finance with Brankas Bank Statement Data

Facilitate financial services such as credit scoring and automate reconciliation with Brankas Statement. Statement enables users to share their financial data up to 12 months of transaction history in seconds, securely with SSL encryption. 

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.

Instant access to Bank Statement Data

Conveniently retrieve transactional data for retail and corporate bank accounts within seconds.

• Users can quickly share their bank statement data at their convenience and consent
• Up to 6 months worth of statement data 
• Integrate directly via API or the dashboard ‘Static Link’ feature

Simply:

1. Sign up for a Brankas account before 14 January 2022
2. Experience our Statement product directly on our platform in our Sandbox environment by entering sample details and bank accounts.
3. When you’re ready to transact in live mode, reach out to our team at support@brank.as and go live before 31 January 2022
4. A minimum of 500 statement retrievals is required to receive USD 5,000* credits.

Get additional USD 5,000 credit when you transact 500 with Direct and Disburse.

Terms and conditions

• This Promotion is valid only for retail Statement retrievals for the Statement Product (“Eligible Service”). 
• This Promotion is open to new or existing customers incorporated and/or having active operations in Indonesia and/or the Philippines (“Eligible Customers”).
• To qualify for this Promotion (“Qualified Customers”), Eligible Customers must successfully complete a minimum of 500 statement retrievals for an Eligible Service, from unique accounts of their end users within 60 days of going live with this Promotion (“Live Date”).
• The Offer is valid until June 30, 2022.
• To qualify for Additional Credit, Qualified Customers must complete an aggregate minimum of 500 transactions using Direct or Disburse within 60 days after Live Date. 
• Credit is not convertible or withdrawable in cash equivalent. 
• The terms and conditions for this promotion may change from time to time without prior notice.
• If Brankas varies, modifies or amends the Terms and Conditions of this Promotion, Brankas will give due notice, as required by applicable law and using available communication channels. Further, this Promotion is subject to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and applicable agreements for Customers of Brankas. 
• Brankas reserves the right to suspend or exclude a customer from this Promo, withdraw or refuse the crediting of the credit if the customer has in any way breached this Promotion’s Terms and Conditions or in Brankas’ determination, the customer is facilitating transactions in manner inconsistent with the intent of this Promotion or the purpose/s for which Brankas’ products and services are meant to be used. 
• Qualified Customers will be responsible for whatever tax implications or liability that may arise out of the use of the Credit or Brankas’ products and services. 
• Additional referral bonus available, please reach support@brank.as to find out more.

Brankas Welcomes Senior Industry Talents Arvin Razon and Simo Figuigui

With Arvin’s extensive experience in data privacy law and Simo’s excellent rep in business expansion acumen, Brankas is on its way to accelerating Open Finance adoption in Southeast Asia.

Brankas, the leading Open Finance technology company in Southeast Asia, announced the appointment of data privacy law expert Arvin Razon and APAC business expansion specialist Simo Figuigui to its Leadership Team.

Arvin will lead as the Director for Legal, Compliance, and Regulatory Affairs, while Simo will take up the firm’s Head of Business Development & Growth position.

This news comes on the heels of Brankas’ accelerated growth in the region. Founded in 2016, Brankas now operates in six countries; the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The firm has also teamed up with over 30 financial institutions across the region to drive financial inclusion.

Both appointees have impressive track records in their respective fields. Before joining Brankas, Arvin served as Legal Counsel for ING Philippines - the first all-digital bank in the Philippines - where he provided full-scope legal coverage of the bank’s operation and regulatory aspects of the business.

He has a strong track record in data privacy, following his role as Deputy DPO for ING Philippines, where he was extensively involved in developing and implementing policies and procedures for data privacy. In his role, he was also instrumental in leading the Bank’s privacy impact assessments, risk mitigation controls, and data privacy training among stakeholders.

Meanwhile, in his new role, Simo will leverage his years of experience as an APAC business expansion specialist to help deliver Brankas’ powerful technology in transforming financial services in Southeast Asia.

He was previously leading Sales in Asia for Zai, building the company’s go-to-market strategy from the ground up. He was also a part of fintech unicorn Rapyd’s APAC early joiners and Europe’s most prominent shopping rewards company GSG founding team member for APAC, working on some of the companies’ most strategic expansion projects.

At Brankas, Arvin and Simo are joining the ranks of experts and forward thinkers passionate about helping the region’s under-served populations with access to modern financial services. We are always on the lookout for talents to be a part of our growing team. Check out available positions here.

Brankas Recognized as a Global Inclusive Fintech Leader

Brankas Recognized as a Global Inclusive Fintech Leader

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.

In 2021, Inclusive Fintech 50 sought to recognise financial technology companies helping low-income customers and micro and small enterprises to rebound, rebuild, and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact. The expert judges included a diverse group of independent fintech experts and investors representing all regions of the world. The competition’s global sponsors are Visa, MetLife Foundation, and Jersey Overseas Aid & Comic Relief, and its supporting partners are Accion and IFC.

Since 2016, Brankas has laid the foundation for open finance in Southeast Asia. Founders Todd Schweitzer and Kenneth Shaw have developed groundbreaking partnerships with financial institutions and fintech firms to create new digital experiences for the end consumers. As the region’s leading Open Finance technology provider, Brankas provides API-based solutions, data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their Open Finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more.

“At Brankas, our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone, and we see too many Southeast Asian businesses struggle to access affordable, reliable, and high-tech online merchant solutions. In SEA’s emerging economies, only around 50% of adults have bank accounts. Larger financial institutions often see the mass market as unprofitable and not worth the fuss. Open Finance is changing the economics of serving these mass consumer and SME segments and enabling a new set of fintech products to meet their needs,” said Brankas CEO, Todd Schweitzer.

Moving forward, Brankas is looking to expand its use cases and presence across Asia Pacific. Learn more about Brankas and how we can help technology companies build better financial experiences.

#fintech #fintechindonesia

What Open Banking means for MSME Merchants in Indonesia

According to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank on Financial Inclusion, close to 80%, or 200 million of citizens are considered ‘unbanked’: inidviduals who do not have access to banking or financial services such as loans and savings accounts. Typically, these are citizens who have lower levels of education (i.e. illiterate or primary school graduates) or live and/or work in regions or sectors with limited access to such services.

Out of the 63 million MSMEs, only 20% are considered to have access to banking and other financial services, while the remaining do not and/or are not financially literate.

It is a well known fact that, for all the growth of Indonesia’s tech sector (Indonesia has the region’s highest number of tech unicorns), the country is still mostly an offline and cash-powered society, its population spread across almost 15 thousand islands. Banks and financial institutions face an almost insurmountable challenge to cover the regions that are populated, particularly those in the most remote areas where even mobile reception is almost non-existent.

So how does an Open Banking ecosystem help to spread financial inclusion and literacy across such a challenging realm? One word: Collaboration.

Imagine a scenario where anyone can walk up to any road-side stall (warung as they are locally termed) and open a bank account at any bank, make a financial transaction, or apply for a productive or microloan from a peer-to-peer lending platform.

The warung owner would be able to offer these financial services as if they were a bank branch or agent through a mobile app, and get financially rewarded by the providers of the services, and thus incentivized to, quite literally, spread financial inclusivity to their fellow citizens.

This will all be made possible with an Open API ecosystem and Brankas is working towards this vision by aggregating the financial service providers’ products and services, thereby making it possible to distribute them to Resellers via API, which in our above example, includes our warung owners.

Resellers can include networks or associations of these offline warungs or retail outlets, and also online platforms such as directories, blogs and marketplaces. Think of something like Amazon’s affiliate network… but for banking and financial services - these Resellers are empowered and incentivized to sell financial products through their own marketing channels, whether they’re online or offline.

Lookout for our next blog posts as we dive deeper and learn the tools required to turn warungs into bank agents.

What Value does Open Banking Bring to Banks?

Expand access to underserved customers

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.

In Indonesia for example, the cost of onboarding by traditional agent-assisted model can be as high as USD 14.80, almost 15x higher than a digitally assisted third party model. The high cost of onboarding can be attributed to the high cost of agent acquisition, particularly in rural areas with limited physical branches. The cost also factors in the investment in agent training and managing tedious paperwork. By contrast, digital enabled onboarding in partnership with third party vendors can significantly reduce the time and cost required to conduct KYC for prospective customers. In addition, applying a tiered risk-based approach to KYC where low-risk customers (i.e. customers with low value accounts) have reduced KYC stringency can help banks manage customer onboarding in a more cost-effective and streamlined manner.

Provide new product offerings

Open finance enables banks to leverage Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) to offer a wider range of digital financial products and services to meet the evolving needs of customers across different segments. Adopting BaaS allows banks to unbundle their banking stack while partnering with different third-parties to build new financial service solutions. Banks do not need to think of themselves as closed-loop, vertically integrated pipelines that oer traditional banking products directly to customers, but instead can leverage new partnerships and the broader ecosystem to open up banking products to partners who can then take these products to the customers.

In doing so, banks can unlock new revenue streams. Instead of depending on core banking services where the margins on interest fees are being eroded due to competition and innovation, banks can explore new models of revenue generation such as renting their license, or fee-sharing arrangements such as charging a percentage of transactional value, and API monetization where they can charge a fee for API usage.

Deliver quality customer experience

With the ubiquity of digital customer centric experiences across multiple industries outside of the financial services (the likes of Grab, Shopee, Facebook), customers are looking for financial institutions to offer a relational and personalized banking experience. According to BCG 2019 Center for Customer Insight Survey, lack of personalized advice, unattractive image and poor online interface are among the top reasons why consumers in Southeast Asia are not satisfied with their current banks.

Delivering quality customer experience will go a long way to position banks as trusted financial advisors through data-driven customer engagement. In 2019, Singaporean based UOB bank launched a digital banking subsidiary TMRW, a mobile only bank designed with a core focus on customer centricity for the Southeast Asian millennial market. UOB partnered with Meniga by using APIs to deliver personal finance capabilities such as having the TMRW app analyze and predict cash flow in accounts and patterns of upcoming payments. Other in-app features also include spend tracking which allows simple budgeting and spend notification, and smart saving functionality that offers personalized saving advice and gamification.

If you’re interested to know more about open finance in Southeast Asia, download the white paper today!

Join us on 19th Aug, 12pm GMT+8 as we discuss the the recently joint published white paper titled Embracing Open Finance in Southeast Asia. We will cover:

• The commercial opportunities for banks in open finance; new growth and distribution opportunities and new ways to create value
• Explore how banks and other financial service providers can overcome challenges to open finance adoption
• Practical next steps in embracing opening finance

5 Effective Steps to Prepare for your Next User Interview

5 steps to prepare for your next User Interview

1. Define and recruit the participants
2. Create a discussion guide
3. Set up discussion stimuli
4. Set up the right tools
5. Invite your stakeholders

1. Define and Recruit Participants

At a glance some might feel like this is obvious. Besides, we already knew the problem and who is having that problem. However, knowing who to interview is a bit trickier and I’ll give you an example. Say, we’ve found out that users are dropping off at the checkout page of our e-commerce site. Instead of interviewing every user in your database, I’d recommend asking these questions first:

• What’s the demographic of these users who drop off?
• How did they arrive at your site? (eg. organic search, referral links)
• What were their previous activities before eventually dropping? (eg. which pages did they browse, what products were in their basket)

With these things in mind, we have a better context of the situation. We can use the answers to the questions above as part of our recruitment criteria, which we can add with:

• What activities do they do, such as job or hobby
• Products they purchased
• Spending habit
• Or any other element of a user persona that you might have…

Speaking of persona, if you already have a rich definition of your user personas then you can simply use it as your recruitment criteria.

Next, we recruit. Why recruiting now? Because recruiting takes a while and we can work the rest of this list while the recruitment happens.

2. Create a Discussion Guide

Discussion guide, or DG, is a fancy way of saying “list of questions to ask”. However, there must be a strategy in your DG. First, return to the brief and let’s focus ourselves on what is the main question that need answering. Then take a step back and plan how you want this question to be answered, starting from basic questions leading up to more specific ones, and ending up with evaluative questions. I’ll give you an example. Say that the main question is “Why are users dropping off at the checkout page?”, then we can break it up into these questions:

• What are they using our site for? Why? (This is also known as “usecase”)
• How is their experience (good and bad) so far? Why? (This contains the main question)
• How is their experience with other similar platforms? Why? (This is evaluative)

You can always expand on this further in order to get a more thorough answer, but remember to always tie it back to the main question. Also, notice there’s always a “why” at the end. This is because UX Researchers always try to discover motivations and patterns rather than just what.

After defining these questions, then we can divide up the Discussion Guide into several sections based on topics. Following the questions above, our topics will then be:

• Use case
• Experience with us
• Other experiences

Within these topics then we can add any question that we think can help us answer the questions above. Besides the questions, something that might also help enrich the discussion is what’s called as a discussion stimuli.

3. Choose a Discussion Stimuli

A stimuli is any tool that can help the discussion to run smoothly or help the participant to answer our questions “better”. Here’s an example of a stimuli:

• Prototype
• Card sorting
• Story board
• Pics or videos

For example with card sorting, instead of asking the user to tell us what things make them trust an e-commerce site, we can present them with 5-10 cards with answer options that they can then sort from top to bottom. Feel free to get creative with alternative ways of interacting with your participant!

4. Set up the Right Tools

This depends on the mode of the interview; offline or online interview. But since it’s the pandemic, let’s conduct it online. In principle, we’ll need a tool to converse with the participants, note taking, displaying stimuli, and recording. My usual set up is quite simple:

• Conversing with participant: Google Meet
• Note taking: Google Docs
• Displaying stimuli: depending on the stimuli, but for prototypes I use Figma
• Recording: Quicktime screen recording (I can record the audio from my laptop’s speaker but I won’t be able to do it with my earphones on)

There are more integrated tools available online, such as Userzoom and Userlytics that you should definitely give a try. But so far, the above is enough for manual, cost-free, remote IDI.

5. Invite Stakeholders

So, up to this point everything is checked and ready to go, and it should. However to top everything off, we might want to consider inviting our PMs, Engineers, and BDs to our interview session. Be it a mandatory invite or an optional one, inviting stakeholders help keep the UX spirit alive in a product team. It is at the heart of what being “user-centric” means, literally product and engineers sit around the user, listening to what they have to say. Actually, if you feel like UX is being overlooked in your company, doing this could be the first step to help you get a buy-in.

Are you interested in a career in fintech?  Join the Brankas team!

Brankas  is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

What is Open Finance? How does it matter to End-users?

Open finance unbundles financial services and products that were owned by banks to be made available outside traditional banking processes through technology. Non-financial companies such as ride-hailing, insurance or even healthcare companies can now offer financial solutions within their ecosystem. For example PropertyGuru, a leading property website in Singapore, can now offer loans within their website.

What open finance means for banks?

Open finance offers new growth and distribution opportunities. While the pandemic accelerated digital adoption, banks are beginning to notice the benefits of unbundling their products and services as technology. With the conversion, banks could keep up with the digital finance opportunities and find new ways to create value while staying relevant. For example, being available in a non-traditional process known as embedded finance. Besides that, banks have the competitive advantage of having access to banking licenses, massive data, customer trust, and expertise in core financial infrastructure. In other words, now’s the time for banks in Southeast Asia to transition to open finance.

What open finance means for end users like us?

Convenience is one of the many. Open finance unlocks a new phenomenon known as embedded finance, where all your financial needs are serviced within the same product. While security is often the main concern for end users, open finance technology taps on APIs where information shared across can only be authorized by end users and are transacted on encrypted connection. Data layer is also applied to ensure restricted access.

If you’re interested to know more about open finance in Southeast Asia, download the white paper today!

Join us in the upcoming webinar as we discuss the the recently joint published white paper titled Embracing Open Finance in Southeast Asia. We will cover:

• The commercial opportunities for banks in open finance; new growth and distribution opportunities and new ways to create value
• Explore how banks and other financial service providers can overcome challenges to open finance adoption
• Practical next steps in embracing opening finance

Navigating Open Finance Growth and Opportunities in Southeast Asia

COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the importance of digitalisation as banks look to serve their customers in new ways during lockdowns and quarantines while customers are increasingly looking to access financial products and services on their own terms and on their own devices. With open banking technology, open finance; permissioned data-sharing are enabled to service a wide range of financial products and services. Key concepts and definitions of open finance are discussed in this paper, expanding to how banks can benefit from open finance.

In this white paper, discussions on:

• What is open finance, and why does it matter?
• What are the digital finance opportunities enabled by open finance?
• How can banks overcome challenges to open finance adoption?
• Practical steps for banks
• And more, with case studies referencing banks, financial service and eKYC providers in Southeast Asia such as CIMB Bank, Komo by East West Bank, Unionbank, TMRW by UOB, GCash, Meniga, Cebuana Lhuillier, Tokopedia and Singpass are studied as examples of open finance.

Download the white paper today!

Join us in the upcoming webinar as we discuss the the recently joint published white paper titled Embracing Open Finance in Southeast Asia. We will cover:

• The commercial opportunities for banks in open finance; new growth and distribution opportunities and new ways to create value
• Explore how banks and other financial service providers can overcome challenges to open finance adoption
• Practical next steps in embracing opening finance

How to Launch a Product during a Pandemic

Lockdowns have caused loss of income and even industry closure. Being resourceful, many have started businesses from home, selling home baked goodies or even taking brick and mortar businesses online. We saw this as an opportunity to develop a product that would help small medium businesses to manage their transaction better. Cue - Brankas Pay.

Brankas Pay is a simple bank transfer payment method that allows merchants to easily generate and reconcile invoices. It is currently available on the web and Android mobile devices. We are also actively working to integrate more payment options beyond bank transfers such as e-wallets, credit and debit cards.

As you can imagine coming up and launching a product in the region amidst a global pandemic is not without its challenges. I’d like to share 5 things we’ve learned through our experience building and launching Brankas Pay.

1. Observe the Problem

Products need problems to solve. More often than not the challenge doesn’t lie in coming up with solutions, but rather determining which problem to solve. There are a number of ways to discover what the problem is. For Brankas Pay, it was observing the struggles of the small and micro merchants that have been driven into online selling as a result of lockdowns and quarantines imposed to control the spread of COVID19.

We discovered that small and micro merchants during the pandemic are mostly new entrepreneurs and they are running their businesses online for the first time on existing platforms such as social media and messengers. This also means that they are running their businesses from start to end, contactless. This is the start of the chaos. Everything is done manually, down to sharing of account numbers, amount to be paid, to the sharing screenshots as the proof of payment. This opens to a lot of human error and the potential exposure to hackers and scammers. Clearly singling out this problem helped our team understand what it is exactly we are building the product for, and more importantly bias towards focusing on a specific pain point for our target customers.

2. Develop your hypothesis

Now that we have a working problem, we need to define our hypothesis – that is the overarching solution that we think would ultimately address the problem that we have identified.

Similar to problem identification, there are a multitude of ways one could develop their hypothesis. For Pay’s case, we based our hypothesis on the following guidelines:

1. It builds on an existing stop gap solution that the customers are using – to lower the barrier for the user to adopt our product.
2. It leverages behaviors, actions that customers are already doing to solve the problem.
3. It can be built with our existing resources and technology – so we can quickly get an MVP out.

Based on the 3 guidelines and our observation of how our customers solve the problem, we know:

1. They have been using their personal bank accounts to receive bank transfers as payments.
2. They’ve been selling to their customers via popular messaging applications, sending bank credentials and requesting payment via Facebook Messenger, Viber and Telegram.
3. Brankas has already built a bank transfer API that we could build on top of.

These 3 knowns basically was how we distilled the hypothesis that building an invoice link generation tool that will allow online merchants to accept bank transfer payments.

3. Deciding what to build, what not to build

Designing will never end, you will always find features to improve. However, with the limited resources and time we had to prioritize and move accordingly. We started with our first target which was to garner 10 sign ups. To reach that, we started designing a basic landing page to garner interest. We reached out to interest groups on different platforms and reached our first target and that led us to create the Invoice page. This invoice page allows merchants to easily generate their invoices.

That was the approach that we took to grow the product. Now, we’re at the stage of partnering with payment gateways and service providers like Visa, QRIS providers, e wallets and more. More payment options on Brankas Pay. This however does not mean that we’ve stopped improving the product features!

4. Biasing towards making it real vs making it perfect

1. Clarity We had to ensure that everyone on board was clear on the problems that the product is trying to solve and the end users. This helps us prioritise what needs to be built, design and upkeep to the product experience.
2. Constraints Knowing the constraints on hand such as resources and time helps us ensure that we move fast and efficiently. Iteration helps move
3. Goals We knew that we had to launch the product in 2 weeks and so we worked within our means with the minimum features of the product.

5. Determining future enhancements/improvements

We knew that we would be building the Transaction history feature but it would not be included in the earlier design or release on the product. To tease users' curiosity, we build mockups within the product. When onboarding users onto Brankas Pay, we would ask them questions on what they expect these features could help them. This way, we could also gather interest in these future features.

Design will never stop evolving. I would highly recommend asking customers directly about their product experience, weighing resources when iterating or designing features and first versions does not have to be the last!

If you’re a merchant in The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia and would like to improve your transaction process and experience, reach out to our team to learn more about Brankas Pay!

Download Brankas Pay on the Google Play Store today.

Getting Started with Brankas: Dashboard Sign Up and Staging Site

Open finance can be a confusing term to be thrown at. We suggest that you get your hands on APIs and get testing to understand our products and services better. We do have our Sales and Customer Support team on standby to help you fit the product and services that best suit your business. Here are the 5 steps:

1. Register an account on Brank.as

You can run APIs in a sandbox environment on any Brankas products such as Direct, Statement, Disburse and more on the Brankas Dashboard. There are no requirements to test Brankas APIs, simply sign up, visit brank.as/sign-up and fill the required fields.

Log in, create API Key and immediately start testing our APIs!

2. Save Your Business Details

Next, we suggest that you have your business information saved to enable you to:

• Add destination account for Direct - Using Direct API
• Save your Callback URL

To save your business information on the Brankas Dashboard, click on Settings and save your business information in the Business tab.

3. Create API Key

We highly suggest that you test Brankas APIs available on docs.brank.as. To start testing, generate API key on your Brankas Dashboard like so:

1. Click on the API key menu

   

2. Input your login password in the field and an API key will be generated.

3. Copy the API key to saved location. For security purposes, Brankas will not be storing any API keys generated. We highly suggest keeping it safe on your machine.

Do note that when a new API key is generated on either staging or live environments, the previous API key will be made invalid.

4. Saving Callback URL

Callback URLs or webhooks are important to retrieve the status endpoint of each API transaction. You can set up your callback by following this step by step guide below:

1. Click on the Settings menu and Callback URL tab

2. Enter your callback URL and hit Save Changes.

   

   Tips: You can generate a testing callback URL in webhook.site as well if you do not already have an infrastructure ready.

5. Invite Your Team!

Lastly, bring the party over and invite your team members on to Brankas Dashboard, give them a feel of Brankas products. There are several user roles available. Here’s how to invite your team members:

1. Click on the User menu.

2. Click on Invite New User.

3. Fill user information.

   

4. Assign user roles. There are 5 user roles available.

Test ✔︎, What’s Next?

Ready to go live with Brankas?

Share with us the Go-live requirements by clicking on Go-live requirements on the Dashboard.

or reach out to us at support@brank.as to learn how you can benefit from Brankas products!

Are you interested in a career in fintech?  Join the Brankas team!

Brankas  is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

How to Complete a Transaction on Brankas Direct

This article provides steps to help you complete a transaction on Brankas Direct. Tap is Brankas’ own Identity Provider (IdP) and is a secure technology that is embedded in our core products, such as Direct and Statement.

Fund transfers via Direct

Did this illustration help? Brankas is committed to making it convenient for our customers to complete any type of financial transaction. With our Open Finance infrastructure and our modern API-based solutions , we are partnering with banks, payment gateways, financial institutions, and MSMEs to make world-class financial solutions accessible to everyone in SEA and beyond.

Let us know what you think of this flow and how we can further improve your experience!

Sign up to our newsletter for more Open Banking and Open API updates from the region’s leading Open Finance and API provider!

Are you interested in a career in fintech?  Join the Brankas team!

Brankas  is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

Distributed Tracing: The Story of API Requests

Across the world, in millions of software applications, every API request has its own story from when it enters a system until it exits. Today we are going to look at what is tracing and how tracing helps to identify the bottlenecks in the journey of an API request.

In this blog post we will see how Jaeger tracing can be easily added to a gRPC application in Go inside a distributed microservices architecture. Our gRPC protobuf bindings are generated using a tool named gunk - a Go wrapper around gRPC.

What is tracing?

Tracing is the process of adding metadata to a request as it walks different parts of the code/application. Tracing is highly important to highlight the duration of end-to-end request, bottlenecks for individual calls in distributed architecture

Metadata is collected using observability frameworks like Opentelemetry, which then can be analyzed by the developers to understand what is happening throughout the request lifecycle.

While tracing can be added to any application, distributed tracing specifically targets applications that are using microservice architectures where communication between services is much harder to reason about.

Before we deep dive into tracing setup, let’s glance at the two opposing application architectures.

Monolithic architecture

Let’s just go back a few years and think about “monolithic” applications, and imagine the sample request as listed below. There is a request coming in but all the dependent services are available within the same roof, so it flows through the different services before it returns the response.

When some errors/problems were identified for an API request the most common way to debug is to walk through the application logs.

Similarly for identifying bottlenecks, the request received was processed in the same system. So if you want to know the time duration of a request, you would again scan through the log timestamps. 

A lot of companies have moved away from this kind of architecture, usually by breaking existing monolithic applications into their silos ie. microservices were born.

Microservices architecture

The name “microservices” itself describes how slim a service shall be. Normally this means it would contain a single feature of an application or groups similar functionality into a single service. 

Although microservice architectures comes with an advantage compared to monolithic architectures, there are details to focus on to eliminate the complications.

With the above diagram, you can see that the request received at service ONE spans across multiple services before it returns the response. Here the request has been traveling to multiple microservices.

It’s very important to properly decompose the functionality into its silos or services, otherwise, the purpose of microservices is lost as there will be a lot of interservice communications and it’s an unnecessary overhead.

Having said that, a microservice architecture is good for several reasons.

1. Scale your development team - Each microservice is owned by a separate team, so there is parallel software development.
2. Independent deployment - Each microservice has its own CI/CD process, it shall be independently deployed without touching the other services.
3. Less Risk - You are only changing the part of the entire application, and less risk even if you want to roll back when something goes wrong
4. Horizontal scaling - Based on the usage of the microservice, you shall be able to scale only a particular service to mitigate the load of the system.

Though there are several advantages, there are complicated things with microservices such as.

1. Monitoring - You have to monitor several microservices and it will be a lot of work if the number grows over time
2. Automation - Lots of automation has to happen to keep the system running, such as monitoring, perform ci/cd, etc
3. Configuration Management - Centralized configuration management is required to change in one place that gets propagated to all microservices
4. Interservice communications - The communication between the services shall be async (through messaging) or GRPC based interservice communications

To identify issues during the entire request lifecycle, we are going to go into detail on tracing and telling the story of the API request through a microservice architecture using Jaeger.

Jaeger Tracing

Monitoring the application is not just to ensure the uptime of the application, it’s much more than that. Tracing becomes an integral part of monitoring where it knows exactly the details of the entire request to identify the possible issues such as performance bottlenecks, distributed transactions, and latency optimizations for any type of operations such as HTTP, RPC, or database invocations. 

Jaeger is a tool that was developed by Uber for tracing the API requests which was later open-sourced.

Terminology

Span - represents a logical unit of work in Jaeger that has a name, and additional information such as the start of the operation (RPC/DB/method) and its duration.

A span can be nested within another span.

Trace - is the path where the request was traveled across multiple microservices, consisting of multiple spans.

Trace - is the path where the request was traveled across multiple microservices, consisting of multiple spans.

Jaeger Components

Several components comprise the Jaeger service.

Image Courtesy: jaegertracing.io

1. Agent is a listener that listens for traces and spans via UDP, then posts it to a collector.
2. Collector collects the spans and traces posted by agent, then validate the traces and spans, then store it in a storage backend such as elasticsearch, cassandra, or post to Kafka for centralized storag
3. Ingestor is a service that reads from Kafka topic and then sends it to Cassandra or Elasticsearch
4. Query is a service that facilitates reading the traces from the backend and return them to the UI to showcase the traces

Integrate gRPC service with Jaeger

To help us get started, I have built an application that reflects the simple microservice architecture shown above - it has services imaginatively named ONE, TWO, and THREE. All three services share the same code, but we’ll deploy it independently for tracing the service with docker for demonstration.

There is already a protobuf, HTTP gateway, and gRPC service files generated using a tool called gunk, if you never know what gunk is, it is a modern frontend and syntax to generate protobuf files.

hello.gunk

// +gunk openapiv2.Swagger{
//         Swagger: "2.0",
//         Info: openapiv2.Info{
//                 Title:       "Hello Service API",
//                 Description: "Simple hello service for demonstrate distributed tracing that shall pass hello message to multiple backend services based on the service identifier",
//                 Version:     "1.0.0",
//         },
//         Schemes: []openapiv2.Scheme{
//                 openapiv2.HTTPS,
//         },
// }
package hello

import (
	"github.com/gunk/opt/http"
	"github.com/gunk/opt/openapiv2"
)

// ServiceID is identifier that the message shall be sent to
type ServiceID int

const (
	UNKNOWN_Service ServiceID = iota
	ONE
	TWO
	THREE
)

// HelloRequest contains an hello request message.
type HelloRequest struct {
	// Msg is a message from a client.
	Msg string `pb:"1" json:"msg"`

	// ServiceID is the service that the hello will be sent to
	ServiceID ServiceID `pb:"2" json:"service_id"`
}

// HelloResponse contains an hello response from specific service.
type HelloResponse struct {
	// Msg is a message from a service.
	Msg string `pb:"1" json:"msg"`
}

// Hello
type HelloService interface {
	// SayHello returns the passed message from respective service
	//
	// +gunk http.Match{
	//         Method: "POST",
	//         Path:   "/sayhello",
	//         Body:   "*",
	// }
	// +gunk openapiv2.Operation{
	//         Tags:        []string{"HelloService", "external"},
	//         Description: "Initiates a say hello request",
	//         Summary:     "Send a hello to a service based on service identifier",
	//         Responses: map[string]openapiv2.Response{
	//                 "200": openapiv2.Response{
	//                         Description: "A successful response.",
	//                         Schema: openapiv2.Schema{
	//                                 JSONSchema: openapiv2.JSONSchema{
	//                                         Ref: "#/definitions/apiHelloResponse",
	//                                 },
	//                         },
	//                 },
	//                 "404": openapiv2.Response{
	//                         Description: "Returned when the resource is not found.",
	//                 },
	//         },
	// }
	SayHello(HelloRequest) HelloResponse
}

Jaeger Client

Next, we are going to integrate Jaeger tracing with the Go application. We are going to use https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger-client-go (jaeger-client for go) and https://github.com/opentracing/opentracing-go (open tracing API in go)

// initialize tracer that reads from the environment variable
// JAEGER_AGENT_HOST=jaeger
// JAEGER_AGENT_PORT=6831
// config is from github.com/uber/jaeger-client-go/config
cfg, _ := config.FromEnv()

// create tracer from config
tracer, closer, err := cfg.NewTracer(
  config.Metrics(metrics_prom.New()),
)
defer closer.Close()

if err != nil {
  log.Fatalf("failed to initialize tracer: %v", err)
}

// opentracing is from "github.com/opentracing/opentracing-go"
opentracing.SetGlobalTracer(tracer)

To initialize the tracing with the Jaeger client will need to configure the environment variables 

• JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME, 
• JAEGER_AGENT_NAME, and 
• JAEGER_AGENT_PORT

You shall checkout the all environment variable here

gRPC Server Middleware

The gRPC server middleware is responsible for creating a trace when a gRPC request hits the gRPC endpoint, here is how to integrate the tracer with gRPC server middleware interceptor chain.

s := grpc.NewServer(
    grpc.StreamInterceptor(grpc_middleware.ChainStreamServer(
        grpc_opentracing.StreamServerInterceptor(grpc_opentracing.WithTracer(tracer)),
    )),
    grpc.UnaryInterceptor(grpc_middleware.ChainUnaryServer(
        grpc_opentracing.UnaryServerInterceptor(grpc_opentracing.WithTracer(tracer)),
    )),
)

gRPC Client Middleware

The gRPC client middleware is responsible for recording the span along with the request trace when one service calls another service as a child span. It is very helpful to see various microservices the request traveled to before the response.

  opts := []grpc.DialOption{
    grpc.WithInsecure(),
    grpc.WithKeepaliveParams(keepalive.ClientParameters{
      Time:                time.Second * 10,
      Timeout:             time.Second * 5,
      PermitWithoutStream: true,
    }),
    grpc.WithStreamInterceptor(grpc_middleware.ChainStreamClient(
      grpc_opentracing.StreamClientInterceptor(grpc_opentracing.WithTracer(tracer)),
    )),
    grpc.WithUnaryInterceptor(grpc_middleware.ChainUnaryClient(
      grpc_opentracing.UnaryClientInterceptor(grpc_opentracing.WithTracer(tracer)),
    )),
  }

Local deployment with Docker:

To demonstrate how all fits together with the help of docker-compose we are going to deploy the local instance of the jager-all-in-one image with the three services ONE, TWO, and THREE, that spans requests across the gRPC services. Here is the docker-compose file.

version: '3.7'
services:
  jaeger:
    image: jaegertracing/all-in-one:latest
    ports:
      - "6831:6831/udp"
      - "16686:16686"
    networks:
      - tracing-with-jaeger
  one:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports: 
      - "9000:9000"
      - "9001:9001"
    environment:
      - JAEGER_AGENT_HOST=jaeger
      - JAEGER_AGENT_PORT=6831
      - JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME=ONE
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_TYPE=const
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_PARAM=1
      - JAEGER_RPC_METRICS=true
      - SERVICE_NAME=ONE
      - HTTP_PORT=9000
      - GRPC_PORT=9001
      - NEXT_SERVICE_HOST=two
      - NEXT_SERVICE_PORT=10001
    networks:
     - tracing-with-jaeger
    depends_on:
      - jaeger
      - two

  two:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports: 
      - "10000:10000"
      - "10001:10001"
    environment:
      - JAEGER_AGENT_HOST=jaeger
      - JAEGER_AGENT_PORT=6831
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_TYPE=const
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_PARAM=1
      - JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME=TWO
      - JAEGER_RPC_METRICS=true
      - SERVICE_NAME=TWO
      - HTTP_PORT=10000
      - GRPC_PORT=10001
      - NEXT_SERVICE_HOST=three
      - NEXT_SERVICE_PORT=11001
    networks:
     - tracing-with-jaeger
    depends_on:
      - jaeger
      - three

  three:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports: 
      - "11000:11000"
      - "11001:11001"
    environment:
      - JAEGER_AGENT_HOST=jaeger
      - JAEGER_AGENT_PORT=6831
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_TYPE=const
      - JAEGER_SAMPLER_PARAM=1
      - JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME=THREE
      - JAEGER_RPC_METRICS=true
      - SERVICE_NAME=THREE
      - HTTP_PORT=11000
      - GRPC_PORT=11001
    networks:
     - tracing-with-jaeger
    depends_on:
      - jaeger
networks:
  tracing-with-jaeger:

Let’s get the services up by building the docker image running the commands 

docker compose build && docker compose up

wait for it to complete.

For more information, please visit the README.md

Once the services are running locally, you shall verify it by checking the docker logs and get something similar to this:

three_1   | 2021/06/28 02:12:49 Starting service : THREE on :11000
three_1   | 2021/06/28 02:12:49 Loading the tracer from env
two_1     | 2021/06/28 02:12:56 Starting service : TWO on :10000
two_1     | 2021/06/28 02:12:56 Loading the tracer from env
one_1     | 2021/06/28 02:13:03 Starting service : ONE on :9000
one_1     | 2021/06/28 02:13:03 Loading the tracer from env

Additionally, you can visit http://localhost:16686/ to view the Jaeger UI, although it won’t be showing much yet.

If all looks good, we can run a request through Postman by invoking `sayHello` on service THREE with the below request.

curl --location --request POST 'http://127.0.0.1:9000/sayhello' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "msg": "hi",
    "service_id": "THREE"
}'

Expected Response from service THREE:

{
    "msg": "Hello from service THREE"
}

I had injected a sleep statement before invoking the next service, that is before calling from service ONE to service TWO, or from service TWO to service THREE, so you can see the request took 616ms in the image:

Now that all the hard work is done, it’s the most awaited time to see how tracing looks and notice the life of the request.

You can visit http://localhost:16686/ to view the Jaeger UI

You can see the request traveling through different services and the duration it took throughout the request, and that what we expect to know from distributed tracing and that’s the story of the request.

The full source code is available here in Github.

Conclusion

Jaeger is a CNCF graduated project, and it’s been used widely for Kubernetes-based application deployments. If you would like to run Jaeger in production please check out the reference links.

If your application needs tracing, then I would suggest giving it a try for Jaeger tracing as it is battle-tested with Uber with millions of spans every day.

References

• https://www.jaegertracing.io/docs/1.23/getting-started/
• https://eng.uber.com/distributed-tracing/
• https://medium.com/@masroor.hasan/tracing-infrastructure-with-jaeger-on-kubernetes-6800132a677
• https://medium.com/jaegertracing/a-guide-to-deploying-jaeger-on-kubernetes-in-production-69afb9a7c8e5
• https://medium.com/jaegertracing

If you want to follow the Jaeger updates via Twitter, then follow https://twitter.com/JaegerTracing

We Reach Over 10 Million Monthly API Calls, 80 Partners

Brankas provides Open Finance technology solutions to financial institutions and online businesses across Asia-Pacific, building the region’s supply of available financial API products while making it easier than ever for online businesses to add embedded finance to their own products. 

The Brankas Open Finance Suite enables any financial institution to launch their own Open API products in 8 weeks or less, and Brankas aggregated data and payments APIs enable customers greater choice, flexibility, and security in accessing financial services. 

We now provide 80% market coverage in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, and has since expanded to Singapore, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. 

For more information on Brankas solutions, visit https://brank.as/ where you can sign up for sandbox access.

Brankas and Robocash: Repayments Made Easy with Bank Transfers

The Philippines - UnaPay and Robocash are credit companies in The Philippines that offer installment plans and online instant loans respectively, recently partnered with Brankas to enable bank transfers as an option for repayments. Robocash offers instant loans from their website, allowing customers to conveniently apply for a loan in 4 steps. While Unapay offers installment plans or also known as the ‘buy now, pay later’, with fast approvals through their website or mobile application. Repayment options for both companies vary from over-the-counter to online options such as e-wallets.

Integrating with Brankas Direct, Robocash and UnaPay added an additional repayment option; bank transfers. Users can repay their loans with bank transfers, without the worry of leaving home; especially during this pandemic, any expensive transaction fees or the hassle of the additional step of transferring funds to e-wallets or virtual accounts. Users can select to pay online or select the banks listed on the respective repayment pages. Transactions are encrypted and only authenticated with either TFA (Two-Factor Authentication) or OTP (One-Time Password) codes. Security and privacy are not compromised during the transaction.

Users can select to pay via online on Unapay’s repayment page

Olga Drozd, Product Creator of Unapay shares, “Brank.as has been an excellent partner helping us to multiply the online payments volumes along with securing a high number of additional merchants from the local market as well as overseas since the start of our collaboration in 2020.

Thanks to their platform, UnaPay and Robocash can now offer recurring, automatic and instant payments. These developments have helped our business expand global customer base. “

Reach out to us to learn more about Brankas Direct.

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Chad Kunde

Chad had a natural talent for numbers. To him, it made sense. So it wasn’t a surprise when he sat through multidimensional Calculus classes in highschool (this did not mean though, that he was diligent with his homework wink). Chad pursued Computer Science and Math in college, at the University of Iowa.

In August 2001, Chad enlisted in the United States Marine Corps out of his curiosity in training and interest in the history of the branch. Chad’s perspective and values changed completely after the 9-11 attack.

After serving, Chad came back to his first love, numbers; and enrolled at Oregon State, studying Computer Science and took Statistics as his minor. He was one of the pioneers at Oregon State to venture into an undergrad Statistics minor.

Chad also has a love for sports, football (soccer), ultimate frisbee, and running as influenced by his sister. He used to join half-marathon races, and even signed up for a race in Oregon, before actually setting foot in the state. There was even a time when he finished 12 half-marathon races in a 13-month span!

In this feature, we get to know Chad, his journey into Fintech, and his life as Tech lead.

How did you learn about Brankas? What were your expectations going into a fintech startup?

I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t worked in corporate space or in startups before. It was part time or freelance experience through school and then full time military service for 10 years. Also, when I joined, there were 5 staff in Brankas including the founders.

I met Ken, the co-founder of Brankas on the Go language Slack where he posted an open job position. I jumped on a call with him and a week later with Todd, also a co-founder of Brankas. I didn’t realise how small the company was until a month later when I met them in Jakarta! The company has grown and is ever changing since. I have noted 7 major turning points in the company, it’s like being in a new company each time! Often, I get questioned for staying in a company this long but it hasn’t been the same thing from one year to the next and you’ll be lucky to be able to work on the same thing for three months!

What is your current role at Brankas, and what made you decide to accept it? Any tips that will work for a remote-only environment?

It was Brankas culture, the opportunity to grow the engineering team with the freedom to build. I am interested in building from scratch and didn’t understand the payment structure in Southeast Asia. The first time I landed in Jakarta I thought I was set with a card in hand but unfortunately, cash is still king. I remember the last time I carried cash was when I was in high school!

As a Tech Lead and Senior Engineer at Brankas, my advice would be to take copious notes with pen and paper. Remote-only environment only means you will be on back to back calls and I dare say that 99% of the time, I would not be able to remember the details of the conversations. Ironically, I would start drafting and sketching system designs and structures on paper before building it with code.

What unique skills did you hone at Brankas? And what tasks helped you brush up on those skills?

System designs and the planning for technical systems. The more I experience interacting with APIs and designing and building, the more I learn about what’s a good API and what’s a good system design, how we break up the different parts to do different things. It’s either re-designing a new system or building a system from scratch, you would be able to apply previous learnings and see the patterns of what works and what doesn’t. Every project is different but the lessons learnt from the last projects are applicable. The design part is what one does not get access to in open source or schools.

What is your greatest achievement at Brankas?

Building the Engineering team and its culture. It is easy to influence when there’s 3-4 engineers in the team and it gets a whole lot harder when the numbers pass 10 or 15.

What is your advice to individuals with a keen interest for a career switch to tech and start ups?

It is never a loss of skills but rather a build on existing skills. My skills in the military of coordinating movements, people, and aircrafts from ground up are still relevant but in a software environment. Don’t be afraid of starting fresh because it is not, but a new application of existing skills on the subject matter.

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Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

Brankas Direct Bank Transfers vs Online Payment Gateways

What is Brankas Direct?

Brankas Direct is a fund transfer service that allows businesses to accept fund transfers from customers instantly and digitally through their web and mobile applications. It provides businesses with a single point of integration through which they can execute fund transfers via various banks with whom Brankas is integrated.

The transaction is processed directly from the source bank account to the beneficiary bank account. No middlemen involved. No extra transaction fees are charged*. Brankas Direct strives to provide a means to transfer funds with the least hassle, human error, and barriers. Empowering anyone and everyone in society.

Brankas Direct vs. Other Online Payment Methods

If you are considering introducing Brankas Direct as a payment option to your customers, let’s shine a light on the limitations of the methods you could currently be using.

Card transactions have obvious pros and cons: it’s convenient for customers to pay during checkout. They just need to enter their card details once, and the transaction would be processed in real-time. But you as a merchant would be charged a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) ranging around 2-3.5%. Depending on the agreement with card acquirers that you have.

Virtual accounts could work well as you get to receive payments with a lower fee. But think about the settlement time: since the funds hit intermediary first, you will only get the money settled to your account at least T+1. Not to mention the fact that this fund is settled to you as one aggregated total settlement. Making it a hassle to do reconciliation for the purchases made by your customers. From the customers' end, the virtual account is prone to error while they are inputting the virtual account number. Increasing the chance of transaction errors, delayed and abandoned payment.

You may think eWallets fill this gap. Perhaps you are currently relying on them to receive a faster settlement of payment. But you may also think that registering as a merchant to each wallet account is a tedious process and requires some admin time. A time better spent to manage your business. On top of that, eWallets also charge your business an MDR transaction fee for processing the payment.

With Brankas Direct, as the funds are processed directly from customers to your business bank account instantly, this would have an impact on a healthier cash flow for your business.

Your customers completes their transactions without leaving your application, Brankas Direct provides a more seamless checkout experience. End to end journey that includes authentication of account to entering TFA/OTP happens in one cohesive payment flow.

Customers will also be receiving immediate notifications from their banks. The status of each transactions are updated and shared to merchants too. Brankas Direct eliminates the hassle of chasing customers for payments.

Introducing Brankas Direct to Your Customers

Introducing Brankas Direct to collect payment from your customers is much more straightforward than you might think. And it’s all thanks to the secured and easy flow, thinking of customers first when we are building it.

In the spirit of transparency, Brankas Direct offers a consent page before the payment is transacted. This is a one-time consent for our system to facilitate the payment on behalf of customers. Brankas Direct does not store the customer’s banking credentials and OTP/TFA codes. Brankas Direct passes the details to the selected bank to process the payment.

In addition, the efficiency and security of Brankas Direct are monitored and protected by your bank and the payment rails behind it.

How Brankas Direct Works

Onboard Your Business and Integrate Your Systems

Integrating with Brankas Direct is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Sign up for Brankas Dashboard and generate your Sandbox API key
2. Refer to Brankas API Doc to integrate with our simple checkout endpoint
3. Request to go live with your account and receive your Live API key

If your business is using a wordpress website or other ecommerce website enabler, it’s even easier to use Brankas Direct. All you need to do is just connect with one of our plugins. No programming required.

• WooCommerce
• Ecwid
• OpenCart
• Prestashop

Receive Payments

Receive payments via partnered banks. Refer to our bank coverage here.

Easy Reconciliation

View transaction history and generate reports for reconciliation purposes on the Brankas Dashboard. You can add a memo in the body of the checkout request to Brankas Direct. It would appear in your bank statement as an additional note.

Remember Me Feature

Remember Me feature allows customers to be automatically logged on for subsequent transactions facilitated by Brankas, delivering a more seamless experience.

Who Should Use Brankas Direct?

• eCommerce Instant, in-app fund transfer payments for online purchases.
• SMEs & Fintechs Enable direct transactions between end-users, merchants, and partners on your platform.
• eWallets & Digital Banks Account top-up and easily move money into digital bank accounts.
• Lending Providers A faster way for users to fund loan repayments and monthly interest via direct bank transfer.
• Insurance Let your users conveniently pay monthly premiums from within your application.
• Property & Real Estate Platforms Simplify collection of funds for property mortgage and rentals.
• Payment Gateways & Aggregators Move funds directly to your payment aggregation accounts.
• Job, Freelancer, & Gig Marketplaces Allows employers to send funds directly to workers

Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Anik Islam

Tell us about your background, education, and hobbies.

I am originally from Bangladesh. I came to Singapore for my undergrad at the National University of Singapore. Right out of college, I had a stint as a research assistant working on robotics, but I found it too mechanical for my choice of career (pun intended). I soon found myself gravitating towards entrepreneurship and ended up joining an accelerator, where I founded a social gaming startup - borne out of my passion and love for gaming. Most recently, I joined Brankas as a Business Development Lead, out of my sheer curiosity around fintech. 

As shared above, I love online multiplayer games and religiously keep up with the latest happenings in the gaming industry. Oh, and I also play the guitar.     

What did you take up in college?

I studied Biomedical Engineering for my undergrad at the National University of Singapore. Back then, I was very passionate about academic research. I worked primarily on areas like 3D printing, cancer cell study etc. and co-authored papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. My eventual plan was to pursue a PhD and build a career in academic research. But soon after I started my first job as a Research Engineer, I realised that was not exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. 

How did you learn about Brankas? What were your expectations going into a fintech startup?

Soon after the announcement of Visa acquiring Plaid was making rounds back in January 2020, I googled “Plaid for Southeast Asia” and Brankas was the first thing that popped up.

Throughout 2020, I took an active interest in learning about the various developments around fintech and the opportunities in Southeast Asia. I realised that since fintech is such an esoteric industry, you’d have to work for one in order to truly understand the intricacies and nuances. I kept an open mind and mentally prepared myself to learn as much as I could. In fact, I am still picking up something new everyday.

What unique skills did you hone at Brankas? And what tasks helped you brush up on those skills?

I’m constantly working on improving my communication and stakeholder management skills as a result of having to manage multiple parties like regulators, banks, Financial Institutions, SMEs and a host of others.

What is one Brankas culture you enjoy and wish for other startups to emulate?

Brankas did a phenomenal job in setting itself up as a remote first company from the get go. This definitely helped as Brankas didn’t really have to adapt much at the on-set of the pandemic. The remote first nature offers flexibility while at the same time nurtures a result oriented mindset across the organisation. 

What is your greatest achievement at Brankas?

One of my first assignments after joining Brankas was providing support for our Visa APAC accelerator application. After a month of preparation and multiple rounds of interviews, Brankas was selected as one of the 5 startups to join Visa APAC accelerator’s inaugural cohort. This achievement was instrumental in building up my confidence since fintech was something still very new to me at that point of time.

What made you decide to accept a full-time role at Brankas?

Brankas’ vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. Brankas is working tirelessly in the background building the blocks, enabling both financial institutions (FIs) and consumer facing fintech apps to work seamlessly and serve consumers better. In addition, Brankas is leading the charge in working closely with regulatory bodies of different SEA countries and pioneering Open Banking in the region. Brankas, as a result of being in this unique position tying a nexus between Financial Institutions, regulatory bodies and consumer facing apps, is one of the most attractive fintech prospects in SEA.

What is your current role? Any tips that will work during a remote-only environment?

I am currently leading regional business development and partnerships for Brankas. This involves working with potential clients in new markets, coordinating efforts across the SEA region for partners who want to expand Brankas products and services in new countries, exploring new business synergies etc. This pandemic environment pushes you to adapt to make up for the lack of face time you’d otherwise have with existing and potential clients. One thing I made sure was to keep my communication channels open over email, WhatsApp and phone. I endeavor to stay disciplined in terms of bringing down response times to client requests. In addition, I have tried to maintain communication over regular intervals with the existing and potential clients.

What is your advice to young adults like yourself who are adamant about starting a career in startups?

Don’t be distracted by the supposedly glamorous startup life painted on mainstream media or social media. Startups are difficult, but at the same time, they can be incredibly rewarding, if you manage to turn up every day, stay focussed, work hard and move fast. It can also open doors to a host of other opportunities.

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Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. 

Subscribe to the Brankas newsletter today!

Exploring Common User Experience (UX) Misconceptions

The world of User Experience, or “UX” as most people know it, is a growing field that many are taking more notice of. The deeper you delve into this field, the more you realize that the roles within it are ever-changing and adaptability is truly your best friend. Technology and speed in shipping out products is defining this decade. With the increased need to learn in a shorter amount of time, how do tech teams cope? At Brankas, the UX and Design teams face the same challenge. With everyone jumping online, how do we keep our interfaces clean and catchy? How do we maintain a design that’s relevant while prioritizing our users’ experience?

Misconception # 1: UX and UI are one and the same

We have a tendency to simplify ideas to fit our understanding, like a mental model. A common thing you’ll encounter when talking about design is “UX/UI” which makes it seem like these two terms mean the same and can be interchanged, not the case.

User Experience (UX), as defined by Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen (two of the most prominent figures in the field), is “encompassing all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products”. User Interface (UI) on the other hand, is the means by which the user interacts with a computer system whether it be a software application or a hardware device.

Keeping these two definitions in mind helps us understand that UI is a smaller piece in the ecosystem that contributes to the UX. Design isn’t the only contributor to User Experience - all the other teams within an organization significantly affect how a product or service is experienced. Since UX/UI is commonly tied to the role (UX/UI Designer), here’s our attempt to make a distinction between the two roles:

• UX Designer - maps out and then defines the sum of experiences (whether internal or external) the customer would go through when interacting with your company.
• UI Designer - interprets the customers needs and creates the interface that the customers will interact with to be able to use the product or service.

Misconception # 2: Give your customers what they want

We often hear this phrase: “the customer is always right”. However, how true this statement is depends on how “always” is interpreted. As designers, there is a fine line between delivering the customers’ requests and actually serving them value.

A popular quote from Henry Ford can better put this into context: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”.

A customer’s job is not to design, but to consume the product or service made for them. A customer would only relate it to their own experience and our job is to design that product or service to serve as many people as possible who share the same needs. This is why empathy is important. When we get feedback from a variety of people, it is our job to figure out what are commonly the most important problems to solve.

Misconception # 3: Less clicks is always better

Just like in any field, there are so-called best practices you can follow but shouldn’t do so blindly. A lot of times, it’s better to use them as a loose starting point and consciously make the effort to adjust it to fit how it’s affecting your product.

Having less clicks is not always better by default. There are already multiple studies that debunk the correlation of the number of steps being tied to user satisfaction. What’s significantly more important- 1. having clear steps (what needs to be done), 2. making them understandable (why each step exists) and 3. managing the user’s expectations (how long the process will be).

Misconception # 4: Give your users more options

When you’re in a restaurant and you look at the menu, how long does it take for you to decide what to order? Do you consider factors like budget, diet, or what’s the fresh catch of the day?

This is the same with designing options for users. The more options users have, the more time they spend thinking about which to go with. This is proven by Hick’s Law which describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has: increasing the number of choices will increase the decision time logarithmically. Instead of giving too many options, it is our job as designers to make sure the user gets to their decision faster.

But what if you can’t lessen the number of choices and they are different and all equally important? One solution is to chunk them. As per Miller’s Law, The number of objects an average person can hold in working memory is 7 objects +/- 2. Instead of having a list of 20 items, being able to group them into 4 groups of 5 will make the selection process easier for the user.

Misconception # 5: Being unique is always good

As markets get more saturated with products and services, businesses want to make themselves stand out amongst the competition. There are times as designers when we need to make something new to stand out, but you need to ask yourself: who are you designing for, the business or the user?

One guideline we can refer to is Jakob’s Law, where it mentions how users spend all their time on other sites and how that trains and affects how people use similar products. What they see similar on one site will transfer the same expectations to succeeding sites - familiarity is your friend.

How we can relate this to actual product development, is by prioritizing how much more effective our products are. Its uniqueness can come from being able to provide a solution to problems no one else is solving.

As designers at Brankas, we want to provide the best UX possible for our Open Banking and API-based solutions. Some of these misconceptions were thought to be ways or practices to provide the best UX. But at the end of the day, we always think about whether the process fits our customers, our products, our industry, and our overall goal.

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Brankas and 2C2P: Bringing Open Banking to Indonesia

Through Brankas’ API integration, customers of 2C2P’s merchants will be directly connected to major Indonesian banks including Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Rakyat Indonesia. Built on the principles of open banking, the partnership allows Indonesia businesses to offer customers a direct debit option during the checkout process to make payments from their personal banking accounts with the afore-mentioned banks immediately. Since the payment is authenticated directly between the consumer and the bank, merchants can avoid higher transaction costs, and chargebacks generated due to fraud or an inability to capture funds.

The partnership extends the reach of 2C2P’s Direct Debit payment feature, enabling merchants to offer their Indonesian customers a seamless, secure and faster payment option. Currently available in Indonesia, Brankas and 2C2P aim to bring these benefits to consumers and merchants in other markets in the region.

Brankas CEO Todd Schweitzer remarked: “The Brankas team is impressed by 2C2P’s modern payments technology and multi-country network. Both Brankas and 2C2P share a vision to simplify payments technology and provide new digital experiences for Southeast Asian merchants and consumers. Together, we can accelerate Open Banking, increase access, and empower the next generation of Southeast Asian entrepreneurs.”

Commenting on the timeliness of the partnership, Agnes Chua, Director, Business and Product Development, 2C2P shared, “While Southeast Asia represents one of the fastest growing economies in the world, seven out of 10 adults in Southeast Asia are still “underbanked”. This presents a huge opportunity for banks and businesses to capitalize on the valuable opportunities provided by open banking and make it easier for customers to tap on banking services. We are excited to work with Brankas and harness the potential of their open banking API service through our Direct Debit payment feature. Open collaboration is key to the development of new and innovative payment solutions that will equip our merchants with the tools to unlock greater efficiency and drive business growth. This is part of 2C2P’s continued commitment to power the growth of enterprises through an integrated payments platform.”

About 2C2P

2C2P is a full-suite payments platform helping businesses securely accept payments across online, mobile and offline channels, as well as providing issuing, payout, remittance and digital goods services. The company has dual headquarters in Singapore and Bangkok, and operates across Asia, Europe and the US. It is the preferred payments platform of tech giants, online marketplaces, retailers and other global enterprises. For more information, please visit: www.2c2p.com.

You may read the official press release published on PR Newswire on April 27, 2021.

Brankas is the leading Open Finance technology provider in Southeast Asia. We provide API-based solutions data and payments solutions for financial service providers (like banks, lenders and e-wallets) and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their Open Finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances, and more. With Brankas’ secure Open Banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use Brankas APIs to create new digital experiences for their users.

One Step Ahead Financial Advisory with Banking Integration

JAKARTA - ALIA, the first personal financial management platform in Indonesia, has partnered with Brankas  for banking integration. Brankas’ API suite enables fintech platforms like ALIA to generate tailor-made financial recommendations based on transactional data from banks. 

ALIA aims to help millennials and gen-Z in Indonesia to make better financial decisions. Making up 63.5 million of Indonesia’s population, most millennials aged 21 to 36 overspend by 10-20%. Moreover, only 35% of them are able to save for housing. Therefore, ALIA empowers them to manage budgets, track spending transactions, plan their savings, and even receive personalized tips on a single platform. ALIA offers Financial awareness by managing their users’ assets from a day-to-day perspective, as well as their future.

Individuals can get personalised financial recommendations on how to save better from their daily transactions. Brankas gladly supports ALIA by providing a statement retrieval API to integrate with major local banks. 

While ensuring ease of use banking integration on one hand, together with Brankas, Alia also ensures users’ privacy and security with bank-level security and security pins. 

We are very happy with our partnership with Brankas. Their APIs enable us to help our customers to understand their financial overview better. They also have been very open to new product suggestions. As we are always looking for more features to help our users to make better financial choices, Brankas will continue to have a very important supporting role in our innovation. ” states Nadia Amalia, CEO of Alia.

About Alia

Alia is a personal financial management platform that helps you to automate the financial decision process from tracking your wealth to guiding you to make better financial decisions. ALIA was founded by Nadia Amalia, a Master of Finance graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who has taught financial literacy to more than 30,000 people in Indonesia. Nadia is also supported by Fransisca Susan, as a Lead Engineer who is pursuing a doctorate in artificial intelligence at MIT and Nadia Fadhila, as a COO and designer who has designed No.1 LINE stickers in Indonesia.

*Image from chatalia.id*

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Hanny Meiriza

Think of a moment in your life that defined the path you wanted to take. 

For Hanny, it was in senior high school. It was Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Carl Jung’s Theory of Personality. It was in that moment that she realized her passion is people, that she will make it her life’s mission to understand human behavior and nurture relationships. 

Hanny graduated from Airlangga University in 2008 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She pursued a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology at Indonesia University in 2014. This coffee lover, bookworm, theatre geek, human behavior enthusiast, and podcaster starts her day by allowing herself to contemplate for 10-15 minutes. You read that right, this routine allows her to prepare mentally for what’s ahead.  

What memorable life events did you experience because of your job?

To be honest, I was planning to become a Marriage and Family Counselor or a Psychologist. I wanted to take my masters degree in Canada or in the US. But life had other plans for me so I stayed in Jakarta. My first job was a recruiter in a consulting firm, never thought I would become an HR Professional until my boss introduced me to the Human Resources Champions by Dave Ulrich. Since then, I was in love with HR and still use that book as my “Bible”.

What essential skills does one need to start a career in Human Resources?

• They have to be interested in humans (off course you should be a people person). 
• They must be data-oriented, even though people are unpredictable, we should still be able to anticipate their responses using data and statistics. 
• They must have a basic understanding of business. HR nowadays is not only about administration, we should become business partners too, and the best way to become that is to research, and use all available resources for product, technology, process, financial, etc. 

How did you learn about Brankas and what made you decide to accept the role?

I’ve been interested in Open Banking because it has opened up opportunities in South East Asia and has elevated our digital finance landscape. It not only focuses on electronic money or payment gateways, but everyone is given the equal chance to bank through the technology, regardless of your distance from a physical bank, or your financial status.

Can you walk us through your typical day in the office as an HR Director for Brankas?

I start my day by organizing my thoughts and priorities. My list of tasks include:

• Tackling and prioritizing HR concerns
• Current projects like developing new organization structures, developing new roles,  revisiting existing HR policies, etc.
• Overseeing hiring operations
• Monitoring the People Team activities and coaching them when needed
• Conducting 1:1 with employees if needed

What are the main factors to consider when helping an organization establish an effective People Team?

For me, the team members are the most important factors in any organization. Their well-being and emotional state plays a big role in how they perform their tasks. I pay attention and high-regard to individuals team members, they have the power to make or break any organization. Our Brankas HUBs are highly-motivated and focused and I would like to create more initiatives to maintain that.  

As a company that is spread across multiple countries, how do you ensure that you comply with national employee standards and regulations?

I constantly update myself  with each region’s regulations to ensure that our documentation and processes are aligned. I also make it a point that everybody in my team is aware and is well-informed. 

What does success look like in your role as Human Resources Director?

Success comes in the form of stability, trust, and employee success. When the organization is stable and is able to sustain itself and its employees, when the team members are self-sufficient, are driven and are achieving or in the path of achieving their career goals, when employees are open to giving and receiving feedback, that’s the kind of success I want to take a little credit for. 

What HR-related/people-related strategies do we practice at Brankas that other startups can learn from?

Working remotely has its benefits and challenges. I think that it is essential to stay engaged with the teams frequently. We could create several programs as frequent as weekly/bi-weekly virtual meet-up and casual hangouts sharing about common interests like; a wellness program such as virtual yoga class, virtual running, sport challenge program; a virtual hobbies club. Lots of projects to come!

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Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Want to start a career in Fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Proxtera’s Global Open API Portal Goes Live!

The new Proxtera trade network is live! The open API documentation is available for any SME marketplace to connect to Proxtera’s global network of buyers and sellers. Leading SME platforms like Global Linker, SourceSage 99SMEB2B, UBX Sentro, and Sokowatch are already plugged in. Proxtera is also deepening its presence in India, Philippines, Singapore, and Kenya, in addition, expansion into Malaysia and Indonesia is also underway. Featured at the Singapore Fintech Festival in December 2020, Proxtera has shown its commitment to a sustainable business model by helping small businesses securely connect to a global market of buyers and sellers.

Proxtera’s API gateway is led by CTO Dr. Naveen Agnihotri and supported by Brankas, a leading Open Finance technology provider. Proxtera APIs enable AI-powered “smart recommendations” for buyers and sellers, real-time cross-platform communications, a seamless user interface, and secure infrastructure to ensure authentic, trusted transactions across borders. Marketplaces connecting to Proxtera can register on a self-serve developer portal and go live within days!

Wholesale marketplaces interested to connect with Proxtera can visit https://proxtera.app/docs. We have made Search APIs (Platform Search, Smart Search, Search Results, Buyer Query, and more) available. This allows smart searches to discover, discuss, decide, and drive trade, as well as value added services such as Escrow Payments and many more to follow.

Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore, “With trade and financial services being reimagined and diversified in the post-COVID global digital economy, Proxtera’s open API portal is dedicated to facilitating digital engagement of FinTechs, Financial institutions and Digital Services with businesses to trade cross border with greater flexibility. We congratulate Proxtera on taking the lead to foster digital services to power open, inclusive, and agile one-stop access to multiple markets and invite the Industry to explore seamless connectivity to such new opportunities via Proxtera.”

Shirish Jain, Proxtera Programme Director remarked: “Proxtera is committed to empowering wholesale marketplaces and their customers to access global trade. The key enabler is to simplify and accelerate onboarding of participating platforms on Proxtera. We are pleased to open up our partner portal - making accessible our APIs and other technical documentation , watch this space as we move towards a zero-touch onboarding of platforms.”

Mr. Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive, IMDA added: “Connectivity is an essential component when we think about architecting Singapore’s digital future. We are pleased that Proxtera provides that digital connectivity for businesses from multiple global networks to trade easily. This will benefit Singapore’s businesses. Proxtera’s open API portal enables businesses, large and small, on any marketplace to discover and match new buyers, sellers and service providers, facilitating better and more cross border trade opportunities.”

“We are building the next generation platform for the next generation of marketplaces around the world,” said Dr. Naveen Agnihotri, CTO of Proxtera. “By utilizing sophisticated AI and smart matches, we allow SMEs to seamlessly access a much larger ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing, and digital solution providers.”

Todd Schweitzer, Brankas CEO remarked: “The Brankas team congratulates Proxtera on a successful launch! We share Proxtera’s mission of applying modern Open Finance technologies to create new business partnerships, reduce barriers, decrease cost and increase access. The Proxtera is one-of-a-kind, and we’re excited to support the Platform and team as they unlock new business opportunities around the world.

How Proxtera Works

Proxtera is a portfolio company of Cerracap Ventures. It is an open global network that connects your platform to a broader network of like-minded platforms across different industries and different countries. In line with its core principles of empowering marketplaces and services providers, as part of registration, Proxtera’s data integration collects only necessary information for trade and security policy which is aligned to global standards. Additionally, integration with Proxtera is via API using JSON format - API documentation is available on the developer portal. Proxtera is a portfolio entity of Cerracap Ventures.

As B2B platforms: Enable buyers and sellers on your marketplaces to access a global network. Proxtera enhances your network through expansion of the demand pool and access to a curated list of SME-centric digital service providers. Proxtera allows you to capture transaction flows as the primary trading platform of your customers, improving customer retention and long-term stickiness.

As service providers: Proxtera is an alternative distribution channel which enables service providers to access new customers in the underserved segments. Through enhanced discoverability on the Proxtera network, service providers can lower customer origination costs by having the customers come to you. In addition, Proxtera will be introducing a sandbox environment for innovative services providers to experiment with new business ideas, test solutions, and simulate product performance.

As trade associations: Proxtera leverages on fast digitalization of your association members by swiftly onboarding them onto a white-labeled B2B platform that supports end-to-end trade, from discovery up until fulfilment. Proxtera enhances connectivity of your members to a network of global demand pool to enable them to showcase local brands and products, simplifying participation in global trade.

Open Banking Readiness Report as of 2020

Brankas has helped banks across Southeast Asia launch new digital solutions for their customers, with a focus on Open Banking technologies. Across the region, banks are creating and launching Open Banking products, including APIs for direct payments, account data, and even account opening and loan origination. Even without a regulatory requirement, banks see commercial value in Open Banking: a new way to attract, retain, and monetize customers, and a fast, secure way to partner with startups.

Not all banks are starting from the same place in their Open Banking journey: a large Indonesian bank will have a separate IT architecture and unique challenges compared to a new digital-only bank. The Brankas team has created a basic Open Banking Readiness Framework to describe the various technology and process changes that banks adopt as they implement Open Banking. We hope that with this standardization framework, bank leaders will be better equipped to make Open Banking a success at their respective institutions.

The Open Banking Readiness Framework

Open Banking Readiness is defined on a spectrum from Level 1 (traditional infrastructure) to Level 5 (Open Banking enabled). The following is Brankas’ collective view and definition of Open Banking Readiness Framework, as a way to map out the Open Banking Journey and help bank executives understand more concretely where they stand on their journey.

We first define “Readiness” in this article from a technology perspective; as architecting, developing and deploying an Open Banking technology stack is first and foremost a software system design exercise. In later editions, we will focus more on the non-technical aspects of the Open Banking journey, such as UX design, end-user experience and more.

We define the stages in terms of the four rows / categories in this table. They are laid out as follows:

• API Architecture pertains to the overall strategy for designing, implementing, deploying and managing API components
• API Services pertains to the types of transactions or use cases that can be enabled through the APIs
• Developer Experience refers to the onboarding journey of API users, the access points and the ease of integration with an organization’s Open Banking APIs
• Metrics and Monitoring refers to the available methods for monitoring API traffic and evaluating the success of a particular API service using different parameters, such as number API requests per day, average response times, error rate, etc

Level One

The Open Banking journey typically starts with a “traditional” banking architecture, characterized by monolithic or siloed legacy systems. In this stage, APIs are limited and are mostly for internal use. Data sharing with external partners is performed through point-to-point, or one-to-one integrations, while onboarding is done through direct partnerships with the bank. This can be difficult and costly to manage over the long run, as the number of partners and requests increase.

Moreover, a monolithic architecture makes scaling challenging (modifying one element affects the performance of the entire application; and legacy systems often do not have built-in API capabilities), and inefficient in terms of time and cost. Automated metrics and monitoring are difficult at this point; third party API partners may choose to track performance manually.

Level Two

At this stage, a bank begins to make use of API Gateways, for both internal and external applications. The API Gateway serves as the single point of connection between API users and the bank’s backend business layers, facilitating all requests between them. With the API Gateways in place, banks are able to define security protocols and determine who gets to access what services through an authentication module. This may also signify that the bank is beginning to revamp their internal infrastructure in such a way that it takes speed, efficiency and security into account, in what may be the early stages of transitioning to a microservices architecture.

External “read only” APIs may be available for basic metadata retrieval such as foreign exchange, interest rates, and branch locations. The bank may have a developer portal, but developer onboarding is likely a manual process. The typical onboarding process involves meeting with the Bank’s API team and signing a partnership agreement, requesting for documentation, manual testing and integration, and an approval process to go-live. Monitoring logs are maintained, but mainly for archival / retention purposes and not yet searchable or accessible.

Level Three

By this stage, all API services are routed through internal and external gateways. Available API services are data-centric and based on common activities, and do not cover every use case yet. API definitions are transaction-oriented as opposed to user-oriented. API documentations are published, advertised, and can be viewed by the public. However, users still need to go through a manual approval process before they can gain access to testing the APIs. Logging is in place, mainly for archival / retention purposes, and is minimally accessible.

Metrics are not yet available, however, users are able to report bugs through customer service.

Level Four

Banks at earlier stages of the Open Banking journey focus on getting basic external API services available: client facing APIs, API management, and developer portal. At Level 4, the bank’s backend API architecture has been restructured for scalability. Load balancing is implemented, directing traffic to make processing requests more efficient. API services are available for most typical use cases, but more advanced API services like account opening are not available yet.

At this stage, API definitions should be aligned with international standards (e.g., ISO 20022, BIAN, PSD2). The developer portal is now fully self-service with a comprehensive testing environment. Additional security protocols are implemented, such as oAuth2 Authentication and a non-SMS 2FA.

API monitoring uses a limited set of API gateway features with short to medium retention, and logs are accessible through a searchable interface for up to 24 hours. API metrics tracking still relies on Quality Assurance and Customer Service teams to spot bugs, as no real-time alerting / early warnings are available yet.

Level Five

At this stage, the bank has achieved an “optimal” Open Banking architecture; their Open Banking platform is ready and equipped for the needs of a third party user. All the required services are orchestrated in a meaningful and timely manner through an API orchestration layer.

The bank is running an automated pipeline with complete API lifecycle management, clustered deployments in a domain-driven design, and vertical teams. API products now include “advanced” use cases such as Account Opening, and eKYC. Third party applications are now an additional onboarding channel, as customers are able to perform account opening and eKYC completely within the third party application. The bank has a fully self-serve developer portal, which includes:

• API Documentation and References that are dynamically updated
• Sandbox and live environments with dummy data and accounts that end users can use for testing
• Use cases sorted by activity, industry, and user type
• Admin panel with real-time monitoring logs, metrics and alerting for business intelligence and data management
• Notification system

In addition to the developer portal, banks have a native mobile application to support PISPs (Payment Initiation Service Providers), AISPs (Account Information Service Providers) and international payments. In terms of security, oAuth2 Authentication and non-SMS 2FA are implemented.

Connect with Brankas Today

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone. We have carefully designed an extensive and efficient program that will help financial institutions elevate their Open Banking Technology Readiness.

Reach out to our team of Open Banking experts who can help you determine the right path to take.

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Krizelle Lazatin

Who would have thought that an introvert with a degree in AB Psychology and a BSC in Marketing; who is very passionate about the arts, and almost pursued a professional career in Dance would end up to be the power house closer that Brankas is very proud of.

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.

Krizelle is the youngest and the only girl of 3 kids. Her dad was a banker and her mom was a professional folk dancer before taking on the Real Estate industry as an independent broker.
Kich grew up with a love for the arts, especially dance. She was exposed to dancing quite early on and has always had it in her life, in fact, her partner is a professional dancer too! These days, She tries to catch as many dance shows and classes as she can and spends a lot of virtual time with a community of dancer friends. When she’s not busy closing deals for Brankas, Kich tries to experience other cultures through travel.

Before dominating Tech and Startup, Kich established her career as a B2B Sales Specialist for the Fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Petroleum industries. In this article, Kich talks about the important lessons she has unlocked, her life at Brankas, and the valuable open banking services that are emerging for the Philippine Fintech industry.

Background and career

Did you have any childhood inkling or experience that gave you a peek at what your career would be?

Honestly, I never imagined I would actually pursue a sales career; for a time, I considered pursuing a medical or law degree since these were major interests for me when I was younger (I soon realized otherwise). I think the first indicator of a potential career in sales was when I became a batch representative in school for my senior year– it brought out the extrovert in me and allowed me to be comfortable engaging with people. In college, I also pursued Psychology because I was also very interested in observing and studying behavior, and pursued Marketing since it involved studying consumer behavior from the business side. However, I ended up pursuing Sales because I realized that being in the field was the place I could be exposed to as many people & circumstances and immediately apply my learnings.

How do you think your background has prepared you for success today?

I think my sales exposure to different industries allowed me to have a broader perspective and meet different people, allowing me to adapt to different kinds of environments and circumstances. Because I interact with people everyday as part of the job, I’m able to observe and listen to requirements and respond uniquely to each customer, allowing me to enhance my stakeholder management skills. It also allowed me to build and work on my soft skills.

Additionally, despite being the youngest and an only girl, I was raised to become independent and to be a quick thinker. Being immersed in the arts and sports growing up also exposed me to different circumstances/people, allowing me to learn quickly and creatively–a skill which I’m still able to maximize today. My undergraduate studies also contributed in helping me build the right mindset for approaching different situations.

What is the most interesting job you have had so far?

Honestly, every job has been interesting! While I’ve been doing Sales/Business Development/Account Management/Territory Management for the last decade, each industry has always something unique to offer because the role always demands something new of me, and every industry requires a different perspective. I’m always selling, but I’m always selling something new so it’s always challenging and interesting.

On B2B Sales and Selling Pioneering Open Banking Technology

What do you think is the best thing about being a woman who can close a deal?

I think the best thing is being able to show how we can make things happen and deliver results despite being stereotyped as emotional, indecisive, weak, dependent,etc. I’m proud to show that these things are not always true, and if they do apply on some occasions, they are never blockers for women to achieve success.

What are the challenges you face as a Sales Manager in Tech?

I think misconceptions about technology remain the biggest challenges. Sometimes clients associate technology with complexity, expecting extremely innovative features, but technology can simply mean enhancing existing processes and innovation can mean further simplifying something for better results. There are also some clients/industries that get overwhelmed by the concept of technology and often worry about the implications, especially on usage, on security, on risk, and even on how that impacts their roles so there’s a tendency to avoid it altogether, for as long as they can. Occasionally, there are also clients that are way ahead of their time and want to enable things but remain to have limited options because of regulations/dependencies on current market infrastructure. As a Sales Manager in FinTech, there’s a lot of educating that needs to happen on your end so that your clients can appreciate the value proposition of the specific technology.

What advice and essential skills would you give to others looking to break into the field of Fintech sales?

Like with any industry, you must be willing to learn and research about the trends and familiarize yourself with what would be relevant to your target market in relation to the products you are selling. Sometimes, the demand for learning requires “unlearning” as well— in my case, my prior sales experience in the commodity sector usually meant probing for what they need, but in Fintech that may not always be the case because technology is always evolving, and sometimes clients don’t know what is out there/what they actually need. If you also don’t have any experience in Fintech, don’t fret! Experience is always an advantage but sometimes entering with a blank slate can be equally favorable since the Fintech industry is an evolving and innovative sector where fresh perspectives are always welcome.

What are some key differences between selling a Fintech product compared to selling FMCG products? (from your experience at Kimberly-Clark)

Working as B2B sales in the Commodity industry is great because there’s a high demand for it. As basic goods, there will always be a need for it; there’s enough product knowledge in terms of what they’re going to be used for. That being said, it’s also harder to differentiate between commodities (i.e. why I should get Brand A or Brand B, or what makes Product A better than Product B) because they lean towards basic functionality and there’s only so much you can innovate with these types of goods. The industry is also very price-sensitive so even with great sales, achieving great margins can be challenging.

With selling Fintech products, it’s easier to customize and tailor a product towards a specific need and create more value with features. Of course, the key difference is that many people don’t always know what they need in terms of innovation or might be intimidated by these solutions. Some are more conventional and choose to stay within their comfort zones to avoid being overwhelmed by technology, so it really requires aiding them with how a fintech product would support them, not compete with them. Depending on the target industry as well, some see “Fintech products” as a luxury rather than a need so they tend to park opportunities unless a specific requirement arises or forces them into it, such as the pandemic.

Open Banking being a new technology and a completely new way of accessing financial services, how do you manage to educate customers?

I always aim to educate by focusing on the value behind the technology. While there will always be technical terminologies that will not be easy to explain, I think it’s critical to demonstrate how these tech products work as tools to ultimately benefit the business–what pain points are addressed, what results are delivered and what things are made easier or simpler at the end of the day. I also try to provide real-world scenarios to help decision makers visualize how open banking technology would change their internal process flows or their end-user’s journey.

Working at Brankas

How did you learn about Brankas and what made you decide to join?

After joining the Fintech industry in 2017, I came to learn about the different challenges and limitations of the current industry. It seemed that despite the rise and availability of new technology in this sector and banks being willing to explore synergies, there were always challenges to integration or implementations on both sides. When someone referred me to the Brankas opportunity and I came to learn more about Brankas, I was drawn to the open banking concept because I saw how Brankas aimed to support across the supply side (bank ) and the demand side (third party/Fintech providers) to address many of the concerns in the industry. I appreciated the Brankas vision of being an enabler in building that financial ecosystem to make these synergies happen. Additionally, I felt that the Brankas product portfolio was very dynamic and applicable to several industries.

What was your first signed deal?

My first signed deal was with a renowned payment gateway last July. It was such a sweet win because I received the signed deal on the last day of the month, which for any salesperson is always exhilarating! I’m also particularly proud of it because the turnaround time for that deal was relatively short at about a month, which is relatively quick for selling fintech products.

What is your favorite Brankas product and why?

My favorite product is Direct because it’s a simple product that provides so many benefits across many industries. It’s a straightforward product but addresses the most common pain points of companies in payments. It’s also a huge stand out to what exists in the market (payment gateway model), so it’s easier to highlight the benefits and value.

As a remote-first company with employees spread across the globe, how are you able to foster collaboration and efficiency at Brankas?

I do my best to foster collaboration and efficiency by maximizing my available communication channels such as Slack, emails and conference calls. I try to remain open and approachable for questions and am willing to share my experiences and insights to colleagues. I also try to seek out and learn from the team as much as I can since many of them have great insights. Occasionally, I join and participate in the online social activities hosted by Human Resources so that I can get to know the people beyond their respective roles/expertise.

What do you think sets Brankas apart from previous organizations you have been a part of?

I think the remote-first company approach is definitely a standout, not just because of the flexibility but because it indicates the results-oriented outlook of the company, rather than the usual corporate set up. By being a remote-first company, Brankas also demonstrates the trust to their employees to find the best way to contribute value to the team and be creative in pursuing collaboration in the “virtual/remote” workplace.

Where will you be leading the Brankas team in the next 12 months?

I hope to continue leading the Brankas team towards more engagements with different types of clients– from banks, to wallets, e-commerce, and other industries–and provide avenues to develop and innovate our existing portfolio. I’m happy to have the opportunity to tap into different sectors and hope to continue contributing in making Brankas a respected leader in Open Banking in SEA.

Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Managing Performance in a Remote Workplace

For millions of employees globally, working from home is the new normal. The lack of physical, face-to-face touch points makes it a bigger challenge for companies to keep company morale and performance high. As a remote-first company since its founding in 2016, Brankas employs individuals from around the globe. 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 provides an open forum for employees to communicate with their direct managers and the leadership team, review and set goals for the months ahead.

Performance Review Process

Our performance reviews are a way of measuring an employee’s potential, personal connection to company values, and skills development. They are conducted once every six months, but employees have the option to do it twice a year, especially if they feel like they have done excellent work that they would want to bring up to their manager. We lay out the process and our typical presentation format below:

Performance is appraised according to current role, potential to take on bigger roles, and our company values (Leadership, Accountability, Creativity and Empathy).

Benefits

Brankas’ performance reviews is an opportunity for each employee to share their achievements during the review period. The questions about passions and aspirations help the panel get to know the employee on a more personal level. Panelists are able to ask the employee questions, allowing them to expound on certain roles, clarify the details on projects done, or ask about potential roles the employee may explore based on the strengths he/she exemplified. Not only does this give each employee a fair chance to showcase potential, but it is also another avenue to strengthen company morale, as employees feel empowered by the direct, engaging conversations regarding their work with the panelists. The employees are given direct control to emphasize certain aspects of their work that they think are vital in evaluating their performance, reflecting our highly trust-based organizational culture. In this way, the management team is able to offer thoughtful support on how best to work together to achieve both the employees’ personal/professional development goals and business goals.

Other Tools Used

Aside from Performance Reviews, Brankas employs other tools that are meant to go hand-in-hand with each other, allowing for a holistic people management approach for better development plans and HR services.

1. One-on-one Sessions

These sessions are held regularly between employees and their direct managers, for the purpose of informing managers of the employee’s progress and roadblocks, if any. These one-on-one’s are a place for coaching, mentorship, and updates.

2. Company-Wide Value Awards

These are also granted every 6 months to recognize team members who have exemplified the company values exceptionally well.

3. Upward Feedback Survey & Peer Feedback Survey

Surveys are also used to provide feedback to senior members of the team and peers – the Upward Feedback Survey and Peer Feedback Survey, respectively. Together, these help the HR team understand company dynamics better and provides team members an avenue to receive feedback necessary for their growth.

A Work in Progress

When Brankas first introduced Performance Reviews, some employees were hesitant about sharing to a panel – there were many questions regarding how performance will be appraised, how it will affect bonuses or promotions. Introverts within the team were likely apprehensive about having to deliver a presentation. However, after conducting the first round of reviews, much of the feedback was positive. HR took these comments into consideration when crafting the second round of reviews, which helped make the second – and succeeding – rounds more effective and organized. Brankas’ methods of assessing performance are still a work in progress and are constantly being refined with much input from the employees themselves. However, in the long-run, establishing these systems and tools are crucial to ensure sustainable work ethic and high company morale, which are especially important in a remote-first, high-energy startup workplace.

Cover Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Ria Cataquian

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. Her family comes from a humble background, and it wasn’t too long until she realized she needed to put that dream to the side, and think of a more sensible path.

“They said that Tech is one of those fields that can ‘yield you easy money’, so I ended up taking it for practical reasons - I am now working as a Software Developer for years and I still won’t call it ‘easy money’. I’m glad I took that path though, zero regrets.”

Ria recounts that it had never occurred to her that she would be in this industry. “Computers weren’t friends back then, they intimidated me.”

Ria learned early on how to cope with struggles, but it goes without saying that luck also played a huge part. She considers herself lucky to be in the right place at the right time, being surrounded by people who are supportive, helpful, and are very generous in sharing their time to mentor her.

“I am also lucky that these days, we no longer have to sweat every small stuff to do our work, another goldilocks condition. Many generous and smart people have already figured out most things and make their work widely available for everyone, it comes in many forms: the open source community, tech meetups, tech conferences, blogs, etc.”

When she’s not busy with work, Ria obsesses about the origins of medicine, space, society and the amusing biographies of accomplished individuals.

What is the most interesting job you have had so far? I personally think I matured as a developer in Brankas, I get to know and work with people across the globe with different cultures and be good friends with them and I get to try my hands on new things - one particular moment is when I was sent to a client to help them set up their infrastructure, with almost zero experience, it was not 100% fun during the time but glad that I get to experience it looking back now.

What programming languages and tools do you most typically use? It’s Golang and Kubernetes these days - Golang is Brankas’ primary language where most of our services are built, and Kubernetes is the infrastructure supporting our services. Golang, by far, is the language I spent most of my career with.

What do you think is the best thing about being a woman who can code? I think regardless of the gender, one of the best things about being a coder might be that you get to work towards the realization of an idea. That you get to build and contribute everyday to something that might make other people’s life easier or even a bit better - be it inside or outside the company.

It’s not a secret that many women in the tech industry have felt their gender has affected the way that they are perceived or treated. Have you ever been in a situation like that? How did you handle it? I’m very lucky to be in the industry these days compared to say, decades ago, where women in the industry aren’t even acknowledged and paid for their work. There are of course women who are still discriminated against and still feeling indifferent in their workplaces now and it’s unfair.

What advice would you give to women looking to break into the field of technology? The industry at large is dominated by men, but that doesn’t mean women are not welcome. Times have changed and the industry has never been more welcoming. I’d say just take that first step and actually get to know the field, you’ll realize it’s not as hard and daunting as it seems, don’t fall in the trap that you have to know about all the shiny new things. Once you’re in, you’ll see that people here are either a cat or a dog person.

How did you learn about Brankas and what made you decide to join? I was lurking around the Gopher’s Slack and saw Dan’s post (referring to Daniel Marti, former Brankas colleague) on the #jobs channel which reminded me of Ken’s post (referring to Kenneth Shaw, Brankas Chief Technology Officer) months prior to that. At that point, Brankas was already in my short list for reasons like 1) it’s remote and 2) we hire people from the Philippines. I looked up (stalked? :P) the people from the then Team’s page and figured out that these are people I want to know and spend my working (and non-working) hours with.

What was your first project at Brankas? If memory serves right, I first worked on the service that powers our Direct and Statement products. It was in its early stages back then, and we didn’t have that many integrations and features as we have now. So it was mostly enabling some of those integrations and making the service more reliable - which included adding end to end tests for our services which alert and notify us of failures in the system.

As a Systems Developer at Brankas, what are some of the products or projects you have been working on? I’ve been a member to three different teams during my stay at Brankas. I was part of the platform-badgers which I really enjoyed because I get to try my hands on the infrastructure that powers our services which has always been a long-term goal. We also get to touch the Brankas OpenBank service particularly because it allows clients to spin their own suite of applications which means providing clients their own isolated environments internally. After that, I joined the Party-Parrots, the team that handles Brankas Statement, one of the flagship products of Brankas - the launch of the service made us busy as we worked on making it reliable for our clients. Right now, I am part of the team that works on bank integrations that powers Statement, Pay and Direct products - our daily work includes monitoring clients’ environments, delivering improvements/fixes and making integrations more resilient.

What is your favorite Brankas product and why? Brankas OpenBank comes to mind because I like the idea of providing banks a whole suite of applications with minimal effort - this leads to easier integrations of their core systems, a somewhat refreshing idea I’d say. I personally think it’s innovative because it brings new ideas to an old industry like usage of Open API, self-serve developer portal and more. It’s also one of the projects of Brankas in which I personally enjoyed and learned new things.

As a remote-first company with employees spread across the globe, how are you able to foster collaboration and efficiency at Brankas? Having respect for other people, their time, resources and energy I think is important - everyday we get bombarded by noise so it helps to try and limit the noise in your own little way, one way I know is knowing who and when to loop the right people in.

There’s also many little ways that myself and my colleagues do on a daily basis but in the long term I think helps us keep our sanity: giving each other’s work respectful reviews, making ourselves available for inquiries, being clear of the team’s priorities and deadlines to keep surprises at minimum as much as possible and as simple as sharing memes and dog pics.

What’s the story behind your nickname: Sensei Ria? Haha! No origin story. But my guess is that between my closest friends in Brankas, Miggy (former employee), Randy and Jason, perhaps one of them was feeling giggly one day and decided to call me that in public - we tend to call each other that privately.

Where will you be leading the Brankas team in the next 12 months? Over the years I realized it’s not all about developing and delivering stuff, the point is making things that are reliable. I think it’s one of those things that companies tend to overlook because it doesn’t yield quick results, but in the long term, I think it has tremendous impact, to name some: less unplanned work, a slightly predictable work day and less unnecessary stress. Although reliability is not an aftermath or a phase in a project and that everyday we ideally should work towards it, there surely are more ways to make it happen and that it doesn’t happen on its own. With my colleagues, I’ll be glad to work towards it.😉

–

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Webinar: The State of Open Banking in the Philippines

The Open Banking economy in the Philippines is still in early stages. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has created urgency for local financial institutions and the government regulators to launch new digital banking products, especially Open Banking APIs. 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, and featured 4 distinguished speakers:

• Mr. Todd Schweitzer, CEO & Co-Founder, Brankas;
• Ms. Erika Dizon, Vice President / Sales and Business Development Head, Fintech Group, UnionBank of the Philippines;
• Mr. Mark Anthony B. Perez, Director / Department Head, Department of Supervisory Analytics, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP); and
• Dr. Robert B. Ramos, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, First Senior Vice-President and Group Head, RCBC Trust and Investments.

The session began with Opening Remarks by FMAP President Mr. Noel Reyes, where he expressed his belief that “The new normal for sustainability of banks is embracing digital commerce and promoting the need for Open Banking.”

Mr. Todd Schweitzer commenced the keynote presentation by showing real-world use cases of Open Banking including authentication, payments, account opening, statement aggregation and SME financing. Because of Open Banking and API technology, processes that have long been associated with brick-and-mortar branches, heavy paperwork, and long turnaround times can now be executed with a touch of a button. FinTechs and other third party financial service providers have now become a new vehicle for driving adoption and innovation of banking services. He then attempted at a basic, non-technical definition of Open Banking: “the technology, products and policies that enable customers to securely use financial services from qualified third-party providers”. He added, “Open Banking is more than a policy mandate or a technology, it’s really an ecosystem, and a new economy within the financial services industry”. He ended his talk by sharing Open Banking policy recommendations based on Brankas’ experience across Southeast Asia. Regulators should encourage an opt-in model, he said, set rules for third party providers with regards to IT security, data protection and user consent, and suggested an industry-led and BSP-supervised Open Banking pilot to gauge demand and inform policy. Todd’s presentation left the audiences with a vision for what Open Banking can look like in the Philippines.

As the Business Development Head of UnionBank’s FinTech Business Group, Ms Erika Dizon shared her views on how the banking industry in general is coming to embrace digitization, and how Open Banking has shifted UnionBank’s focus from traditional core banking products to more customer-centric, frictionless digital products. She emphasized the importance of a wider availability of data, as it provides the benefits of better understanding of customers - and therefore better product offerings, better transparency that leads to better financial decisions, better fraud detection and risk modeling, and better information that can eventually inform policy. As services continue to evolve, she highlighted the concept of “deconstructing the bank”, moving away from typical core banking products and into specialized teams that build new products and applications in an agile manner. Soon enough, financial services will span multiple sectors including insurance, utilities, pension and even lifestyle apps, as data is shared freely between banks and third party institutions. She ended by saying that “Open Banking is not a matter of if, but when”. Banks’ roles will shift markedly from what it is now, and new financial ecosystems will continue to emerge.

As a leader in the BSP, Mr. Mark Perez recognised the crucial role that technological innovations have to enhance the delivery of financial services. The BSP envisions an Open Banking ecosystem which espouses consent-driven data portability, interoperability, and collaborative partnership among financial institutions and third party players – the promotion of collaboration to provide a smoother user experience. He believes that an Open Banking policy needs to be developed to lay down technical, security and governance standards to be adopted by BSFIs (BSP-Supervised Financial Institutions) that intend to publish APIs. As such, the BSP has begun drafting an Open Banking policy with a target release in the first quarter of 2021. These policies are intended to support new technology being developed instead of inhibiting it; and as Mr. Perez put it, “Ultimately, we believe that the presence of a supportive yet vigilant regulator, as well as a responsible and consumer-oriented financial system will be the key to strengthening our stakeholders' trust in the country’s digital agenda.”

Dr. Robert B. Ramos drew a connection from Open Banking to wealth management, emphasizing how more digitally-advanced banking services will greatly aid his sector, both on the management and client side. Open Banking will provide an easier client onboarding experience – what used to take upwards of 15 different forms and 2 months to process an account opening can now be done instantly. Accurate, real-time data can be acquired from clients, providing their spending patterns and trends across various demographics more quickly, thus allowing for more personalised services and products. Clients will be able to access products available across different entities, with just one integration. This provides a mutually beneficial relationship between managers and clients, making the experience more convenient for both parties involved.

This panel discussion highlighted the importance of Open Banking and why it matters now. COVID-19 has served as an impetus for many more individuals to shift to digital financial services for the first time, and Open Banking has shown to benefit all parties involved. Banks are able to procure new revenue streams and new data sources, as well as increase customer engagement and product innovation. On the customer’s side, they are given the abundance of choice – how to share their data, access financial products, and the like. Newcomers are given a more level playing field when entering the industry, allowing them to more easily identify and target neglected customer groups, test new commercial models, and easily partner with existing institutions. Reiterating Noel Reyes in his opening remarks, “We can say our banking industry is still in the early stages of full digital development, but we are getting there. And the desire to get there is getting stronger.” As such, digital technology is here to stay, and will truly be the driving force behind our transition into the new normal.

About Brankas

Brankas is solving the “last mile” for Open Banking in emerging economies. We empower banks, fintech partners and users to build and activate real-time secure APIs for payments, identity, transaction data, and more. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone, by increasing access and partnership opportunities between financial institutions and the online economy.

Learn more: https://brank.as

About FMAP

The Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP) is an organization composed of local equity and fixed income fund managers with the primary mission of helping uplift the investing public economically through the practice of professional fund management that adheres to ethical standards and recognized practices globally.

It is also envisioned as a catalyst of change through the continuous education of its members and efforts to foster solidarity among the different investment sectors, in order to uphold the best interests of the investing public.

Learn more: https://fmap.com.ph/

Watch the full session here: https://youtu.be/x42OaDMCeBk

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Marco Palinar

Marco Palinar: UI Design to Product Management

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.

Background

Can you share a little bit about your background and hobbies/passion?

“I was born in a small city about 5-6 hours northwest of Manila. I spent most of my life there until I went to college in the University of Philippine’s northern campus in Baguio City – about 2 hours away from my hometown. My parents' background was in journalism/media and education. They ran a provincial weekly newspaper which sort of gave me my first ‘taste’ of designing as I had to learn the software Adobe Pagemaker and teach it to my mom so she could lay out each week’s issue herself. She did this all while acting as Editor-in-Chief and teaching english classes at the local Chinese School. My dad on the other hand had a regular A.M. radio news program and had a short stint in local politics as a municipal councilor. He would go on to teach business classes at a nearby college.

We weren’t well to do, so both my parents had to work unbelievably hard to give me and my siblings a lot of the opportunities we had growing up. My mom especially would find ways for me to join tons of conferences, competitions even if she had to pull strings to get me in. Fortunately I excelled in most extra curricular activities I entered, and ended up attending a bunch of regional and national level competitions and conferences.

As far as hobbies, I really don’t have any – only episodic obsessions. I kid! But yeah, it is quite true – I do have this weird trait where when I decide to take up a hobby, it ends up snowballing into something that consumes me. In highschool and early college it was music and playing guitar in a band (used to practice 8-10 hours a day), late college was graphic design (which led me to my career in design and eventually product), mid 20s was modifying (eventually collecting) cars (which turned into racing cars on the track), and now just recently during the pandemic: collecting/investing in sneakers. My biggest obsession now though are my 2 boys. I know it sounds a bit cliche but the moment they entered my life, it was a very humbling moment for me. The moment you realize that you are “custodian” to another human life changes your perspective on a lot of things.”

What course did you take up in college and what profession did you envision yourself in?

“When I entered college in UP Baguio they had a really great double major program for the social sciences. I ended up taking B.A. in Social Science majoring in both Psychology and Political Science. The plan was that I would go into law school after my undergraduate studies.

Eventually though, I picked up an interest in graphic design as a result of hanging around the Fine Arts department a lot. During the tail end of my college years I was already doing the odd design job here and there. That’s when it occurred to me how much I was enjoying it and figured why not try to make a career out of designing.

After graduation, before I was supposed to hunt for a law school, I bargained with my parents to give me 6 months so I could try my luck finding a job in design. The deal was that If I could not land a job after 6 months, I’d go home and enroll in a law school.

This was before the web 2.0 bubble which meant that designing applications on the web as we know it now was still in its infancy. So back then I was looking for graphic design work. After 5 months of rejections, on the sixth month I was able to land a small low paying job as a graphic designer for an events company. I never looked back since. Eventually it would be my mom who ended up going to law school.”

Marco’s parents encouraged him and siblings to try different things and be proactive about what they want. Having a strong support system helped him build his confidence. In highschool, he was part of the debate and PR teams. In college, he involved himself in more extra-curricular activities. He was a student council member, organized a student political party, joined a fraternity; Marco was all out.

Looking back, Marco recounts that while it was important to excel in his academics, it was through being part of those social activities that he learned about diversity, about different personalities and how to deal with them, about empathy, about the importance of standing up for his beliefs, and about facing challenges head on.

Career in Design and Highlights

After deciding to walk away from his dream of becoming a lawyer, Marco dived into the world of Graphic Design. He was working at Dotph, the Philippines’ official domain registry when he met Jolo Santos (Brankas designer and colleague). Jolo’s suggestion and referral convinced Marco to join one of the early pioneers in social networking – Friendster. This is where he cut his teeth in UX and UI design. He learned about the inner workings of designing and developing for a high traffic web application. The company provided him with an excellent playground to make mistakes and do better innovations for its ~20 million users at the time.

As he was slowly initiated into the world of modern web app development, Marco started getting design and consulting projects on the side, first from colleagues – and then eventually other startups in Silicon Valley. He realized that not all companies have the resources for a dedicated UX/UI designer. Identifying this gap in the market has allowed him to turn that into an opportunity for the next phase in his career.

So about a year into working for Friendster, Marco decided to take on the consulting role full time, he allowed himself to explore and perfect his craft unrestrictedly. He worked independently for the next 11 years and produced some of his most notable collaborations:

• Globe Telecoms (2007 Globe portal)
• Theorem | CitrusByte (Heroku Partners and Pitched for SpaceX command centre UI)
• Neon Roots/Rootstrap
• aCommerce

“Making a Dent in the World” with Brankas

Over the years, Marco has had the chance to elevate his skill set and expand to product design and management. However after a little over a decade of consulting, he felt the need to make a more lasting impact on a product or industry. This was when he decided to hunt for a company where he could embed himself and contribute to building a product that he believed could impact people’s lives.

While at aCommerce, he was already consulting with Brankas’s founders Todd and Ken on several of Brankas early-stage projects. The company’s culture, values and goals made it easy for Marco to realize that joining Brankas was a definite fit. Not long after he left aCommerce to become Brankas employee number 3 in 2017.

What are the best things about working at Brankas?

“We do a lot of things differently compared to other tech companies, which has afforded us a lot of advantages. For example our decision to be “remote first” has enabled us to not concentrate on the candidate’s location when hiring, so we are able to hire good talent wherever they are in the world. Another thing that is unique to Brankas is how the company values openness and transparency. Any employee can go to anyone and ask for help or discuss any aspect of the company. I can go to Mike (CPO), or ask Todd (CEO) for five minutes, and that is encouraged. This is something that I hope we can maintain and not change as we grow.”

As the company grew, Marco’s role slowly evolved. Starting out as the sole resource for design and product management, he has slowly shifted his focus towards managing design and product teams. He’s started to realize that after 13 years in doing design his time and energy is much better spent mentoring younger, more talented product designers. Taking on the responsibility of heading the company’s internal design team he aims to create a framework within the company where designers can evolve their design practice, all while building a world-class design team in Brankas.

Brankas Pay: An initiative in the middle of chaos

Marco is the Product Manager of Brankas Pay, the latest Brankas innovation that allows a simple bank transfer payment to online micro and medium merchants.

Pay has long been in the Brankas idea bank, but accelerated because of the sudden need to switch to the digital world.

During this pandemic, one of the challenges for both the consumers and the online hustlers is the manual bank transfer process of payments, which is both tedious and prone to human error. Just one missed digit, and you’re in for a long and inconvenient ride to reverse that incorrect transaction.

Brankas Pay simplifies this fund transfer process by allowing merchants to create a one-time invoice link that their customers can use to submit their payments. It implements a 4-step flow that is practical and secure.

• Signup - Merchants sign up and register for a Pay account.
• Link - Merchants adds their business bank account details to their Pay account
• Invoice - Merchants generate a one-click invoice for their products and services.
• Send - Merchants send the invoice link to their customers using any Messaging platform.

Pay adapts to the banks’ login flow, minus the critical steps of copying account numbers, account names, or payable amounts. No need to send a screenshot of your proof of payment, because merchants can track the payment status, real time! With Pay, MSMEs can easily reconcile transactions with unique identifiers such as invoice IDs and customer names.

Brankas Pay is currently on private beta with over 30 merchants offering it as a mode payment to their end-users. Customers have expressed positive feedback like how secure and convenient it is to use.

In the next 6 months, Marco and the Pay team are looking to offer Pay to the general public. You may visit https://brank.as/pay to sign up and start using Pay today!

Interested in a career in fintech? Marco is hiring Interns, UI and UX Designers! Send in your CV at marco.palinar@brank.as or check Brankas Careers.

Open Banking in Indonesia: Unlocking New Fintech Opportunities

Open Banking in Indonesia: Unlocking New Fintech Opportunities

2017: A Blockbuster Year for FinTech 2017 was an important year for the Indonesian FinTech scene, with multiple strategic acquisitions, banks launching their first API-based financial products, and a matching increase in regulatory oversight. Gojek, a leading multi-service and digital payment technology company in Indonesia, acquired 3 FinTech firms - Kartuku, an offline payment processing company; Midtrans, one of the leading online payment gateways; and Mapan, a community-based savings and lending network. These acquisitions also worked to expand the reach of Gojek’s GoPay, a digital wallet launched in 2016. In the same year, the ride-hailing giant Grab acquired Kudo, a FinTech that aims to provide offline users the ability to buy online items through physical kiosks. Banks were also beginning to launch their own products using APIs, such as Bank Central Asia’s (BCA) OneLink, that helps users top up their GoPay wallets using their BCA accounts. In the same year, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) inaugurated a FinTech Advisory Forum, serving as a platform to set direction for FinTech development in the country – a culmination of all the growth FinTechs were experiencing in the region. The unprecedented rise in FinTechs and their popularity comes in part because of the nature of the Indonesian market. With a large unbanked population yet a high mobile penetration rate, digital banking has become a viable option in an effort to provide a larger portion of the population with modern financial services.

2020: A New Wave of FinTech led by Open Banking Technology After a few years of significant growth in the FinTech industry, 2020 marked the beginning of a new wave of FinTech in the country led largely by Open Banking. More Open Banking initiatives began to emerge, stemming from collaboration between traditional banks and FinTechs. BCA partnered up with Shopee for an online payment solution, OneKlik, allowing customers to pay merchants instantly from within the Shopee app. This speeds up online transactions immensely whilst still ensuring security of users’ accounts. OJK also provides regulation on businesses relating to digital payments, securing data shared by users and ensuring that all digital payment platforms have been screened by OJK. In early 2020, Standard Chartered launched Nexus, its “Banking as a Service” solution that allows digital platforms to provide banking services to its customers under their own name. Tokopedia is also empowering its partner merchants with financing loans by partnering with banks, startups and eWallets, and leveraging merchants’ transaction data to speed up the loan approval process. The user can instantly compare loan rates and installment options among participating lenders. Once approved, the loan proceeds are disbursed directly into the merchant’s Tokopedia account. Despite these many advancements, it is still early on for Open Banking and it still faces many limitations. Specifically for small businesses, availing of these open banking services may be costly and time consuming, often making it difficult to successfully integrate these services into their businesses.

Taking into account these issues and barriers to use, an Open Banking platform that requires lower costs and convenient onboarding may be the answer – such as a platform like Brankas.

Introducing Brankas: Bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia Brankas offers low-cost, direct customer-to-merchant transaction options that require only a single integration to connect to multiple banks. Brankas also provides a highly secured network and lower transaction fees by eliminating the middleman. Brankas has three main API product offerings, which we can customize to fit the client’s particular use cases. If your business requires you to create a credit score, Statement can help by providing the user’s bank transaction history easily. If you are running a P2P lending business, Disburse lets you send money in bulk to multiple recipients that are using different banks with a single file upload. If you want to build a service similar to OneLink, Brankas can help make that happen with Direct, with only one integration to access all its partner banks.

Open Banking may be the key to unlocking the potential of technology to revolutionize the financial industry, but in order to truly do so, we must ensure that MSMEs are provided the same possibilities to leverage on these advancements. Today’s circumstances have highlighted the fact that more than ever, we need modern, accessible financial services that are able to serve the majority of the population. 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.

At Brankas, we can help you create financial technology tailor-fit to your business. Interested in learning more about us and our services? Check out our website.

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Avani Ajmera

Born in a traditional Gurajati business family, Avani grew up discussing business on the breakfast table. The concepts of finance, strategy, competition, even customer service were embedded in her early on, at home and in school. In her pre-teens, Avani was interested in Architecture and dreamt of building her own animation studio. But her first love has always been business finance, and that ultimately led her to become a Chartered Accountant. For Avani, business is the center of any vocation, and if she landed a different path, business and finance would still be her stronghold.

In her free time, Avani enjoys traveling to places that are rich in architecture. Her favorites are Gothic, Mughul, and a combination of Hindu and Mughul. She enjoys photography, reading books on business histories and biographies & psychology. She is a fitness enthusiast and an avid gym goer.

This week, Avani takes the Brankas centerstage as she shares her passion for business and finance, her industry insights, and Brankas’ best practices that can help other organizations in their financial management journey.

What memorable life events did you experience because of your job? Each role has been very enriching; as a Consultant, when you are able to turn around the analysis in a very short period of time and the client makes an investment decision based on it; as a Finance team lead, establishing robust finance and tax structures; as a Business Partner, when you are able to structure deals which increase profitability and payback, work with international teams and implement a business framework which enables the Business teams to penetrate new customer segments; as a Head FP&A, to work on cost transparency projects.

How did you learn about Brankas and what made you decide to accept the role? I was recommended by my erstwhile CFO at Trusting Social to BeeNext and they approached me for the role. The role at Brankas offered me the opportunity to work in a sunrise industry, a startup where I could leverage on my past experience and establish the finance framework and exposure to the SEA markets.

Can you walk us through your typical day in the office as the Finance Director for Brankas? Each day is different as I need to wear different hats depending upon what we are looking to solve. So the role encompasses attending the weekly business development calls and understanding the progress, reviews of customer contracts, review of policies, cash collection, management and planning, publishing monthly financial results, managing audits and compliances, setting up transfer pricing mechanisms, resolving queries and having a financial impact.

What essential skills does one need to start a career in Finance? To start a career in Finance one definitely needs to have a sound technical knowledge. Additionally, one also needs to focus on needs of the business and come up with solutions for challenges rather than creating accounting/ tax hurdles. Aspirants need to have knowledge on accounts, audit, tax and business operations.

What are the main factors to consider when helping an organization establish an effective budget? In addition to the normal budgeting process, always have a Plan B, this is especially true for start-ups.

As a Finance Director, what other teams do you collaborate with, and how do you help each other achieve success? Finance collaborates intensively with the Business teams, HR and to a certain extent, Product. To the Business teams, we support them with developing pricing models/ structures, defining better credit terms and other commercial conditions which help them in customer acquisition, achieving their sales targets along with profitability. With HR, we collaborate for resource planning and budgeting, building incentive plans and R&R policies. We collaborate with the Product teams to understand the cost structure and provide solutions to make it more optimum and efficient without compromising on the quality.

As a company that works in multiple countries, how do you ensure that you comply with national financial standards and regulations? One needs to stay updated with the regulations of each of the countries that the company operates. Engage in regular dialogue with the consultants, hear their views and keep asking for alternatives, never settling for just one option and always researching about the regulations.

What does success look like in your role as Finance Director? When a company faces a business challenge and looks for a solution which has the backing of the Finance Director- that can be success. But when a Finance Director is viewed as a Business Partner/ Business Strategist and not just as an accountant- that is what real success looks like.

What financial strategies do we practice at Brankas that other startups can learn from? For any startup, cash management is most important. At Brankas, we are very diligent about our spendings and negotiate hard with our vendors in terms of prices as well as credit terms. We have a practice of calling for competitive bids from at least 3 vendors before finalizing on one. We emphasize on collecting our receivables and are persistent about it. We tend to be agile and mobilize internal resources to accomplish tasks.

–

Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Southeast Asia’s Open Banking Landscape as of 2020

Updated: Jul 23

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

The first time I heard about Open Banking was in 2015 when the EU rolled out guidelines for PSD2. Many years have passed since, but Open Banking has just recently been implemented in certain parts of Southeast Asia. This article is meant to shed light on developments in Open Banking in Southeast Asia from the point-of-view of regulators, banks, and startups. The lists are by no means exhaustive so please feel free to give me a shout if there are new pieces of information that I should incorporate. If you’re already familiar with Open Banking, please feel free to skip the first section.

Open Banking Overview

Open Banking refers to when banks allow third parties to access their customer data in order to read the data and provide additional financial services using that data or to perform transactions on the customer’s behalf. The underlying idea of Open Banking is that customers are the owner of transaction data, not banks, thus, data should be shared if the customers wish to do so. The data access and exchange take place through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), software links that allow secure, rapid, and dependable communication directly between two firms. If this sounds alien to you, think about a restaurant reservation application that has Google Maps embedded into it. APIs allow external applications to read data from Google and portray the data on their own applications.

While there’s consensus that Open Banking should bring about innovation in financial services which - in theory - should benefit end consumers, determining how ‘open’ banks should be is a contentious issue. Banks have been reluctant to share customer data as they view such data to be their source of competitive advantage, enabling them to provide customized services to customers and prevent competitors from stealing the customers. To put things into perspective, if two competing banks have the same set of customer’s financial data, they could compete for loans by offering more competitive interest rates. Therefore, allowing other entities to access customer data means banks will face heightened competition and risk losing the customer.

This is where regulations come in. Open Banking has been pushed forward by regulators of leading financial systems, including the EU, the U.K., and Australia, because regulators view that the sharing of data will level the playing field for fintech players, increase customers' access to financial services, and enhance financial innovation.

Approaches to Open Banking vary across countries, and so does the scope of implementation. Australia, the EU, and the U.K. have chosen a regulatory-driven approach, while others have chosen a market-driven approach.

Source: Deloitte

Southeast Asia’s Open Banking Landscape

In Southeast Asia, Open Banking is still in a nascent stage with regulators opting for a ‘market-driven’ approach. Banks are free to pursue Open Banking as they wish. By letting banks take a lead role in designing and implementing Open Banking, different banks opt to use different technical standards for their APIs. This means that third parties that want to connect with banks would need to slowly integrate with one bank at a time and follow different standards or protocols, resulting in a lot of inefficiencies for both banks and third parties.

Some central banks, such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, foresee this problem and have proactively launched ‘soft guidelines’ or ‘API standards’ for banks to follow if they wish to open up. Other central banks, such as Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, have not launched any guidelines or reveal their strategies on Open Banking. Nonetheless, these central banks have rolled out payment transformation initiatives, which means that Open Banking could be next on the policy agenda.

While regulators have done an incredible job at setting implementation guidelines, more can be done. Because Open Banking is in essence the sharing of customer’s sensitive data, regulators have a crucial role in screening third parties who can connect with banks and access such data. For example, the U.K. and the EU stipulate that third- party providers (TPP) must be registered and approved by the regulators. This has a few benefits. First, it ensures that customer data will be treated properly. Second, this would free up banks from having to screen TPP, streamline the partner onboarding process, and reduce the bank’s liability since banks are no longer liable if they engage with inappropriate TPP or if TPP mishandles customer data. By regulating TPP, regulators can reap the benefits of Open Banking, while ensuring customer protection and bank adoption.

Open Banking Regulatory Developments

Open Banking Related Regulations

Although regulators are not stepping in to push Open Banking adoption, banks across the region have launched a public API portal, allowing third parties to connect with them and make use of customer data. However, the extent of openness varies widely. Some of the popular APIs available among banks in Southeast Asia are bank product data, account status, payments, and cards. On the other hand, transaction data, loan origination, account opening/closing, customer reference, and authentication are harder to find.

More importantly, the process of onboarding API partners vastly differs from bank to bank with a majority still require lengthy paperwork and manual onboarding process. Say, a payment provider wants to connect with 3 banks in Thailand, it would have to approach each bank individually and file different sets of paperwork, a process which could take months. This opens up an opportunity for API startups, such as Brankas, to serve as a middleman and handle local complexity so that any companies can make payments, transfers, and access customer account information without having to directly engage with banks. It aims to be an API infrastructure that helps banks turn their legacy systems into APIs, and in turn, serve as a unified platform for third parties to connect with banks. So far, Brankas has worked with leading banks, such as UnionBank in the Philippines and the top 3 banks in Indonesia, to create API portals and onboard payment partners.

Open Banking APIs from Banks

Singapore

Rest of Southeast Asia

Startups in Open Banking

Few startups are operating in the Open Banking space in Southeast Asia with a majority being payment providers (PISP) because there is clear regulatory or licensing requirement for payment providers, however, other types of services are lacking. Part of the reason might be due to the inconsistency in Open Banking adoption among banks. For example, startups that want to become an Account Aggregator (AISP) would need to be able to access and display customer data from all banks. However, to date, only 9 banks - out of hundreds of banks in the region - allow third parties to access customer data.

Southeast Asia-based companies working on Open Banking

Note: AISP means Account Information Service Provider. PISP means Payment Initiation Service Provider.

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.

Resources

Regulatory Guidelines

Singapore’s API Playbook

Malaysia’s Policy Document on Publishing Open Data using Open API

Indonesia’s Open API Standards and Banks Interlinkage

Banks' API Portals

DBS

OCBC

Citibank

Standard Chartered Bank

BCA

BRI

Siam Commercial Bank

Kasikorn Bank (KBank)

Bangkok Bank (BBL)

UnionBank

BPI

ACB

Startups in Open Banking

Finfini

ePera

Ouchfree

Strings

Nium

Flip

Oy! Indonesia

Gopay

OVO

Dana

LinkAja

iSAKU

Momo

SenPay

ZaloPay

T2P

DragonPay

FlexM

Brankas

2C2P

Rapyd

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Michelle Christine

Michelle is innately a people person, so it’s no surprise that she landed and thrives in a career that opens great opportunities to deserving individuals. This week, we put the spotlight on Michelle Christine, our young, driven, and feisty People Operations Associate. She talks about her beginnings, her love for people and culture, and where she’s taking the future of Brankas recruitment.

Tell us about yourself, your interests and what you like to do outside of work.

I’m a people person and I love working with both people and machines.

I grew up in a musically-inclined family, and was introduced to the world of musical instruments at a young age. Music has always been a big part of my daily life. Besides music, I travel whenever I have the chance. Seeing different cultures and meeting new people has not only been fun for me but also educational, since I learn a lot during my travels.

My other interests include gaming, tending to my little garden of succulent plants, and watching thriller movies or TV series.

What course did you take up in college and what were you doing before Brankas?

Funny, but I don’t come from a communication or business background. I took Telecommunication Engineering as my major back in college. To be honest, I had no idea what Telecommunication Engineering was back then. Since it was part of Electrical Engineering, and I have always been interested in working with machines, I took the chance and learned something completely new.

When I discovered Brankas, I was in my final year in college and was working on my final undergraduate research project. Brankas was kind enough to let me finish my research, and then I joined the team full-time.

How did you learn about Brankas and what made you decide to join the team?

I discovered Brankas in a career fair at another University in my area. What stood out for me was that Brankas looked like it was the “underdog” among the other large corporations and enterprises who participated in that career fair.

I met a few HuBs and who explained in detail what Brankas is. I haven’t heard of the term Open Banking, I was curious and thought I had nothing to lose anyway, so I submitted my CV and the rest is history haha!😂

How did you go from Telecommunication Engineering to People Management? How did you find the transition?

During my college years, I had always been active in organizations. One of the organizations that I was a part of was IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). I had the chance to become the Head of Human Resource, and I liked it. It was the first time I was introduced to the world of people, it was something new that I fell in love instantly.

I guess that was the main turning point where I discovered my passion to work with people.

What is a People Operations Associate? What is your typical day like?

People operations is the team who focuses on the people instead of the rules, regulations, policies and procedures. Being part of the People Operations team means you strike for the continuous development and well-being of the people.

Since my major scope of work is recruitment, I deal with the full-cycle recruitment process on a day-to-day basis including screening, interviewing, reviewing, and keeping track of the whole process with the hiring managers and hiring team.

Besides recruitment, I also support Indonesia team operations where I get to work with the most unique and awesome peers.

What do you enjoy the most about your role?

The one thing that I love about my role is the fact that I get to work and meet people who come from different backgrounds and cultures.

This may sound corny, but being a part of the Recruitment process and reaching out to people who are looking for opportunities is really heart warming.

As a next generation People Operations Associate, what are your goals for Brankas, your current projects, and steps to make Brankas a global go-to organization?

Constant learning and working with the People Operations team of Brankas is one of my priorities to develop myself and my goals.

Outside office hours, I am pursuing my Masters degree in International and Intercultural Communication where I can immerse myself more on the different cultures and how to best communicate with an international team.

I would like people to see that Brankas is one of the best employers/organizations to work for. I want candidates to experience the unique culture of our global team, from recruitment, and even after they move on to their next adventures.

One of our initiatives in the Brankas People team is working on an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that aims to improve the candidates' recruitment experience. This Includes improving our employer branding:

• we’ve tinkered our Careers page (Brankas has a newly revamped website!) - we’re being active on social media - we’re continuously developing our company culture deck.

It is very important that our candidates, future HuBs, know what we have to offer.

What has been the biggest challenge in managing a global team?

The biggest challenge for me so far is how I need to adapt to people coming from different cultures and backgrounds, and how each person has a different way of working with one another. Also, sourcing the best global-wide candidates that meet Brankas' standard.

Being a global team, how do you manage to find job candidates?

We find candidates in numerous ways. Career sites, known job listing platforms, communities, and our own team referrals. Finding candidates for a global team can be challenging but fun. You have to adjust to how each country exhibits their talents, and how you have to match the candidate’s qualifications to what Brankas is looking for.

What are you most proud of about Brankas and how do you impart that with potential candidates?

The inclusivity, diversity and flexibility are a few things that make me proud of our organization, especially the People team.

First impressions are very important every time I talk or approach a candidate. In that very first message, I always try to exude the Brankas culture. I want candidates to feel how excited Brankas is to talk to them, how super lucky we are to have an awesome team who shows inclusivity, diversity, and flexibility. Those are the values I want to send across candidates.

It’s a team effort!

Why is Brankas the best place to work for?

For me, I find that flexibility and space to grow as an individual is super important, and I get those at Brankas. I believe that the best place to work is where you can contribute to the company and learn at the same time. I appreciate the flexibility we have that allows us to balance our professional and personal lives.

The working environment at Brankas is a good mix of professional and fun – that’s our secret. At Brankas, we love to hang out and share experiences even outside office hours. Here, I meet awesome colleagues who turned into awesome friends.

Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team!

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Key Ways to Managing an Effective Global Workforce

After the Covid-19 pandemic has hit us globally, many companies were forced to resort to remote work; and with this work setup needing to be implemented relatively quickly, many are struggling to adjust.

Brankas, a fintech startup focusing on digital banking technology, is a globally distributed team spanning 10 countries. 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.

The Three Cs: Communicate, Collaborate, and Celebrate

Communicate

Remote work entails more deliberate communication and with this, setting clear expectations. Many software tools have had to replace the office environment, allowing for smooth communication without the close proximity of an office space.

It is important to agree on tools and have them uniform across all staff members. The main tools we use are Slack for team chatter, GMeet for meetings, and GMail for external communication. We also use Confluence for knowledge sharing across staff members. The use of these tools requires much thoughtfulness, deliberately using tools to meet the needs of the workspace. When in doubt, we prefer over-communication to under-communication.

Collaborate

Mastering collaboration asynchronously is not an easy task, though proper goal-setting and software tools helps make this easier.

Goal setting is important in ensuring collaboration goes smoothly. We communicate company-wide goals during regular all-hands meetings, and individual goals during 1:1s between managers and their direct reports. Goals provide a basis for collaborative work and set clear expectations.

We also use tools to maximize collaboration power and allow for easy collaboration. Some tools we use are GSuite for real-time collaboration on documents and presentations, Canva for collaborative design work, Jira for project management, and Zoho People as our HR Management System. Additionally, Confluence provides an online platform for information sharing, allowing all members to access important information in one place. With all these tools being used and implemented, it has also been important to document best practices. Doing so allows work to be easily transitioned and communicated, ensuring clearer processes.

Celebrate

As a remote team, is it essential to create social spaces online that mimic the physical interaction present in office spaces.

Before COVID-19, the teams in Jakarta and Manila would meet and hang-out every two weeks during our all-hands meeting, which we call End-of-Sprint Friday (ESF). As COVID-19 has brought even more distance between team members, we have begun initiatives such as Quarantini Wednesdays, Virtual Coffee Break every Thursday, and Ask-Me-Anything for new joiners, to keep the bond strong despite the circumstances. We also participate in community events through webinars instead of meetups.

At Brankas, we recognize the importance of providing a sense of camaraderie between staff members to nurture their personal growth as well as ensuring excellent work is being done. Creating online social spaces is key to this, cultivating a healthy work environment even if the team is oceans apart.

What we are still working on

Though we have found many best practices for working remotely, there will always be room for improvement. One thing we are still improving on is managing a hybrid team, with some working in the main offices while others remotely. Often, remote teams feel separate from the main office teams, and much improvement is necessary to create a more comfortable atmosphere regardless of working location.

Aside from this, there is room to enhance our internal documentation of work done, either internally or externally. Working almost entirely online now, it is important to keep and develop documentation that shall be the single source of truth for the company.

Lastly, providing new joiner support is tougher when onboarding is done completely online. The lack of in-person communication may make it difficult to incorporate a new joiner to the team, so we must be more proactive in setting a schedule, communicating protocol, and providing good habits for working remotely.

Different Schools of Thought

There are many schools of thought on the best way to manage a remote team, and there are a lot of companies out there that do remote work differently from us. For now, we are still trying to see what works best for us.

Camera on vs camera off. Most companies prefer cameras on because it is important to see the face behind the name, and this best simulates a physical work environment. We do it cameras off. We just find it less stressful to conduct meetings with cameras off and it allows us to answer calls wherever we are.

Fixed core hours vs. flexible core hours. Some companies have fixed core hours when employees are required to be online. We don’t have that. In Brankas, each employee sets their own core hours in their own time zones. Teammates work asynchronously and adjust to each other’s core hours.

Fixed leaves vs. Unlimited leaves. At Brankas, we have unlimited leaves and employees are allowed to take Time Off When Needed (TOWN). Each employee is responsible for corresponding with her/his manager, making sure work is covered, and that the business can operate smoothly while on leave.

With that being said, it is important to note that there is no rule of thumb in doing remote work; it depends entirely on each company’s culture and working style. Experimenting on different tools and avenues to explore will, over time, create personal best practices to suit each company’s unique needs.

For material on how other companies conduct remote work:

• Shogun Remote Work Guide: https://getshogun.com/remote-work-guide
• Gitlab: https://about.gitlab.com/resources/ebook-remote-playbook/
• Zapier: https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/

For more information on Brankas, visit our website.

Brankas Statement: On-Demand Financial Transaction Data

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how consumers, SMEs, and financial institutions think about loans. Individuals may be looking for credit to get through a period of unemployment or shorter hours, while an SME may be looking to cover working capital costs or shift to online operations. Banks and alternative lenders need to reliably identify reliable borrowers from the riskier ones, a high-stakes task during an economic downturn.

In most of Southeast Asia, credit bureau data is often unreliable and outdated. Alternative data sources have become even more important, and a borrower’s bank transaction activity is by far the most reliable. Through bank statements, a lender can estimate borrower’s salary, typical household income through bills payment activities, cash flow volatility, and whether they’ve used other financial products like vehicle loans, credit cards, or a mortgage.

Typically, a prospective borrower fills out an application and submits printed or scanned (and unverified) bank statements; then the lender’s staff manually enters statement data into a scoring system, adding days or weeks to the decision making process.

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. As a result, borrowers can complete an online application, agree to share statement data, and receive a credit decision, all in a few minutes, entirely online and automated.

Brankas plug-and-play technology supports a wide variety of use cases, including user authentication for your KYC and AML needs, enriched customer spending insights that enable you to deliver highly personalized financial services and budgeting applications, and easy integration with your internal accounting systems for expense management and reconciliation.

Compelling reasons to use Brankas Statement

• Instant, User-Permissioned Access to Data. Use our simple API to access your customers' financial transaction data.
• Single Integration. Your customers have access to our growing network of banks in Southeast Asia.
• Easy Reconciliation. Status updates and accounting system integrations for easy reconciliation.
• Enabling Account Aggregation. Manage multiple accounts maintained across various banks.
• Always Secure. Transactions are encrypted end-to-end and compliant with local data privacy and regulatory requirements.

How it Works

1. Link Bank Accounts. User logs in with online banking credentials and enters bank-provided OTP for authentication.
2. Access Real-time Balance and Transaction History. User gets instant access to financial data

Let’s Get Started

With Brankas, it’s free to get started and integrate with our APIs. Your first 100 transactions per month are always free. Building with us is easy and we make it affordable for your business to scale.

Create a Brankas account and try Statement today.

Contact our Sales team and let’s talk about what you want to build.

Manila’s Go Developers Network Meetup 2020

Manila’s Go Developer Meetup

Last Monday, June 8th, we held our virtual GoManila meetup for developers interested to learn more about Golang. Joining us as our panelist was Ben Sarmiento, Engineering Manager from FoodPanda / Delivery Hero Singapore. At the event, Ben talked about the logic and design behind FoodPanda’s marketing carousel, and how his team was able to use Go, DynamoDB and geohashing to allow them to do millions of location checks per second (with 0.8 cpu core and 600mb memory). The result is the array of promos we all know and love to see whenever we order from FoodPanda. The meetup was attended by 47 people, a mix of students and professionals.

In case you missed it, you may view the session here: Go Manila Mondays Online - June 8, 2020

Go (or Golang) is an open source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.

GoJakarta is a meetup group that Brankas started. The goal is to have a platform for Go Developers to meet new friends, share techniques, discuss pain points, and discover new trends in the Go programming language.

Seeing that GoJakarta was a huge success, Brankas decided to bring it to the Philippines in 2018, hence, GoManila. With the help of like-minded champs, John Estilles, Engineering Manager of Freelancer and Charro Nuguid of Women Who Code, we jump started our journey of the Go meetup PH arm, and we’ve been hosting monthly meetups since.

We are a beaming and proud member of the Go Developers Network.

Hope to see you at our next event! Please watch out for announcements on GoManila’s Facebook page.

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Randy Cahyana

Randy Cahyana: Coding Sparks Joy

Randy joined Brankas in 2016 as the first team developer. He grew up in Bandung and chose to study computer science because he thought he wouldn’t be dealing with people too much - boy, was he wrong! Randy is a great example of how people who end up ‘first’ set out to do something they love. Randy shares his adventures starting out, the joy of coding, lessons learned, and what’s next at Brankas. ​

How did you find out about Brankas?

I was on a break after leaving my previous company and in the third month, I got an email from Ken Shaw at a GoJakarta event (a local Golang meetup in Jakarta). He was looking for a Go developer for his new company. I sent him my application immediately. I’ve been wanting to learn Go and thought that I could learn much from him as there were not many companies that used Go back then. I didn’t know much about the fintech ecosystem at that time but still decided to meet the Brankas founders, Ken and Todd, and joined shortly after.
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To be honest, I didn’t think that I would work in fintech. I was pulled in by my interest in learning how Brankas as a technology company solves financial problems in Southeast Asia using modern technology. ​

Tell us more about your engineering roles and how it has changed.

When I first joined, we already had a MVP product to send money from various banks in a single app. One of my tasks was to rewrite the integration code for these banks using our internal engine that we built in-house. I got a chance to work directly with our CTO Ken and learned so much from his technical knowledge and thought process when solving problems. At that time, we built and rebuilt products from scratch until we got them right. We have hired so many great engineers since then and we are able to add more products and features faster.
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My role has been evolving as the company has grown. We now have more people to fit in specific tasks. At the moment, my main responsibility is to help our clients build the next generation banking platform using our technology stack. Occasionally, I also work on our core products. ​

What was the first program you developed? Any dream project?

The first program I wrote was in middle school, I’m pretty sure it was a QBasic program but I don’t remember much about it. I wouldn’t say it’s a dream project, but it would be great to discover an aspect of my life that I can translate into a software program. ​

What keeps you going?

I joined because of the technology. I’m still impressed at how we approach tech challenges. What has made me stay this long are the people. It’s easy to get burnt out in the corporate world, and working with so many kind and empathetic people at Brankas makes it worthwhile. The foundation and the company culture is still the same as when I joined. Brankas is still a technology company that values doing things right. ​

What are some best practices at Brankas that can help other startups?

One thing that I really like at Brankas is how we do code reviews. It’s so transparent that we can learn from each other just by reading the discussion and comment threads. Of course now that we’re a larger team, it’s takes some time to follow and we’re now moving faster. Having a good code review step on a daily basis increases the quality of our codebase because more eyes can spot issues before going live. It’s also good for knowledge sharing.
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Our product is still maturing and there is still a lot to improve and to work on. We can only grow as we have better relationships with other financial institutions and governments to promote Open Banking in Southeast Asia to enable financial inclusion. ​

Learnings so far?

Alone we can move faster, but at some point we need to have a solid team to build a better and long lasting product. Systems change a lot, but as long as the foundation is solid it won’t matter much. Most importantly, ego is one of the biggest obstacles in our job. Learn to communicate well and try not to judge people with a clouded mind. ​

What are your other interests?

Aside from writing code, I set aside time to discover more about myself and actively learn about stuff outside my skill set. I listen to music quite a lot and read books especially about life, philosophy, and memoirs. And manga!
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I also find that journaling really helps to solve a lot of questions in my life. I wish I started that a long time ago. I don’t really plan long-term, I can’t even imagine what I will be doing tomorrow. What is important is doing my best in the present time. ​

Finally, any advice for aspiring developers?

Having good technical skills is an asset. You need to continuously find ways to keep advancing everyday. Sometimes our work as developers is quite repetitive, but there are so many ways to accomplish the tasks and it’s fun to learn about different things. ​ Don’t forget to take a step back to think about what you really want. Software Engineering is a broad field so try to find the area that’s more suitable and that will allow you to thrive.
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Your job is not your identity. You are unique.
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Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team
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Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Open Banking’s Role in Accelerating Innovation

In recent years, we’ve watched Open Banking initiatives drive financial services innovation in markets such as the UK, Europe, and Australia. Open banking initiatives are sprouting globally, as more banks recognize the commercial and product innovation opportunity. Banks are thinking differently about the payment experience, responsible use of customer data, and their role in supporting a broader fintech and eCommerce experience.

Regulatory vs Market-Driven

Regulation was an early driver of Open Banking activities, led by the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in the EU and the Open Banking Project in the UK. Elsewhere, regulators in Australia, Bahrain, India, and Hong Kong (to name a few) have published new Open Banking standards, while many others are reviewing and gathering industry feedback. In contrast, US-based technology startups like Plaid and bank initiatives like Zelle have created open networks even without a top-down requirement from the Government.

Southeast Asia is an interesting region for Open Banking. Open Banking presents a massive opportunity for innovation given a young population that is ever ready to embrace new technology and the opportunity to tap into the more than 70% unbanked segment. Even though the concept is still relatively new and regulators here haven’t yet implemented Open Banking rules, open API initiatives are already underway.

Open Banking 101

Open Banking is based on two principles:

1. Customers own their data. Previously, financial institutions were viewed as the primary owners and guardians of customer data. Open Banking hands the power back to customers; customers are able to permission their data with transparent consent to the different services they want.
2. Customers can access and interact with their bank accounts beyond bank-owned channels. Banks are driven, either by regulations or market factors, to allow third parties providers (TPPs) access to customer financial data.

Benefits to Customers, TPPs, and Banks

Open Banking places the customer at the center of the financial ecosystem. As a customer, this means being able to securely share financial data with the ability to pick and choose to link your bank accounts to select eCommerce sites, eWallets, loan/ insurance companies, investment firms and other applications. Common examples include being able to view all of your bank accounts in one place and even making direct payments from these accounts, instantly sharing bank statement data to apply for a loan, and the convenience of paying for online purchase directly on a retailer’s site.

For fintechs and TPPs, the benefits are clear - Open Banking is propelling new innovations and plays an important role in democratizing financial services. It is an excellent opportunity for fintechs to drastically improve the customer journey, and use data insights to provide even better products and services all within the same platform.

Businesses, on the other hand, can enjoy straight-through reconciliation for easier cash management, enhanced cash flow visibility, and real-time access to financial data for KYC and credit scoring purposes.

Banks stand to benefit from Open Banking’s collaborative new paradigm. Banks are able to adopt a banking-as-a-service model, generating new revenue streams and widening their ecosystems. Through strategic partnerships with fintechs and third-party providers, banks are able to quickly and efficiently build innovative products; banks are able to transform into nimble organizations focused on delivering solutions with the customer in mind. Moreover, open data creates the opportunity for enhanced analytics and customer insights, allowing banks to continually enhance the customer experience.

What remains the biggest challenge for banks is that they are usually beholden to their legacy core platforms, some of which are decades old. Realigning core processors is a gargantuan effort but necessary to realize the full benefits of Open Banking.

Brankas

Brankas is solving the “Last Mile” of Open Banking in Southeast Asia. We build secure open API technology that empowers banks and fintech companies to create world-class solutions. Our Open Banking service is a platform that provides a turnkey Open API layer compatible with any major core banking system. Sign-up and deployment will give banks access to their own Open Bank Application Suite that includes a developer & documentation portal, authorization server, and Open Bank API host server.

Brankas supports banks at all stages of their Open Banking journey, launching anywhere between 4 to 7 weeks. We have available a catalogue of microservices that easily connect to a bank’s core system and allows for easy customization. We also offer over 150 of the most common API services following international standards such as BIAN, PSD2, and more.

For more information, visit our website, or contact our Sales team. Let’s talk about what you want to build.

Brankas Direct: Simplifying Bank-to-Bank Payments

Whether you work for a Fortune 500 or run your own start-up, 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. This dramatic change in customer behavior demands a better way for customers to make payments online. In Southeast Asia, receiving payments via direct bank transfers is the preferred method, however, doing so is a cumbersome process.

Enter Brankas Direct. Direct was built to simplify bank-to-bank payments and support a frictionless customer experience. Any situation where your customers need to send payments, Direct makes this as easy as ABC.

Direct enables your customers to make instant online payments without leaving your website or app. These payment transfers are done directly from their bank account to yours in a seamless manner, without having to manually enter sensitive information such as account numbers, identity data, or reference details. More importantly, initiating payments this way is secure and significantly less expensive than other methods. All this ultimately increases conversion, sales, and makes for a good customer experience.

Whether you’re an eCommerce business, digital wallet, or lending company, Direct is an easy way for customers to pay for purchases, do account top-ups, and move funds to and from any account or business – all in real-time.

Compelling reasons to use Brankas Direct

• Direct and Real-time. Use our simple API to initiate direct bank transfer payments without passing through intermediaries.
• Pull” Enablement. Brankas Direct empowers your users to link their bank and “pull” funds from their account, all from within your app or checkout screen.
• Single Integration. Your customers have access to our growing network of banks in Southeast Asia.
• Easy Reconciliation. Status updates and accounting system integrations for easy reconciliation.
• Always Secure. Transactions are encrypted end-to-end and compliant with local data privacy and regulatory requirements.

How It Works

1. Link Bank Account: User selects debiting bank account and confirms payment
2. Authentication and Consent: Customer authenticates using their online/mobile banking credentials in Brankas’ secure environment.
3. Confirmation: Brankas provides payment confirmation details and transaction status is immediately available on the merchant dashboard.

Let’s Get Started

With Brankas, it’s free to get started and integrate with our APIs. Your first 100 transactions per month are always free. Building with us is easy and we make it affordable for your business to scale.

Create a Brankas account and try Direct today.

Contact our Sales team and let’s talk about what you want to build.

Humans of Brankas Spotlight: Mike Dickinson

The Product Lens of Mike Dickinson: Chief Product Officer for Brankas

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. As Product Head, he says the work days are almost not enough and are normally packed with meetings. The Product world is an organized chaos and Mike appreciates every moment of it. Mike shares a bit of his journey leading up to Brankas, his best advice, and where he thinks Brankas is taking the future of financial services.

Tell us a bit about your background and growing up in Asia? I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, and later on had the opportunity to move to Australia. My parents loved to travel and that was naturally instilled in me. My holidays were spent in the rural areas of Indonesia, where I witnessed the realities of poverty.

The struggle is real, and if I was to be a little morbid… Life is cheap. When you see a person without any legs, only one arm, sitting on a handmade ‘skateboard’ to move around, filling up petrol at a gas station to earn some cash to get by, it hits pretty hard.

My family and experiences growing up shaped my passion for solving problems that help people. For example, at 16, I assisted different communities in Jakarta construct better housing in the villages.

These days, I enjoy time with family. I believe that family allows you to teach and be taught. Cooking is one of my favorite activities. It promotes creativity and leads to a happier life. Sometimes, I like to get lost in space. Astronomy teaches a thing or two about humility.

How did you find your way into the startup world? My first role at a start-up was a Business and Quality Analyst. That taught me a lot about piecing together products and I’ve been building products since. I worked in e-Learning, Human Resources, Hotel, AI, and now, FinTech.

I had my share of working in the corporate world but moved away from that setting because of politics and how it slows down people’s capability to get things accomplished. When I moved from the last corporate job I had, I made a vow that I wouldn’t join an organization like that again. Haven’t regretted it since. It’s a good feeling to be able to get things done, and know that you (and your team) have an immediate impact on the world.

What’s your experience working in different parts of Southeast Asia? There are close to 670 million people here, from countries which are incredibly different from one another. And then there are hundreds of ethnic backgrounds in each of the countries. Singapore, with its wealth is incredibly different to Jakarta - most know this. But I find it fascinating when people think that they don’t see a difference between Bangkok and Jakarta, when those two cities are worlds apart in culture, diversity and ways of thinking and doing.

Understanding how each society in this part of the world takes time and patience. Showing that you understand how each culture ‘works’, learning some of their language, goes a LONG way in what you can and can’t do here.

My recommendation for anyone that spends any time to work and live in SEA is, when you get the chance, avoid the main destinations. Go spend some time in a remote village in Vietnam, see how people live. Try what they eat.

One of our Tech Leads is based in Bali. But he decided not to work out of the popular tourist-y spots of Seminyak or Canggu. He lives 15 minutes north of Ubud, in a remote village. I genuinely believe this contributes a lot to one of the most humble people I’ve met in a long time.

How did your previous start-up roles prepare you for leading Product at Brankas? At Xendit, I learned how payment rails work, and why working with regulators/banks closely is so important for a larger goal.

At Ematic, I learned why data is so important for product scalability.

At Siteminder, I learned why direct customer insight is incredibly important.

At RedBalloon, I learned that being lean means you can move fast (the honeymoon period as I call it), but the moment you have customers, your priorities shift pretty quickly.

Across all, I learned how important it is to build a strong team, and you need to invest the time to do this.

Product (and life) lessons to share?

1. Build your own start-up or try joining a mega early stage start-up. The best product managers I’ve met have tried building a business themselves, and (usually) know what it’s like to fail.

2. Show empathy. You need to care. And then you need to solve.

3. Devil is in the detail. Go deep on problems, but learn how to come out of them again to understand how to lead a team to follow a roadmap.

4. Learn your technology. Not asking you to become a Go maestro, but learn the fundamental building blocks of how your products work.

5. Reach out to your customers. Don’t ever shy away from doing this. Learn UX research techniques. In fact, do whatever it takes to talk to them. Your internal teams provide one perspective, however nothing beats a direct conversation (with the customer).

6. Know what customers need, not what they want. Identifying this is important.

7. Have a scientific mindset. Identify the problem. Hypothesize. Then solution. Don’t start with the solution - ideas are cheap after all.

What’s your biggest challenge on the job? Although our products are still maturing, they solve specific problems and we have a great amount of demand for them. Our biggest obstacle will be working with banks and regulators to show the benefits of Open Banking so that we can enable the rails of financial access.

The infrastructure that our products foster will lead to the birth of new start-ups and new products. I believe in our products because it is going to enable new and creative ways of solving problems.

What excites you most about working at Brankas? We are building the blocks to improve people’s lives. I am proud of the team for wanting to build fast. I worry about external blockers that we have limited power over. So we put a lot of effort into showing our partners why Open Banking is important, and hence why we proudly wave this flag.

Our innovative products at Brankas open an immense opportunity to be the fabric of better financial infrastructure in the region. This is a fact.

It excites me that not only can we help bring the mentality of Open Banking to this region, we can also power the infrastructure that will enable people who have extremely limited access to financial services and financial education have access to a better future.

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Are you interested in a career in fintech? Join the Brankas team

Brankas is bringing Open Banking to Southeast Asia. Our vision is to make modern financial services available to everyone.

Branches are Closed. How can Banks Attract New Customers?

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?

Digital-ready banks are seeing a significant increase in new sign-ups, most at a rate of more than double the average registrations. In the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) reported a 259% increase in new online accounts within the first three days of enhanced community quarantine; UnionBank in March opened 7,000 new accounts and had 20,000 downloads of its app in March, with website traffic doubling.

Likewise, corporate clients face new banking challenges now that branches and their offices are closed. Check printing, paper-based approvals, and branch-based transactions now need to come online. For instance, many corporations in the region are struggling to approve, process, and track supplier payments; corporate online banking portals are complicated, slow, and typically require weeks to set up and customize. During these abnormal times, it may take months for a traditional bank to enable corporate banking access to a new user.

Brankas is partnering with banks across the region to fast-track technology partnerships for retail and corporate banking. We have developed new account opening APIs, making the customer onboarding process as easy as possible. Account opening APIs allow the bank to acquire new customers through third-party channels, typically non-bank financial services providers like remittance centers, ecommerce marketplaces, and loyalty programs. The service can enable new checking/savings account signups, as well as credit cards and loan origination. Brankas is able to offer a more cost-effective plug and play technology to move branch account openings online, rather than having to build the same technology in-house. In addition, Brankas can set-up interbank direct debit transaction capabilities and provide a top-up mechanism to fund the account from other bank accounts.

Regulators are ensuring customers have access to financial services and are supportive of this online shift. In the Philippines, banks have until June 30th, 2020 to avail of the temporary relaxation of KYC rules, subject to a few qualifications by the Central Bank. In Indonesia, BI has also declared simplified requirements to the online account application process.

Brankas is a leader for Open Banking in Southeast Asia. Partnering with Brankas speeds up your transition to digital enabling you to move faster, create better products, and reach even more customers. Beyond the account opening use case, APIs are transforming the way banks do business and interact with customers enabling new channels and secure, scalable, and real-time digital products.