API Use Cases for Banks, FinTechs and Financial Services

If you reached this page it means you probably already know that APIs are the drivers of the new digital transformation in the Financial sector. The competition is no longer just between companies with their own assets and systems, but between different business ecosystems.

The use of APIs makes it possible to develop and participate in a partner ecosystem, put products into new digital channels, monetize data and services with different models (developer pays, developer gets paid, etc.), integrate legacies with new technologies, stimulate innovation, improve the customer experience, among other applications.

The APIs can be of 3 types: private (for internal use only), restricted (accessed only by some specific customers and partners) or public. But where do I start? What services and data can my company consume or expose in APIs?

Some ideas on how to use APIs to make data and services available to companies in the financial sector

General information about the company and offers

• Types of products (Cards, Loans, Insurance, Funds, Accounts...)
• Promotions
• Locations (ATMs, agencies, etc.)
• BIN Tables
• Rates, Indexes, Calculators

More specific information

• Tokenization
• Customer profile
• Customization and Contextualized Offers
• Payments and Transfers
• Fraud Prevention (Score, validation and closure of accounts, etc)
• Alerts & Push Notifications
• Transaction History and Status
• Quotations
• Balance
• Calendar
• Planning (Courses, Trips, Car...)
• Information Exchange/Service with Partners (FinTechs, Customer Loyalty, Government, etc.)

Mobile and Devices

• Camera: photos to make the registration of any document required
• GPS: with APIs, you can point to the nearest agency or ATM
• NFC & Digital Wallet: for identification and release of transactions without the physical card
• ATM: APIs to access banking and partner services and trigger commands on ATMs
• POS: allows you to call own and partner services via APIs
• TOTEMS: provides contracting of products/services and consultations

Data + Analytics

• Real-time monitoring of integrations and transactions carried out on different channels
• Aggregated data (demographic, financial, technical, etc.)
• Integration with Analytics and Artificial Intelligence platforms

Internal Operations

• Security Mechanisms, Authentications and Backend Protection
• Call composition
• Caching
• Data Transformation

New Channels, Marketplaces and Platforms

• Putting products on other companies' platforms, white label or not
• Offering products from other companies in their channels through APIs
• Matching bidders and demanders of some kind of product/services
• Creating a store of partners' APPs that use your APIs

Omnichannel

• Customer journey through different channels without breaking the journey (website, chatbot, physical store, app, etc.).

Social

• Making payments or sharing/collecting information on social networks

Innovation

• Providing services via APIs in a testing environment for creating MVPs, performing Hackathons, and rapid product launch