Forging Secure, Real-Time Open Banking for Faster Services

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The banking industry is going through a technological revolution as clients use products and processes over digital channels on a mass scale. With fewer visits to bank branches and fewer transactions made over the counter, financial operations have gone digital. This shift has led to the rise of FinTechs, who are increasingly expanding into financial services to provide innovative solutions to traditional industry problems.

The use of open banking is one of these innovative solutions. Open banking allows banks to share data with third-party companies or apps securely and in real time, through APIs. Making their valuable data accessible to other parties allows them to build a better customer experience; instead of competing banks and FinTechs can leverage their complementary strengths to build the right solutions for customers.

One area where open banking will prove particularly useful is the newly revised Payment Services Directive, also known as PSD2, which will go into effect in 2018. PSD2 is focused on standardizing, integrating and improving payment efficiency while promoting innovation and offering better consumer protection throughout the region. PSD2 will require that European banks make it easier to share data with third-party providers, which will enable these third-parties to build financial services on top of banks’ data and infrastructure. In the future, you may be using social media to pay your bills or make P2P fund transfers, all while still having your money in your bank account.

Through the PSD2 directive, the European Commission aims to improve innovation, reinforce consumer protection and improve the security of internet payments and account access. So what does this mean for banks and their customers?

Working with IBM, Alior Bank in Poland will be one of the first to implement an Open API platform that will make the bank PSD2 compliant and allow for seamless integration with FinTechs and developers. This means that we’ll now be able to introduce new services faster, such as a global view of multiple accounts; capitalize on customer data to better understand our clients; and partner with additional organizations to improve our solutions.

Alior Bank is a leading universal bank in Poland that works with both individuals and clients . To face the technological revolution in the banking industry, the changing expectations of clients, and the competition, we believe Alior Bank must transform from a financial firm with a strong IT angle into a FinTech with a banking license. We believe partnering with IBM in developing API Connect solutions as an integral part of our focus on delivering digital disruption for all of our clients by 2019. Our objective is to remain a Polish innovation leader and become a top five innovative bank in Europe. In addition to this, we’ve also decided to invest another $USD 100 million in innovative technological projects in the next four years.

Alior was looking for secure solution to fully address the forthcoming PSD2 regulation and to actively implement open and trusted economy in Poland. Working with IBM’s API Connect solution will ensure that clients’ data is securely protected.

Learn more about Alior’s “Digital Disruptor”strategy here.