Open Banking PTBR

5 axway.com Building new partnerships with banking entities in hand "We are a complicated organization and the jury is still out on how we will operate our APIs, so we need to be able to implement them in a way that is open to flexibility and change," explained Slaattelid. "As Director of Banking as a Service, I represent the SpareBank1 alliance. I don't hold a banking license, but I am in the management of the shared services that deliver API services to 14 banks. So I can't enter an agreement with anyone without one of the banks in my hand. My role is to facilitate discussions with potential strategic partners which leads to the production of an API.". In this model, internal banking entities also become like partners in Slaattelid's relationship networks. "If the banks have already had those discussions with existing partners to supply services where a business rationale is created, I will be in charge of delivering that to production for the bank," said Slaattelid. "So we are 14 banks with 14 different strategies. There is a common proactive strategy across all banks, but how each one acts is different. Some have mature relationships with partners using APIs. For example, one of our companies has set up a crowdfunding company that is building APIs for crowdfunded loan management." Because AMPLIFY API Management has been implemented as a central hub across all banking entities, Slaattelid's real work can focus on managing new ways work collaboratively internally and among partners. "We need to have all of our teams cross-functional and able to create their APIs. I believe we will see a large increase in the amount of APIs we offer, and while some of our APIs will be open, we will need to have a good regimen around who will have access to them, based on business need. Axway's AMPLIFY platform allows us to define that access," explained Slaattelid. Being open to new business models With technical capabilities in hand and new collaborative organizational models in place, the future work for SpareBank1 will be on investigating new business models made possible by APIs. This is where the APIs will transform from being just a technical delivery mechanism to becoming part of a more sophisticated business discussion. "This is a shift that will take a while," Slaattelid says. "Our customers are using our digital and mobile solutions up to 30 times a month, at least once a day on average. Our most frequent users log in more than 40 times a day. Our customers are delighted with our solutions -- we have a 4.6-star rating for mobile banking, for example. If you bank with us, that is to your benefit. With APIs reaching out to new partners, once that starts to fragment, there will be new pricing, discounts, other business models in play. We have built these digital solutions that customers like, but PSD2 will open us to new competition. So there are other areas where we could supply services that could be useful."

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