Report on open banking and application programming interfaces (APIs)

The Report on open banking and application programming interfaces (APIs) monitors the evolving trend of open banking observed in Basel Committee member jurisdictions and discusses the implications of these developments on banks and banking supervision. It builds upon the findings of the Committee's Sound Practices paper on "Implications of fintech developments for banks and bank supervisors".

Open banking, or the sharing and leveraging of customer-permissioned data from banks with third party developers and firms to build applications and services to provide more efficient and transparent options in banking, comes with benefits but also various challenges to banks, such as risks to their business models and reputation, issues regarding data, cyber security and third party risk management. In response to this trend, banks and bank supervisors would need to pay greater attention to these challenges that accompany: (i) the increased sharing of customer-permissioned data; and (ii) the growing connectivity of various entities involved in the provision of financial services.