The impact of API economy is across all industries. Because APIs by their very definition are supposed to promote interaction and dialog across multiple companies, often in different industries.

In my article on American Banker Don’t Give Away The Store When Enabling APIs, I brought out the focus on ensuring that banks maintain their customer experience front end, while allowing additional channels for growth. For example, allowing travel sites, Facebook and retailers to access the bank’s services were examples which if taken too far with potential competitors could result in commoditization and loss of value (as the service providers are hidden as utility providers).

APIs are the future in today’s connected world. In this new post on American Banker titled 3 Steps to API Success, I tried to provide a simple framework to guide the development of Bank APIs with those customer experience principles in mind. Essentially, apart from going to market rapidly by opening up new channels, it is important to start building a sticky and value-adding customer experience by focusing on projecting the bank’s brand, not just the utility service itself.

The 3 steps in the framework sort of follow a road-map because they increase in complexity of course. Also read the full article on American Banker.

1. Fill in the gaps in our customer journeys: Like any business, we often fulfill our end of the bargain, while leaving the remaining customer needs to the other players in the industry.  However, in this rapidly innovating world, the most important use cases for API banking will be driven by 3rd party applications that help customers accomplish the objectives that ultimately matter. Otherwise, this gap will be filled quickly by someone else. For example, banks provide a bank account but the space is rife with innovations around P2P payments and check sharing, spending pattern analysis, savings goals and calculators etc. Examples abound for small businesses, as well as commercial banking. Perhaps the first step could be to address these end to end journeys by enabling a 3rd party ecosystem around APIs developed for these purposes. These applications meets the objectives of low cost services provided to niche customer bases. These innovations often failed the “business case criteria” for in-house development. But they help the bank establish its brand by creating an umbrella ecosystem that is similar to how enterprise technology providers create their partner ecosystem.
2. Moving towards an App Ecosystem model: The next level of the API model will go beyond exposing APIs to third parties towards building controlled environments where discovery, adoption, experimentation and payments will be seamless. Fidor and Mondo are 2 European banks that have laid the foundation of this model. Powered by 3rd party innovation and supported by customer experience experts from the bank, this app model brings a much tighter integration of the banks offerings and aligns them with the customers. Such a model reduces the go to market friction for partners (e.g. advertising, or fulfillment). It also ensures that the bank can market the entire package of services to customers and create conversations around their end to end needs, instead of negotiating on product features and price.
3. Becoming a connector of value: The ultimate goal is not just to provide a service, but to anticipate customer needs, and ensure they are receiving the assistance they need as they make financial decisions. Over the years, banking has evolved naturally (like any service) from being a custodian of money, to being an agent that helps (or can help) make the right financial decisions. The API model now provides banks the right tools to make this mission come true. For example, helping the customers maintain the right balances for their upcoming payments, their IRA contributions, or just sticking  to a monthly budget for various categories of spend. As customers utilize the banks services (or the apps), this ecosystem will tend to grow stronger. In summary, for the first time, banks will be able to connect the different use cases and bring singular focus on the overall customer objectives. For example, Citi’s Price Rewind program tries to do this but relies on customer signups instead to gain access to transaction data and customer context. The Bill Payment service comes close but it needs to be integrated with the rest of the bank’s ecosystems.

Connecting individual value propositions by creating overarching customer identities and helping customers with proactive advice is what will differentiate one banking API platform from the other. And for this to take off, banks must take steps to make customers aware of the new capabilities, clarify each value proposition from the customer’s perspective, and on-board customers quickly and comprehensively. Such a model will obviously be based on ensuring privacy through various opt-in mechanisms. In summary, working backward from the customer motivations and experiences in the digital economy is key to innovate and maintain relevance.

Read more on American Banker at 3 Steps to API Success. Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Image taken from https://pixabay.com/en/users/geralt-9301/