Indian private bank ICICI Bank has launched an API Banking portal with nearly 250 virtual application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable partner companies in developing new customer solutions.
Claimed to be the maximum number of APIs put together by any Indian bank, they can help in creating customer solutions in a fraction of time, resulting in improved productivity.
As a set of instructions, APIs enable third party applications to communicate with the ICICI Bank’s technology applications and collaborate in developing new customer propositions.
The API Banking portal allows developers from prospective partner companies across the globe to sign up on it, create an application, select the application, test it and get the sample code.
With the APIs’ support, businesses, fintechs, corporates and e-commerce start-ups can partner with the bank and co-develop new solutions in frictionless manner.
The API Banking portal can bring down solution development to few days
With the API portal, the bank further claims that the process of digital collaboration with a partner company and the time taken to develop a business solution can be brought down to few days.
It is expected to significantly increase productivity for the partner companies, as API integration could take few months of time.
ICICI Bank executive director Anup Bagchi said: “ICICI Bank has a legacy of leveraging new technology to bring in path-breaking solutions for the banking industry. The API Banking portal is yet another initiative in this direction. It is envisioned to be the gateway for several prospective partner companies to tie-up with the Bank in a quick and frictionless manner.
“The portal offers the largest array of instant APIs by any bank in one single place. We believe that the ‘ICICI Bank API Banking Portal’, will help foster rapid innovation and co-creation with partner. It will also boost productivity for businesses, as they can now partner with us in a short span of time ranging from just a few weeks to few days as compared to the few months taken earlier.
“We are happy to note the encouraging interest in the partnering with the Bank, with hundreds of developers already cocreating on the portal.”
The APIs will be available for various categories such as payments and collections like IMPS, UPI payment/collection, accounts and deposits, and cards and loans.
Once testing of a solution on the sandbox environment is done, developers can upgrade to the user acceptance testing (UAT) environment for end-to-end real-time testing, after signing on NDA with the bank.
A detailed workflow is also included on the portal to enable the movement of the API solution to the final production stage, avoiding the hassle of manual to and fro.
