Open banking system pushed in Asia-Pacific

NONPROFIT global movement Open Banking Exchange (OBE) underscored the importance of open finance and open banking and how it could be maximized in Asia.

In a webinar on Wednesday, OBE Managing Director John Broxis said open finance changes the way financial products are developed by integrating financial services application programming interfaces or APIs with third-party apps and also change the way products are distributed and monetized as it allows new revenue streams.

Open finance allows customers to use financial services from third-party providers.

OBE recently partnered with open finance technology company, Brankas, to introduce OBE Asia as a bid to “increase financial inclusion in the region through open finance and open banking.”

Todd Schweitzer, OBE Asia director and Brankas chief executive officer, said setting foot in the region will “bring an easier and yet more comprehensive understanding of what enables the more sustainable kind of open banking across nations.”

OBE has been facilitating discussions on open banking and finance with its members in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

Broxis noted that among the challenges faced by the rollout of open banking and finance are the differences in definitions, practices and even reasons for doing so in different areas.

“In the end, it means that the customers, the end users, are not getting the services that they expect because even inside one country, everybody’s implemented their APIs or their processes or their products slightly differently. So, things don’t work together,” he explained.

Broxis said OBE aims to bring the industry players together to be able to discuss and communicate.

“They have to be brought together . . . allowing them to have that conversation and that is what we are trying to do here,” Broxis said in a separate statement.

“It’s really about coming to us for good straightforward information of what’s going on in language they can understand, in this case across Asia,” he continued.

Broxis also highlighted the road map they will be creating for the region next year, which includes webinars, training programs and country-by-country roll out, among others.