banking apis: a fine balance

A Fine Balance

@mitraman

Ronnie MitraDirector of DesignAPI Academy

The History of USB

yum9me on flickr.com

William Warby on flickr.com

standardization

increases compatibilityincreases interoperability

increases safety, repeatability and quality

hinders Innovation

TechStage on flickr.com

Innovation vs StandardizationInnovators vs Standard Bearers

gov.uk

gov.uk

“Standardization does constrain activities but in doing so creates an infrastructure for subsequent innovation.”

gov.uk

“Compatibility or interface standards help to expand market opportunities because they help to increase network effects (or externalities).”

platforms

capability

providerexperienc

euser

One provider, one UX

capability

providerexperienc

euser

One platform, many UX providers

experience

experience

plat

form

platform standardization

may not be ideal for leaders

should help the consumer andthe market

unbundling

John Hagel IIIMarc Singer

https://hbr.org/1999/03/unbundling-the-corporationJohn HagelMarc SingerUnbundling the Corporation



“Interaction costs represent the money and time that are expended whenever people and companies exchange goods, services, or ideas.”



“Taken together, interaction costs determine the way companies organize themselves and the way they form relationships with other parties.”



https://hbr.org/1999/03/unbundling-the-corporation




Under the pressures of deregulation, global competition, and advancing technology, a number of industries are already fracturing along the fault lines of customer relationship management, product innovation, and infrastructure management.

“

”

capability

providerexperienc

euser

experience

experience

plat

form

CRMBusiness


If you lose the CRM Business, where do you focus?



If you lose the CRM Business, where do you focus?Option 1: Compete with the UX Providers

capability

providerexperienc

euser

plat

form

experience



If you lose the CRM Business, where do you focus?Option 2: Make the UX providers your new customer

capability

providerexperienc

e

plat

form



If you lose the CRM Business, where do you focus?Option 3: Focus on powering the UX providers with infrastructure capability

capability

providerexperienc

e

plat

form



If you lose the CRM Business, where do you focus?Option 4: Focus on providing innovative features to UX providers

capability

providerexperienc

e

plat

form new

capability

API standardization

data modelsoperations

urlmethods

representations

Where is banking headed?Revisit the unbundling story

YOUR BUSINESSYOUR CODEYOUR DATA

YOUR IMPLEMENTATION

YourAPI

GET /accountYourAPI

in a platform worldyour API is your core product

in a standardized API worldyour product is identical to your

competitors

YourAPI

Their

API

GET /account GET /account

in a standardized API worldCapability innovation moves at

thepace of the standard

YourAPI

Their

API

GET /account GET /account

findbalance

experienceuser

plat

form

app development must be optimized

capability

providerplat

form

service providers must befree to innovate

balance developer usabilitywith

service sovereignty

extensible API standards?

allow providers to add customcapabilities

capability

providerexperienceuser

experience

experience

plat

form

CRMBusiness

customcapabilit

yprovider

another option:

standardized messagesstandardized semantics

pick a media type

HAL SIREN CJ JSON-LD UBER

add a profile

HAL SIREN CJ JSON-LD UBER

Banking Semantics

We must work towards an extendable platform

or live at the pace of a standardized API

A Fine Balance

@mitraman

Ronnie MitraDirector of DesignAPI Academy

banking apis: a fine balance

Economy & Finance