Open Banking- The way we see it
Open Banking is a foundational shift in the way banks do business, who they do business with and what they sell. While the term itself has come to be synonymous with an API Economy, the nature of change that it brings goes beyond technology developments, product innovation or regulatory edicts.
Open Banking requires banks to reinvent and reposition their businesses to remain relevant within customer lifestyles and customer journeys. A range of rapidly evolving collaborate-compete business models define the ways of interaction between banks, FinTechs and a wide ecosystem of financial and non-financial partners.
HCL's Open Banking solutions comprise a set of techno-functional frameworks, a well-curated FinTech partner ecosystem, an innovation infrastructure and a depth of engineering and design thinking expertise that help a bank create differentiated Open Banking strategies and implement them.
Business Situation
Open Banking: Opportunities to Seize
...of all countries have some kind of Open API activity. More than 50 countries have Open APIs in place, touching more than 10,000 banks
Source: Open Banking APIs Worldwide, ndigit
...would prefer their main bank to be provider of AISP services & product comparison services respectively
Source: Mobey Forum and Aite Group survey of 1,010 European consumers, June 2019
...of customers in countries with Open Banking are still unaware or poorly aware of its benefits
Source: Multiple surveys
HCL Solution
How HCL is helping Banks to leapfrog competition
Open Banking Consulting
With your Open Banking strategy and target business model as inputs, HCL partners you in ascertaining your Open Banking readiness in terms of business processes, application architecture and data architecture.
The exercise is powered by HCL’s Enterprise Architecture & Engineering expertise, and the use of tools & frameworks as accelerators.
The outcome is a clear action plan and roadmap with tangible milestones towards Open Banking excellence
Foundation Service & API Marketplace
HCL leverages its Engineering DNA to deliver secure, reliable, scalable & high-responsive Open Banking solutions that offer best-in-class customer journeys.
- Streamlined business processes aligned to working with a wide partner ecosystem
- Architecting the legacy application landscape to implement a microservices foundation, and creating outbound APIs & micro-services
- Building a flexible integration / orchestration layer
- Building a Developer Portal with excellently executed user journeys
- Integrating inbound APIs seamlessly into the architecture
- Creating a flexible & extensible real-time data architecture to deliver customer centricity & intelligent decisioning
- Implementing downstream ‘aggregation’ solutions like PFM
- Building compelling user / customer interfaces that enable them to exploit the full benefits of Open Banking
API Aggression
Multi-bank aggregation of customer data, along with downstream customer solutions & services built on that data, offer a major competitive play for banks. HCL offers
- Building a flexible integration / orchestration layer
- Integrating inbound APIs seamlessly into the architecture
- Creating a flexible & extensible real-time data architecture to deliver customer centricity & intelligent decisioning
- Implementing downstream ‘aggregation’ solutions like PFM
- Building compelling user / customer interfaces that enable them to exploit the full benefits of Open Banking
Lifestyle Partner
As a trusted partner in its customers’ key life events (home buying, for example), a bank earns customers’ reliance. HCL helps by:
- Streamlined business processes aligned to working with a wide partner ecosystem
- Building a flexible integration / orchestration layer
- Integrating inbound APIs seamlessly into the architecture
- Creating a flexible & extensible real-time data architecture to deliver customer centricity & intelligent decisioning
- Building compelling user / customer interfaces that enable them to exploit the full benefits of Open Banking
Open Banking Testing
HCL takes end-to-end ownership for ensuring that a bank’s Open Banking services – whether for regulatory compliance or beyond – perform to specifications.
A repository of automated test scripts ensure accelerated and comprehensive testing of sandboxes, developer portals, marketplaces and aggregation features.
Neo Bank
A Neo Bank is a platform construct that enables the bank to procure banking services on demand from a set of cloud-resident, API-architected and SaaS-enabled solutions.
Apart from not having to support a costly IT estate, the bank gains from signing on to a consumption-based pricing model, while ensuring differentiated customer experience and high levels of availability, performance and security.
The solutions can be plugged in or replaced as needed, providing extreme flexibility.
Powered by its diverse repertoire of curated FinTech partnerships, coupled with its own Integration capabilities, HCL gets a Neo Bank up and running within months, with rapid replication to new geographies & branches.
Success Stories
Objective:
The client is a leader in digital banking services. HCL is the strategic partner for the bank working in a number of key Open Banking and Digital Banking initiatives, which include Development of 200+ Core Banking APIs, launching a fully digital bank and Mobile banking and wallet app
HCL Solution:
HCL is the strategic partner for the Core Banking API development. The scope of activities includes Business Analysis, API build, Test Automation & SIT, Release Management activities. API’s allowed Key Banking Service/Assets to external World to access which were limited to Bank Application till now. It includes features like:
- Onboarding of new users to Bank.
- View Parties/User’s Information including demographics.
- Sending email and SMS Notification for credit/debit card transactions including OTP.
- View current and historical exchange rates with enablement of FX Watch - also provides for specific input currency pair
- To settle payments electronically to credit cards, loans and other billing organizations authorized by the bank.
- To transfer money to their own account, third-party accounts or external accounts.
- Payee management functionalities such as adding new payees, retrieving payee details, and retrieving registered payee lists
Benefits:
- 90 seconds for Wallet account opening
- Loan request feature with immediate disbursement facility
- 70% quicker release timelines with devops implementation
- Minimized COVID impact by enabling ease of access with Social banking, contactless banking etc
Objective:
The client embarked on their Open Banking journey and wanted to achieve PSD2/CMA9 compliance with a path to adopting new Open Banking business models
HCL Solution:
- The scope of work included Requirement gathering/analysis, Microservices design, development and testing.
- Built system API's to access legacy system & database to expose data in canonical formats. HCL also built connectivity, built integration flows with reusable approach to reuse the logic in & across the integration platform.
- Shift Left Testing’ with a greater focus on automation testing
- Built common error framework, to capture the business/logical errors to handle business requirement across the banking domain
Benefits:
- $1.2 Million Savings with 100% automation in system & performance testing
- 80% Offshoring reduced significant delivery cost
- 95% Automation Testing with ‘Shift Left Testing’ approach
Objective:
The client’s architecture lacked a standard way of representing the business services and did not allow existing systems to connect efficiently with the outside world. Functionalities tightly coupled with the user interface or portal could not be changed even for minor iterations. This led to:
- Inhibited growth had increased maintenance cost
- Continued software maintenance fees for an insignificant amount of ROI
- Missed revenue due to the lack of innovative products
HCL Solution:
HCL and the client decided to engage in a journey to develop a standardized REST API which would integrate with the back end and provide next-gen, customer-centric solutions. For the implementation, HCL used Spring Boot, Rancher for Microservices, API Gateway from Axway, BitBucket for version control, and CA LISA (DevTest solutions) for service virtualization. Our team selected the top software solutions from specific segments on the basis of cost, speed, and ease of implementation. HCL’s API gateways have security and throttling models that impose limitations on who pulls the data, when, and how frequently the data gets pulled.
Benefits:
- The APIfied system is more agile with shorter release cycles and faster time to market. The solution empowered the insurer to cope with unforeseen changes and meet sudden demands in the insurance landscape.
- Enabled data standardization that allowed all subsystems across the organization to adopt and achieve a uniform structure.
- Faster time to market
- Cope with unforeseen changes and meet sudden spikes in demand
- Scalability and optimum usage of infrastructure with no impact on business continuity
Objective:
- Poor customer experience leading to drop out in customer onboarding
- Brand inconsistency due to inorganic growth
- Inability to predict customer churn and customer retention
HCL Solution:
- Redesigned customer journeys to deliver continuous experience across channels through web, campaigns, CRM, self service options. The solution was created to ensure brand consistency across different subsidiaries through content as a service architecture
- Connected with 3rd party applications designed to enhance user experience
- Re-platformed the new digital engagement ecosystem from legacy to the new modern ecosystem on cloud with a record launch of 6000+ experiences on web & mobile in record 3 months
- Enabled Real Time Delivery of Aggregated Information to Investors
Benefits
- Optimized Opex - 20+ Digital Properties - One Cloud Based scalable infrastructure
- Reduced dependency on Call Center by 30%
- 7 Mil AUD approved cost saving
- Time to launch reduced to 60%
- #1 mobile app and online bank in Australia
