This function could be available to all bank users, which would speed up payments for your services; let us tell you how it works.
Can you imagine being able to pay for all your services through the bank’s application? Open Banking would make it possible, since it would be much easier and simpler by means of an API and artificial intelligence.
Open Banking is a tool with which different banks and users share information with third parties so that a wide range of companies can compete to provide better services, with more options and better prices.
With this protocol, users decide whether or not they want to share their information with Financial Institutions or organizations through a programming API, in which everyone communicates implementing the same method.
In Mexico, this standard arrived in 2018 after the Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions (FinTech Law) was published, by which financial institutions are obliged to establish standardized computer application programming interfaces that enable connectivity and access by third parties to customers’ information.
According to Ana Inés Echavarren, CEO of Infocorp, a company that implements omnichannel platforms for digital banking, Open Banking allows companies to communicate with each other while providing integrated offers to customers.
It is intended for financial institutions to use platforms that can be connected with multiple institutions such as other banks, institutions and commercial organizations.
How would Open Banking benefit users?
She pointed out that the idea is for users to have all their services available at the time they open the banking application and in a secure environment, since the same client would use biometric data, such as facial recognition and fingerprints.
The expert pointed out that in Mexico any institution can make use of Open Banking through an API, which would allow platforms such as Weex and Spotify to work at the same time without the need for user movements, as it will be done once the user starts talking and requests this process.
There is a standard communication protocol with a place where people buy items, where the bank looks for somewhere to buy a concert ticket with a certain type of discount.
This means that banking platforms could do all the work for you through organizations and all you need is to have your bank’s application on your cell phone. This would help speed up the payment of services, purchase of items, among other things that companies would offer you through the Open Bank.
She also added that with artificial intelligence, the same platform could be monitoring the days in which the user regularly pays for their services and subsequently do it on their own to prevent late payments.
Only in Mexico and the United States
Likewise, the CEO of Infocorp regrets not having a fully developed model in Latin America, since only the United States and Mexico have fully developed models, while countries like Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina need proper development.
“There is a very good business model that can be developed; legislation needs to advance a little more, because after tackling the issue of information privacy, since one as a client provides information to be displayed outside the bank, you have to be very careful to ensure that this does not end up going to places that you as a client do not know.”
She stated that the risk with Open Banking is minimal and there is no transactionality in which customer information is seen and that, at most, what people could see is query information without the possibility of making transactions.
Finally, Ana Inés Echavarren reported that Infocorp was recently acquired by the Canadian company Constellation Software Inc., which provides software and services for public and private sectors. Thanks to this, Infocorp would reach more markets such as Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile , Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama.
