Ahead of the Curve: Medicinos Bankas in collaboration with ETRONIKA releases open APIs to pave the way for Open Banking
April 10, 2019Medicinos Bankas is ending the first quarter of 2019 with a statement and has officially released a set of open APIs which are to be utilized by external service providers and technology developers in order to interact with the bank’s infrastructure.
This significant milestone was made possible in great part because of the close cooperation with ETRONIKA, a Nordic FinTech company that developed the software behind the solution and assisted in making it fully PSD2-compliant, even exceeding regulatory requirements in some aspects.
We are thankful for the faith Medicinos Bankas has put in our company and will continue to make our software better, faster and more efficient. There is a major wave of open banking implementations underway, targeting September 2019 deadline, and we are confident that we have the resources and the talent to finish integrations in time
– says Michailas Traubas, Solutions Architect at ETRONIKA
Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Basically, an API specifies how software components interact with one another.
To accelerate the transition towards Open Banking, Medicinos Bankas has set up a development sandbox and is inviting FinTech developers and third-party service providers to test provided APIs, experiment and build innovative applications to help enhance services for the benefit of their clients. ETRONIKA’s Open Banking solution is based on the NextGenPSD2 API Framework – a major initiative of the Berlin Group, having the goal of harmonizing the Open Banking initiatives, and having massive support by the Nordic financial institutions as well as wide range of FIs across all geographies across Europe.
We perceive Open Banking as an enormous opportunity to not only improve our operations but also to increase market share. There’s no question that it will bring about disruptive changes to the whole industry and we want to be at the forefront of this transformation. Until today 12 participants has joined our sandbox, we’re inviting more interested parties to interact with our sandbox and provide feedback on how we can improve it even further
– shared Danatas Čerjazdanovas, Head of Digital Banking at Medicinos Bankas
What’s the big fuss around Open Banking?
Traditionally the situation laid itself out in a way that people think of banks as main providers of financial services and it should not come as a surprise, especially having in mind strict rules and vigorous procedures to be met in order to acquire and maintain a banking license in Europe.
For a long time, banks and other major financial conglomerates were the sole custodians of client information which made it an extremely strenuous task to enter the financial service market for startup entities. But that’s about to change.
European Union’s revised Directive on Payment Services or just PSD2 for short directive came into action on January 2018 and is in the transition mode as of now. The main goal of the directive is to ensure that international payments are as easy, efficient and secure as within a single country and, to quote EU’s own words, “<facilitate> legal foundation for the further development of a better integrated internet market for electronic payments within EU”.
This directive is set to open up the European Banking market for competition which in turn should result in lower service fees for customers. It will give the ability for lean and smart IT-based solutions to innovate and challenge outdated financial markets without the necessity of heavy infrastructure, regional presence and a centralized axis of power.
At the concept level, PSD2 is a regulatory framework which enables users to pick and choose which payment services providers should have the right to access their financial data.
Stemming from this, the most innovative and trusted providers of financial services have the ability to analyze and aggregate consumer spending habits, identify user needs and build convenient solutions at any point of the financial interaction chain – whether it will be value or monetary transactions, custodian services, personal finance services or educational material.
Aforementioned upcoming structural changes will be powered mostly through the use of APIs and are often defined as Open Banking, directly arising from the EU’s main objective behind PSD2: the opening of the financial markets.
Medicinos Bankas keeping up with digital transformations in banking
Since its foundation in 1992, “Medicinos Bankas” has developed one of the most spread out banking networks in Lithuania.
Medicinos Bankas was one of the first banking enterprises which started offering e-banking solutions to its clients and prides itself in always trying to keep up with digital evolution that is affecting Europe and the rest of the world so significantly.
Open Banking APIs is just a first step towards new ecosystem that Medicinos Bankas creates within the bigger picture of PSD2 compliant interfaces and new breed of financial services accross EU. It is obvious that banking institutions itself are interested into creating digital ties between them. The bank is ready to connect to other banks and provide it‘s customers seamless financing solutions with single dashboard of their financial operations in Bank‘s digital channels.
ETRONIKA has become a trusted provider of Digital Banking applications
Through the continuation of exceeding client and partner expectations, ETRONIKA has made a name for itself in the FinTech and financial services industry.
Know-how of technological and programming competences that was acquired over the years allowed the company to build cost-effective solutions for digital banking like the award-winning Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform BANKTRON, digital identity, smart retail and deliver them in a user-friendly and intuitive interface. A proven track-record of executed projects has gained ETRONIKA international recognition – in 2018 ETRONIKA was included in the Markets&Markets “Digital Banking Platforms Market – Global Forecast to 2023” report.
About ETRONIKA
ETRONIKA is Nordic FinTech company, offering digital platforms for finance and retail sectors, mobile payments solutions, digital services for point-of-sales terminals and other services. The company is based in Vilnius, Lithuania and is a part of NRD Companies.
NRD Companies – global information technology and consulting group of companies specialized in governance and economic digital infrastructure development. NRD Companies are controlled by INVL Technology – NASDAQ Vilnius listed closed-end investment in IT Businesses Company. INVL Technology managed companies operate as a cluster and implement joint projects in more than 50 countries worldwide.
back