BNP Paribas Fortis Launches Open Banking Developer Portal

BNP Paribas Fortis is opening up another procurement avenue for digital banking services. The Belgium-based bank is inviting external developers to develop and test new digital banking services using the bank’s APIs and internal sandbox. According to Finextra, the sandbox will allow third-party developers to test an Account Information Services (AIS) API, which allows access to account balances and history via third-party applications, as well as a Payment Initiation Service (PIS) API to initiate payments via third parties. The move is enabled by the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which has, over the past year, driven banks to promote open banking services and spur innovation. In order for a third-party developer to deploy new services using the Bank’s APIs, they must first obtain certification from the Belgian central bank. The provider will then need to present this certification to BNP Paribas Fortis and obtain consent from the bank’s customers to access their accounts.