APIs and Bank Connectivity:

Corporate treasurers today need bank connectivity solutions to help them with cash visibility and cash management, fast and reliable payments, and increased business efficiency (which really means less time spent working in spreadsheets!) And APIs top the list: According to the The Strategic Treasurer 2021 Treasury Technology Survey Report, 73% of respondents view APIs as highly important to corporate treasury groups.

However, when it comes to banking APIs, the supply does not meet the demand. Only 56.1 of bank respondents to the CGI Transaction Banking Survey 2021 said that they will aim to offer access to corporates through open APIs. That leaves a vast quantity of the world’s banks that do not offer APIs today, and do not have plans to offer them in the near future.

As businesses expand, especially internationally, they also need to onboard new banks and open new accounts. More than half of respondents to the CGI survey work with 2-5 banks, stating that a single bank does not offer a wide enough range of services to satisfy their needs. Payments (72.9%) and cash management (67.7%) top the list of services they deem most critical.

Of course, the more accounts and banks needed, the more challenging bank connectivity gets. So if APIs aren’t the be all, end all answer, what is?

In its Corporate-to-Bank Integration: The Need for a Hybrid Approach report summary, research firm Celent says “Applying a modular approach to solving the challenges presented by the increasingly hybrid world of corporate-to-bank integration favors an outsourced, managed services approach. Managed services can reduce costs, increase scalability, limit upfront investment, standardize processes, and enable overlay services.”

In addition to the lower investment cost, managed services from a third-party bank connectivity provider also provide technical expertise. If you’re connecting directly to multiple financial services APIs, such as bank APIs and third-party treasury management APIs, you need to have the staff in-house with the expertise and availability to manage that connectivity through any bank updates or internal system changes.

Another benefit is coverage. We’ve previously written about how APIs are used for bank connectivity and about the gap we’re seeing between the hype of API adoption and the reality.

Fides offers connectivity with all banks — not just the ones that offer APIs. From SWIFT to host-to-host to regional connectivity channels such as EBICs, Fides has corporates covered. As Head of Group Treasury at LafargeHolcim, Markus Unternährer says, “As we onboard more and more banks, having one connection to Fides and having Fides taking care of that connectivity for us gives us peace of mind that we will not face any issues with the banks.”

And the Fides multibanking ecosystem provides access to additional treasury and finance solutions from our industry-leading partners.

Still want API connectivity? No problem: Fides supports that too.

Contact us to find out more!

Fides is the world leader in multibank connectivity, payments and transaction communications. A market leader for more than a century, Fides is committed to the principles of Open Banking, making treasury and financial operations as efficient, transparent and secure as possible for all organizations.

Fides provides everything organizations need for efficient cash and liquidity management, all through a single platform — along with connectivity to more than 13,000 financial institutions through an unmatched range of methods and channels. Thousands of companies around the globe rely on Fides’ connectivity capabilities and comprehensive workflow, reporting, conversion, validation and security services, for their own businesses and for extending services to their clients.

Whether you access via the secure Fides ONEHub or take advantage of our seamless integration with third-party ERP, TMS and other backend systems, Fides is the only platform you need.