EBA issues papers on open banking and cryptotechnologies
The Euro Banking Association marked the opening of its two-day flagship event in Milan with commentaries on two drivers of change within the payments industry.
The Euro Banking Association marked the opening of its two-day flagship event in Milan with commentaries on two drivers of change within the payments industry.
The Euro Banking Association (EBA) said that its annual two-day conference in Milan, Italy has attracted over 1,000 delegates for the first time as it published information papers on open banking and cryptotechnologies.
‘Understanding the Business Relevance of Open APIs and Open Banking for Banks’ and ‘Applying Cryptotechnologies to Trade Finance’, both compiled by the EBA Working Group on Alternative Electronic Payments were issued on the first day of EBAday 2016, whose theme this year is ‘A brave new world for payments’.
In his opening speech, EBA chairman Wolfgang Ehrmann emphasised the need for industry practitioners to understand the impact of emerging technologies in the market and of the opportunities they offer. He also stressed the importance of collective undertakings to help unlock the value of new technologies for the European payments market and its customers:
“For a network industry like ours, it will probably take more than staying on top of technological progress and other change drivers to make a difference for our customers: new technology will have to be combined with the right co-operative approach and effort to create the expected positive effects,” said Ehrmann.
“The two information papers are aimed at helping decision-makers within banks in particular to position the upcoming changes,” said Daniel Szmukler, the EBA’s director, association services.
“On the one hand, the use of open application programming interfaces (APIs) can enable open banking business strategies since APIs are the pivot between products and distribution. New combinations of services, functionality and data as well as novel distribution channels may be created, which will especially thrive and create customer value if they are based on industry-wide API standards.
“On the other hand, cryptotechnologies have the potential to transform, among other things, the trade finance business of banks. They can make the value chain more transparent, reduce error rates and credit risk as well as cut internal costs in transacting with other participants.”