Open Banking & API - Innovation and Applications in Financial Services

English Version (中文版本在下方)

The Idea of Open Banking

Open banking was first proposed in the UK in 2015. Its main purpose was to share financial data that had previously been closed off, so that third-party companies could create more consumer-focused services. At the time, the UK government gathered major domestic banks together to jointly define API standards and rules related to open banking. The hope was that by opening APIs and allowing banks to cooperate with other banks and third-party service providers, consumer data could be used more effectively and efficiently, while also enabling more diverse financial services.

Comparison With Traditional Banking

Taiwan’s Current Situation

In Taiwan, an open API platform jointly built by financial institutions officially launched in October 2019. It mainly provides access to public financial information such as deposit rates, loan programs, foreign exchange rates, and insurance pricing. In the first wave alone, as many as 23 banks provided APIs, and 6 third-party service providers joined as well, including Mabow Note, CWMoney, Invoice Carrier, loan comparison platforms, employee-benefit integration platforms, and insurance record tools.

At present, Taiwan has only opened the first phase of APIs, so the services that can be built are still limited. But if the Financial Supervisory Commission later opens the second and third phases, third-party providers will be able to use the newly available data to offer account aggregation services, conduct cross-account transactions, and more.

UK Examples

Using the UK, the early pioneer, as an example, open banking policy there already covers more than 99 percent of the financial market. So far there have been no major disputes, fraud cases, or data leakage incidents, and many innovative open banking applications have emerged.

In daily consumer finance, one type of service rounds each purchase amount up to the nearest whole number and automatically saves the spare change into a savings account. For example, if you spend NT$570 on a product, the app may show NT$600 and save the extra difference automatically, helping you build savings almost without noticing.

There are also automatic balance top-up services. When the balance in a designated account falls below a preset threshold, money is automatically transferred from a checking account to a deposit account. If the user runs short of money at the end of the month, some services may even recommend extremely low-interest borrowing options, using small-scale financing to improve liquidity under relatively low risk. One UK example is Safety Net Credit.

Enterprise Applications

On the enterprise side, open banking has also created many possibilities. For example, the Japanese HR management system Freee connects to bank APIs so that users can link bank accounts and use the service to pay salaries and bonuses.

Meanwhile, the globally well-known online accounting system QuickBooks lets users connect to many supported banks, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to record different cash flows in detail, match them accurately against bank balances, and reconcile every item of income and expense immediately.

For example, if regulators in Taiwan approve broader API access in the future, the country’s largest cloud-based enterprise cash management system, Nextrek, could build on its existing services and further integrate directly with multiple local banks, allowing account transaction data and online bookkeeping to sync in near real time. This would make cloud bookkeeping functions much more powerful.

Conclusion

As the times change, the closed ecosystem of traditional banking is bound to shift. The transformation toward open banking is already underway, and a more user-first, more convenient financial environment is already being born.

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Open Banking & API - 金融服務的創新與應用

中文版本

開放銀行概念

開放銀行 (open banking) 最早在 2015 年由英國提出，主要宗旨為共享原本封閉的金融數據，讓第三方企業創造更多消費者至尚的新服務。當時英國政府招集了國內各大銀行齊聚一堂，與他們一同制定 Open Banking 相關的 API (Application Program Interface) 標準與規範。希望藉由銀行開放 API 與其他銀行或第三方服務業者 (TSP) 合作，消費者資料能夠被更完善、有效率的應用，並能提供更多元金融服務。

與傳統銀行的比較

台灣現況

而台灣在 2019 年的 10 月中由金融機構一同打造的開放 API 平台也正式上線，主要提供金融公開資料的查詢，像存款利率、信貸方案、外幣匯率、保單價格…等等。第一批上架 API 的銀行高達 23 家，且有 6 家第三方業者 (TSP) 加入，包括麻布記帳、CWMoney、發票存摺、實貸比較網、員工福利整合平台、保單管家/保險小存摺。

目前，台灣因只開放第一階段的 API 因此能達到的服務有限，但將來金管會若開放第二、三階段的 API，第三方業者 (TSP) 便能利用開放的資料提供帳戶整合服務、進行跨帳戶的交易…等等。

英國實例

以先行者的英國為例，目前開放銀行政策已覆蓋超過 99% 的金融市場，且至今尚未有爭議、詐騙、或資料外洩的事件，其中也出現了許多創新的開放銀行應用。

日常方面的服務有：**將單筆消費的金額湊到整數，多的零頭由系統存進儲蓄帳戶。**舉例來說，當你消費 570 元的商品，應用程式會顯示你消費了 600 元，並將多出的 3 元存起來，讓你不知不覺間累積財富。

另外還有自動填補餘額的服務，當用戶指定帳號的金額低於預設數字，便會自動從支票帳戶轉款到存款帳戶裡，若月底沒有錢還會推薦你極低利率的貸款，在低風險的前提下運用小額融資增加周轉性，代表服務有英國的 Safety Net Credit。

企業端應用

而企業方面的應用，也因為開放銀行開創了許多可能，例如來自日本的人事管理系統 Freee 利用與各銀行 API 的串接，使用戶能夠利用其服務連通銀行帳戶並為員工發薪、分紅。

另外，全球知名的線上會計系統 Quickbook 則能夠提供用戶選擇許多與其連接的銀行，使中小企業詳細記錄各種金流並正確地與帳戶數字對上，立即核對每筆收入與支出。

舉例而言，若金管會通過開放更全面的 API 應用，國內目前最大的雲端企業金流管理系統 Nextrek 便可在現有完善的服務基礎上，讓使用者進一步與本土多家銀行整合同步，達到帳戶交易資訊與線上記帳串連的立即性，此類雲端記帳的功能便可因此更加完善。

結語

隨著時代更迭，傳統銀行封閉式的生態勢必將做出改變，開放銀行的轉型已是現在進行式，一個使用者至上、服務更便利的金融環境已然誕生。

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