Finance automation with PSD2
Since September 2019, more banks have been releasing their mandatory API to allow regulated third parties to connect to the payment accounts of their customers.
At Ibanity, we have been integrating hundreds of these APIs and it turns out our predictions were verified: Without API aggregators, PSD2 is most probably doomed. The technical barriers to entry for fintechs are still way too high. Add to this the fact that there are only a couple of hundred companies that applied for an AISP or PISP license in Europe so far, it does not look very encouraging right now.
Read our article: “API aggregators key to PSD2 success” for more information.
The future of account information is in automation
Business Process Automation or workflow automation, has been a prominent topic for a while in the B2B industry. It’s now becoming an area of investment for several banks and Fintechs. The workflow automation market itself is estimated to reach more than USD 10 Billion by the end of 2023. Combining workflow automation with open banking capabilities brought by PSD2, brings opportunities to automate repetitive tasks and moreover paves the way for companies to truly go beyond banking by integrating their banking experience, and data, into their business processes and tools.
Your money, your rules
In order to be everywhere at any time, banks and fintechs keep creating new channels and user interfaces for their customers, which they will usually transform into commercial cross-selling gateways later on. The customer however is meanwhile drowning into an ocean of financial applications that increasingly look and feel the same and sometimes even offer the same added value.
It also means that, as a customer, you get yet another interface you are expected to use every day, even if you already have another product in your current toolchain that provides you the same value. Another annoying point is that integration between that bank provided software with your other tools is always rather limited and based on manual file exports.
It’s your money, your bank account, your data, so you should be able to define your own personal experience around it and include it in your current processes. Yet, for years, banks have limited your capabilities to keep you in their very own channels and products.
Open up with Ponto
We built Ponto with business process automation in mind. We wanted to create a way for businesses to decide which software can access which bank account and more. That is exactly what Ponto does: it allows you to connect your bank account to the software you are already comfortable with.
At any given time, Ponto customers can manage those consents, revoke them and trigger a Strong Customer Authentication flow whenever needed.
Next to using partner integrations, Ponto also provides an API for companies willing to integrate with their custom software. This opens up the possibilities even more for companies to literally include their banking experience in anything.
Ponto + Zapier = 🚀
Ever took a moment to think about all the thing you could build on top of your banking data? With our Zapier integration, you can now connect your bank account from 150+ banks in Europe to all the saas services available in Zapier. These integrations will unleash the true potential of PSD2 account information and finally offer organizations the flexibility they have longed for during the past decade.
Some of our customers have already been using Zapier to build customized financial dashboards, action lists in Airtable, alerts by email or SMS, and much more.
We can’t wait to see what our customers will build with Zapier and are very excited to work on the future of finance automation in a PSD2 world.
