APIs Pave Way for New Consumer, Business Digital Experiences

Technology, of course, is fast becoming central to everything a bank does.

Neeraj Gupta, vice president, B2B Solutions at FIS, told PYMNTS in an interview that application programming interfaces (APIs) can help financial institutions — including both banks and FinTechs — craft new experiences as consumers manage their daily financial tasks.

And transform B2B payments, too.

Access to the software intermediaries that allow two applications to talk to each other is key in doing so, in giving the flexibility needed to meet new expectations among individual and commercial clients. Gupta said an API ecosystem introduces an era of customization where bank products and services are tailored to the individual customer.

As he told PYMNTS, “The broader API ecosystem is, ultimately, a means to an end, offering new ways to organize data in pursuit of a better customer experience.”

Easily Accessible 

Now more than ever, he said, these APIs are accessible to financial services firms of all sizes. They can be held, deployed and used internally at providers such as FIS, and can be bundled so that even the smallest banks can craft new services and products in a streamlined fashion.

Gupta said that by harnessing APIs, providers, including FIS, can “ripple and modularize” new functions for bank clients in building-block fashion, which gives rise to a menu of choices as banks modernize their digital features. Alongside quick deployments, that broad range of choices is proving instrumental in transforming both consumer-facing banking and B2B commerce.

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There are any number of players in the accounts receivable (AR) and automation spaces that are improving the ways in which buyers and suppliers interact. FIS, he said, has sought to let client firms “bring in their own ecosystems — their [enterprise resource planning platform] providers, acquiring banks, accounting software providers — to keep things as simple as possible.”

“This helps orchestrate the way that invoices are submitted ‘into’ their buyers’ systems and then paid, and everything is updated in real time,” Gupta said.

That intuitive and automatic information flow reduces the manual processes that had been tied to cash reconciliation, updating enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and, eventually, closing the books.

Gupta noted that there’s still a sizable opportunity to transform B2B payments in industries that have been dominated by paper-based workflows, chiefly within the logistics, fulfilment and transportation verticals. Those industries, he said, are also marked by larger ticket transactions that and complex workflows.

Read more: Data, New Solutions Ease Switch From Paper Checks to Digital Payments

APIs “ease the frictions that occur downstream when it comes to the actual cash application,” he said.

By enabling all manner of departments and stakeholders to “talk” to one another through the aid of APIs, Gupta told PYMNTS that companies and banks can proactively future-proof their go-to-market strategies, getting ready for use cases that have yet to be discovered.

“The bank can create an experience that feels customized, that lets the end user feel they are occupying a ‘segment of one,’” Gupta said.