HPS Builds API For FinTechs To Connect To Banks

Payments software company HPS is launching an API for other FinTech innovators to integrate into banking systems.

The company announced news on Monday (May 21) that its PowerCARD Connect-Open API aims to help FinTech developers integrate mobile payment, tokenization, biometrics and other emerging banking technologies into their own solutions. The rollout follows a pilot version of the API launched last year, HPS noted, adding that the API can support “servicing” and “transacting,” enabling push payment authorization and transacting capabilities. Payments can be processed through PowerCARD, its suite of payment solutions.

“Against a backdrop of rapid change in the payment sector, FinTech firms need a platform to expand, and banks need new technologies that enable them to future-proof payment services to deliver fast, convenient and secure digital solutions in an evolving landscape,” said HPS Head of Marketing and Innovation Sebastien Slim in a statement. “To this end, we have created an ecosystem designed to foster effective celebration with those at the cutting-edge of the technology.”

HPS is based in Morocco, with its services expanding across Africa and Europe. The EU has been an especially active market for financial services APIs, especially after PSD2 regulations came into effect that require financial institutions to make data available to third-party developers.

Earlier this month, another firm, Revolut, announced its own Open API solution for business customers to more easily manage payments.

“In plain English,” the company said at the time of its announcement, “APIs allow you to do things like ask Alexa to play your favorite song on Spotify or allow you to log into the platform using your Facebook account.”

The company added that APIs enable businesses to more seamlessly automate financial operations by linking directly with data stored by banks.

At the time, Revolut said banks had been weary of embracing APIs. But research published last month from ACI Worldwide and Ovum found financial institutions are increasingly acknowledging the value in API technology, with 92 percent of European banking having a strategy to further develop APIs, followed by 86 percent of banks in Asia.