Three Reasons Why Open APIs Will Transform Fintech Innovation in Emerging Markets

FIBR · Jul 20, 2016

Open APIs can be crucial in getting a new product or set of features to market quickly and efficiently. There are well-known APIs such as Facebook and Google sign-in for authentication, APIs like Stripe and Paypal for payments, APIs for navigation including Waze and Google Maps, and many others for nearly every type of service imaginable. While these constitute a major presence in the most mature technology centers of the world such as Silicon Valley, we have seen that APIs prove just as critical if not more, in the developing world, and through the lens of innovation in inclusive fintech.

In a recently published BFA report that examines the role of open APIs for financial services providers in emerging economies, we also make the case for fully open APIs in financial services to fuel growth, and to the benefit of financial service providers and unbanked customers. Here, we examine three practical reasons why Open APIs will spur significant innovation in the growing field of technology in financial inclusion.

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Where Aggregators – and Open APIs – Fit Into Financial Inclusion

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Payment APIs: What, Why, and for Whom? An Introduction to Payment Interfaces & the Kenyan Market