A lot of work goes into testing and selecting the right banking API provider. The right banking API provider will lessen your headache and help you focus on growing other essential aspects of your business.
Developers have a wide range of integration options. Since the open banking concept has gained popularity in Asia and North America, the number of API providers in these regions has increased.
But, how do you choose the right financial API provider for integration? Here are a few factors to consider before you select an API provider.
Strategic Goal
Before selecting a banking API provider, you should determine the strategic integration goal. It could be improving the customer experience, cross-selling products, acquiring additional customer insights, or something else. Once you have it in place, you’ll know what APIs to look out for.
Developer Community
A developer community is where many developers gather to discuss and contribute to solving a common problem. Dwolla is one such community. Dwolla Community is a platform where Dwolla users can connect, share knowledge, and get support related to the Dwolla payment platform. It’s a place for developers, businesses, and anyone using Dwolla to ask questions, discuss best practices, and learn from each other.
Being part of a developer community can help you gain the information and advice you need to acquire the necessary skills to accomplish your goals.
Proper Documentation
Evaluate the documentation in detail. Look for elaborate documentation with FAQs. Some API providers have less standard documentation. Things like whether the APIs are paid or not, or if they have some tech limitations (for example, the Number of queries per hour), etc., can only be understood once you go through the API documentation in detail.
API Offerings
You need to analyze different sets of offerings by any banking API provider closely. This will help you identify the proper set of APIs you need, and it will also tell you if you can solve problems by integrating several APIs. If a solution can be made by incorporating several APIs, then it helps you save time from building everything from scratch.
Standard & Legal Compliance
All the developers working with you should confirm the security standards of the selected APIs. The company’s legal department should examine whether data sharing meets legislative requirements and establish a process for obtaining permission from users.
Fraud Monitoring Features
Check if the API provider has a fraud monitoring system integrated with the APIs. Nowadays, the chances of financial fraud are very high, and it is imperative to have a proper crime and fraud detection system in place. Businesses and banks must invest more in enhancing their fraud detection capabilities.
Sandbox-To-Live Time
Another parameter to look out for is the time required to move APIs from the Sandbox to live. This is known as the Sandbox sign-off phase, which varies between API providers. Ideally, you should choose the one that makes it easy to switch from the sandbox environment to a live one.
Error Management
You should select the API provider with a proper error management system. Most banking API providers have a very strenuous error management system, where they throw an error, and businesses like yours couldn’t make anything out of it. Ideally, all error messages should be simple and easy to understand.
You should look for these parameters while selecting the right API provider. The APIs available can be used to plug and play, allowing you to easily build and launch your applications.
With many types of banking APIs being launched in the market, API banking services are only expected to grow popular in the future. If you run a business, you should try out APIs to automate many mundane tasks.
Head over to Zwitch’s API documents section. We provide developer-friendly APIs with proper documentation for Payments, Collections, Verification, and more.
