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Banking is becoming more and more invisible. Today, customers are more fast paced and so are their banking needs. Transactions – big or small, need to be quick and intelligent. Happy lifestyles play a major role in the lives of our customers. Hence, at DBS, we are making banking joyful
“Banking is necessary; banks are not” – Bill Gates
As customer expectations continue to transform, technology continues to disrupt banking.
Banking industry is moving towards being more agile and nimble. We are all experimenting with banking solutions and making them more evolved. Banks are re-imagining banking to create an integrated ecosystem for the customers by participating in their journeys. So, it is important for us to get inspired by the technology companies and adopt their models of transformation and digital disruption.
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With digital wallets, UPI and QR codes, payments have taken lead in being digital to the core. And then there is next level of banking – loans, quick account opening, investments and so much more. True digitalization happens when we talk of banking in entirety and transform that into a complete digital journey for the customer. With Bitcoins and blockchain further disrupting the industry, the possibility of invisible banking becomes even stronger. I am a firm believer of the fact that the transformation has just begun and bigger surprises await us.
Re-imagining banking – a strong ecosystem
Look at a consumer today – everything runs on the device he/she owns. It is a strongly knitted network of needs, lifestyle choices, education, family, social network and ofcourse banking. How can we then talk of banking as a standalone act? I believe that we need to develop an ecosystem for consumers; ecosystem of sorts by weaving in various customer journeys. Consumer needs, aspirations, consumption patterns, shopping carts, monthly bills, offers, contextual marketing, experiences, the list can go if we continue to deep dive – all these need to be carved into one strong ecosystem.
Plug in or plug out
APIs enable building this ecosystem. Moreover, to strive and run through longer races, we need to build on one another. The power of collaborated systems looks infinite. I feel this model helps us capture the best of the world – imagine if best banking builds on best shopping platform, which builds on best deals that in turn builds on best search engine. This has enormous capacity to tune in to the diverse customer journeys. We, at DBS, are excited for this digital transformation powered by our strong API model.
Talking to our systems through world’s largest
API platform
All in, DBS has launched over 160 APIs in the region across more than 20 categories. More categories will be added in response to demand. The APIs allow other brands, corporates, fintechs and software developers to “talk” to the bank to access a breadth of services, including funds transfers and peer-to-peer payment services. More than 50 companies in Singapore such as AIG, McDonalds, MSIG, PropertyGuru, Activpass, Food Panda and sgCarMart are already on the API platform. A huge pool of innovators and programmers is already leveraging these APIs. We are making significant efforts to engage with this pool of innovators and programmers to get constant feedback. Recently, we organized our first “DBS Developers Night” where we introduced some of the new features and got great feedback on how we can improve the developer experience to make our APIs easy and seamless.
Making banking joyful – engineering the future of banking
In our quest to making banking joyful, APIs will have a major role to play. They will facilitate infinite imagination fostering strong innovation led by engineers all around. They will help us penetrate deeper into the customer journeys and build a lifestyle oriented banking system. At DBS Asia Hub 2, one of India’s finest workplaces, our engineering force is building many such APIs and building the future of banking. Visit our API port
Authored by Mohit Kapoor, Head- DBS Asia Hub 2
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