UOB sees muted demand for APIs

Singapore

MUCH hype has surrounded the use of banking application programming interfaces (APIs) when thus far, demand has been muted, said UOB's group head of banking technology Graeme Greenaway.

APIs enable other brands, corporates, fintechs and software developers to "talk" to the bank to access a breadth of services, including funds transfers and account enquiries. APIs are basically sets of requirements - routines and protocols - issued by a business or an institution that determine how one application communicates with another. For example, a Google Maps API enables app developers to embed Google Maps in web pages. With APIs, software developers save on time needed to build new apps, and can update the information embedded.