Token.io (Token), a turnkey open banking platform provider, said that it has conducted an end-to-end payment with public bank APIs for each of the CMA9 group.
Token co-founder Marten Nelson. Photo: courtesy of token.io.
The CMA9 comprises nine of the largest banks and building societies in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Token claims that it is the first payment initiation service provider (PISP) to have achieved the feat while adding that the milestone makes the UK the first in the world to have open and functioning Open Banking APIs.
The company through its universal open API banking platform, helps banks, merchants and other third party providers (TPPs) to connect to any bank in the European Union for requests for payments and account information. Thereby, its platform helps in solving the integration pain felt by the industry due to various, proprietary bank APIs.
Token co-founder Marten Nelson said: “This is a huge achievement, not just for Token, but for the whole banking ecosystem. Open Banking payments are faster than direct debits, more secure than credit cards and provide a richer user experience for consumers and businesses.
“The UK is paving the way forward to an API-led economy and we are delighted to have played such a significant part in giving end users simpler, faster banking that they have more control over.”
Token was called to take part by the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) in 2016 to provide open banking. The company claimed that it was successful in bringing together each of the banks’ implementation of the Open Banking APIs and bring down the complexity levels for developers by providing a single, unified platform for customers to connect to.
Token said that its self-serve testing method also helped banks to validate that their implementation of the flexible specification supported PISP functionality appropriately which included a myriad of authentication methods, multi-use data fields and optional endpoints.
Barclays retail banking managing director Catherine McGrath said: “Open Banking presents an exciting opportunity to evolve the way we currently bank and put our customers in charge of their data, enabling them to do exciting things with a broad range of parties.
“That is why it is great to be working together with Token and other third party providers to offer consumers better ways to manage their money.”