As strong advocates of open banking adoption, we’re excited to announce the launch of the new Open Banking SmartBridge. Our new offering provides financial institutions and banks with a simple, secure way to connect their legacy IT systems to a plethora of third-party apps and services. It’s our hope that the SmartBridge helps to usher in the adoption of open banking here in the United States.
For those unfamiliar with open banking, it’s a concept that puts the consumer in the driver’s seat when it comes to their finances. Consumers get to choose how much of their personal information they’d like to share with banks and financial institutions. Likewise, open banking is beneficial for banks as it can generate new revenue possibilities and improve customer relationships. Therefore, this new banking trend is seen as a win-win for financial institutions and consumers alike.
However, there are several obstacles on the path to open banking adoption. For one, organizational silos in banks can cause IT departments to be removed from the business strategy. Also, the question of IT availability plays a part when making changes to processes and infrastructure. Yet, the main hurdle to open banking implementation is that the majority of banks and financial institutions rely on the mainframe as their system of record. These businesses must securely and reliably open up their core banking systems to millions more transactions a day. That’s why they need an integration layer between the old and the new.
The Open Banking SmartBridge is the key to successfully overcoming the challenges of open banking adoption. It enables core banking systems to connect with third party open banking standards and APIs. With it, banks can integrate fintechs and their legacy systems using industry-standard APIs without the typical developer needs or timeframes. SmartBridge also allows for real-time outbound calls from COBOL and PL/I applications to AML, KYC and fraud-detection systems, all without writing any code.
In the end, the Open Banking SmartBridge helps bring speed and flexibility to the mainframe by reducing the labor required to create APIs by up to 90%. It takes the already reliable mainframe and extends those advantages to the rest of your technology stack.
To learn more about how the Open Banking SmartBridge can help your company successfully implement open banking practices, download the overview (PDF).
-Amanda Bierfeld Williams, Marketing Coordinator at GT Software