DBS bank has unveiled the “world’s largest” banking API developer platform, launching an unprecedented 155 separate APIs for the Singapore market.
 

The platform will support a range of APIs across 20 financial technology categories, including funds transfers, rewards, and real-time payments, which also includes DBS’s own PayLah! payments app.

DBS has established more than 50 corporate collaborations to support the API launch, including partnerships with AIG, McDonald’s, MSIG, and local real-estate listing site, PropertyGuru, as well as start-ups Activpass, FoodPanda, soCash and aged care provider Homage.

The unique DBS-Homage partnership will allow Singaporeans to pay for an in-home care assessment directly as well as receive “a custom care plan” through their credit card reward points.

Through the Property Guru collaboration, customers will be able to receive real-time affordability assessments for home loans, instantly determining whether they qualify for a DBS mortgage.

DBS’s group head of strategy and planning, and head of ecosystems, Shee Tse Koon, said the bank will continue to pursue collaborative arrangements as part of their ongoing customer engagement strategy.

“The digital momentum that we see today is just the tip of the iceberg,” Koon said. “By creating ecosystem partnerships – collaborating, creating and innovating together with partners – we believe that we can provide the best products, solutions and experiences.

“Today’s launch is a bold move in the direction of shaping the future of banking, with the customer at the heart of the banking experience.”

David Gledhill, DBS’s group chief information officer, said: “DBS embarked on a journey to transform our tech infrastructure nine years ago. With that early start, we are now ahead of many others in being digital to the core. This has given us an edge – enabling us to operate with fintech-like ability and nimbleness, and also platform-like inclusiveness.”

Last year, DBS’s chief Singapore rival OCBC Bank became the first Southeast Asian bank to launch an open API with the release of the Connect2OCBC developer portal. Today, the bank has 43 separate APIs available to developers, including the recent release of bank’s GIRO API in September 2017 – a Singapore first.