Kazakhstani banks embracing open APIs

Open APIs are starting to emerge as a trend in the market of IT solutions in Kazakhstan, with private banks actively exploring the potential of open APIs and the National Bank of Kazakhstan (National Bank) discussing how it will regulate open APIs in the financial sector. While awaiting regulations from the National Bank, many private banks are going ahead and opening up their platforms, working under the principle of “what is not prohibited is allowed”. This has helped open up a market for third-party FinTech developers such as Okauto.kz and Klesa.kz., which are already showing the value of open APIs to both consumers and banks. Open APIs are also already proving useful to the government as the e-government payment gateway has become much more productive in sending and receiving payments through the use of open APIs.

Open APIs are part of the government of Kazakhstan’s Digital Kazakhstan program, which has the goal of increasing electronic commerce and non-cash payments. The program plans to help the National Bank develop regulations for open APIs within the financial industry by the end of 2020.

Source: kursiv.kz