Are Banking’s new bridge builders are leveling the playing field??? Yusuf Bhandarkar www.multimediastudio.net

I recently took a quiz on a new financial services app designed for women. It was meant to analyse what kind of a financial personality one has. I was 'cautious cabbage'— someone who worried a bit too much and second guessed their financial decisions. It was pretty spot on. I'm the sort of person who might spot a fixed deposit with a high interest rate offered by a small bank, but wouldn't jump at it because of my caution-first instincts. The future, however, is moving in a decidedly more adventurous direction. Small banks are increasingly arming themselves to fight larger banks for the wallet share of customers. And APIs—the tech intermediary that allows two applications to communicate—are the great equaliser. The rise in digital financial activity due to online payments, digital lending, and the emergence of neobanks has put APIs at the centre of digital banking. And companies like Perfios, M2P, Setu, and Cashfree, which offer these bridge-like services, are seeing interest both from financial institutions as well as investors.

Their ceiling for growth is also exceptionally high—APIs only account for about 2% of all banking operations in India, and their traction is growing by the day. When it comes to functions like lending, APIs are shaking up the way banks do business. "All of this decision making is happening at almost a fraction of a second. Do I have to lend to a customer or not? That is a decision that is being done by an API itself," Says one of the executive. Also it doesn't hurt that API-enabled banking results in cost savings for banks. In our article today is about this increasingly important set of companies, and how they are spotting gaps in financial services and building bridges to overcome them. You can read it here www.multimediastudio.net