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Bank Mandiri provides open banking API for e-commerce, fintech
Bank Mandiri had partnered up 100 e-commerce, fintech and start-up firms.
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State-owned Bank Mandiri buildings in Jakarta pictured in this undated file photo. (Courtesy of Bank Mandiri)
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tate-owned Bank Mandiri, the nation’s largest lender by assets, has provided open banking application programming interface (API) services for e-commerce, financial technology (fintech) and start-up firms to integrate their businesses with the bank.
Bank Mandiri vice president director Hery Gunardi said on Monday that the bank was opening its services, such as payments, transactions, e-money top-ups and lending, for digital partners to ensure better convenience.
“In this era of tech disruption, we have to open ourselves up and collaborate with other parties to provide convenience for our customers, as well as increase our business potential,” he said during a virtual press briefing.
Hery said the bank could benefit by receiving additional fee-based income from every transaction made through the portal, while its partners could also benefit by improving their apps’ services and making them end-to-end.
By opening its API, Bank Mandiri is allowing fintech firms and e-wallet providers like Dana and LinkAja to directly access its system and letting customers top up their e-wallets and e-money cards directly in the app without having to switch to its mobile banking app or going to the ATM.
It also allows e-commerce firm Bukalapak’s storeowners to directly apply for loans with Bank Mandiri to grow their business, said chief executive officer Rachmat Kaimuddin.
“This can also help store owners turn their businesses from being unbankable to bankable and scale up,” he said.
Bank Mandiri’s information technology and operations director, Rico Usthavia Frans, added that the bank had partnered with 100 e-commerce, fintech and start-up firms with the API portal.
“We hope that we can increase the number of partners to 150 by the end of this year from the 2,000 potential start-ups and fintech firms that we’ve identified,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rico said the bank had allocated Rp 1.7 trillion (US$114.42 million) for its IT capital expenditure (capex) this year. He also said the investment for the open banking API project was relatively small as the bank was opening its internal API only to external parties.
