What Go-to-Market strategy in API Banking?

In the first two blog posts on the theme of “API Banking, a blessing or a malediction for corporate banks?”, I presented what API Banking and its “by-products”, Banking-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance, mean in the context of Corporate Banking. I also reviewed the opportunities for the corporations and the banks servicing them which may lead to conclude that API Banking is a blessing for both.

I then looked at the dark side of the coin since I believe that APIs are a highly disruptive technology and that API Banking will reshape the Financial Services industry much more than most think today, in ways that could be disastrous to the ill-prepared. In particular, the traditional relationship banking practised by corporate banks will be greatly affected by the reduced visibility, the dis-intermediation and the commoditization facilitated by standardised APIs. As a result, banks could be relegated to invisible infra-providers of commoditized products, leading to an ultra-competitive environment where even a small automated transaction can be auctioned.

In the third post, I proposed a few ways to minimise the risks whilst grasping the huge opportunities brought by API Banking, arguing that it is a door opener towards a new relationship banking paradigm. In particular, banks could reinvent themselves by becoming facilitators of their corporate customers’ e.Commerce, especially B2B.

I am now focusing on an issue which is central to the API banking economy, that of the go-to-market strategy of banks and how it needs to be re-thought.