Overview and approach v2.0.0-rc1
- Matthew Bell
Contents
Version summary
The intention of Version 2.0 of the Account Information and Payments Initiation API standards is to unlock a range of additional functionality that has been requested by both API Providers and Third Parties.
The scope of the proposed v2.0 standard directly addresses feedback raised by the market with respect to the current v1.0 standards set. This feedback was received via:
One-on-one feedback from the Pilot Development Partners,
Findings of the Pilot Close Report,
Discussions held with the API Working Group and Technical Sub-Group,
Wider market engagement, including from two focus group sessions and ad-hoc engagement.
It is worth noting that the development of the proposed v2.0 commenced in April 2019 and has progressed with feedback and input from all registered Standards Users of the API Centre. This release candidate should be considered as being in draft format and it is open for industry feedback via the ‘feedback form' as below in the feedback section.
Approach for development
API Centre Standards Users and governance groups endorsed the following approach for v2.0 as part of the development process:
Keep Payments Initiation & Account Information together
The Payments Initiation & Account Information specifications are to be kept together as a bundle, and both be iterated to v2.0 as one standards set (i.e. as opposed to separating them). This was considered most efficient, and kept the synergies between the specifications intact.
Jump to v2.0.0
There will not be a new minor version of the standard (i.e., no v1.1 of the standard will be released). Instead, we will focus on the major benefits that will be available via a new major version 2.0. This approach was endorsed as it was considered this would deliver the most benefit for effort required, and was seen to accurately reflect market feedback and demand.
The NZ market will be selective in the features we adopt from OBIE’s next standards
The UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity’s (OBIE) upstream standards (versions 3.0 and draft v4.0) have a wide range of new features and changes. Not all of these new features are relevant to the NZ market, or offer significant benefit. Accordingly, the approach taken was to select and adopt only the most relevant and beneficial of the features of OBIE’s upstream standards into the NZ v2.0 standard.
Key functionality for v2.0
The below functionality has been highlighted as the key areas for development for v2.0.0 of the existing API standards. This functionality unlocks a wide range of use cases for API Providers and Third Parties, and is considered to bring the most value for the NZ ecosystem for the next iteration of the API standards.
Enduring Payment Consent
There is very strong market demand for the enduring payment consent functionality, and this should be delivered as a part of the v2.0 standard.
From a technical perspective, the enduring payment consent functionality is nested inside v2.0’s Payments Initiation specification (i.e. enduring payment consent will not be separate specification).
Further information specifically relating to the Enduring Payment Consent functionality can be found at the below location(s):
‘Decoupled flow’ in the API standard unlocks major benefits
This feature that is present in the U.K.’s OBIE v3.0 standard directly addresses many of the identified pain points and user experience friction that is present in the current v1.0.
The introduction of a decoupled authorisation flow provides another option for how the Customer can authorise consent with the API Provider. This enables API Providers to offer a better mobile device customer experience.
Further information specifically relating to the ‘decoupled flow’ functionality can be found at the below location: