8 ms·

First Open Banking API Sandbox in the UK

89 points by ichaib 11y ago

tonylemesmer 11y ago
seems to be struggling with load. Anyone else?
- aembleton 11y ago
  Not working for me either. I haven't read it all yet but I think this article is related: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/16/banking-industry-uber-moment-standard-open-banking-working-group http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/16/banking...
  - cmdkeen 11y ago
    https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API seems to be related to them. The snazzy writeup suggests loads of people are involved but the project has a pretty low number of contributors. Is this the whole organisation or a subset of people doing some work relating to the concept. The idea of a common API is really fantastic mind you.
    - sredfern2 11y ago
      Hi Folks, Simon here from the Open Bank Project. We're based in Berlin but were involved from the early stages in the report published by the UK Treasury. We put up the sandbox to get feedback on the APIs etc. Guess we have some high load on one of our servers at the moment! Feel free to ask any questions. (AMA??)
      - underscorer 11y ago
        While I wait for the pages to load... Any fintechs (or other) actually planning on implementing this API? What is the relationship like with the industry? (Is there feedback being implemented in the API?) More information would help. There seems to be interest around the world to change/modernize the financial industry for consumers. Thanks for taking questions.
aembleton 11y ago
Finally loaded. Here is the blurb from their website: UK Open Banking A demo of Open Banking APIs in the UK In February 2016, a group of experts from the banking, FinTech, security and open data communities published a framework to deliver an open standard for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for UK banks. This work, led by HM Treasury, aims to increase competition and innovation in and around banking to improve outcomes for customers and thus further support the UK’s world-leading FinTech industry. The European Union is rapidly advancing legislation (PSD2) that will, upon implementation in the next two years, require banks in the EU to open their payment and transaction systems to certified third parties. This is a good moment for the UK to take a leadership role and influence the EU and beyond. We took this opportunity to reveal the first Open Banking API sandbox specificaly targeted at supporting discussion around the UK Open Banking standard. The sandbox we are showing today provides a selection of API calls relevant to the UK Open Banking Standards report. Feel free to explore the calls. We believe our technology gives the UK a tremendous headstart and access to a vibrant Fintech developer community. Click below and enjoy!
- aembleton 11y ago
  Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenBankProject https://twitter.com/OpenBankProject Github: https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/ https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/ API Documentation: https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/wiki https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/wiki API Explorer: https://uk-apiexplorer.openbankproject.com https://uk-apiexplorer.openbankproject.com
- sredfern2 11y ago
  thanks for your patience, should be faster now!
aembleton 11y ago
I just gave them my email address and was taken through to Mailchimp, where their address is given as being in Berlin! Strange that this is supposed to be led by HM Treasury.
- beejiu 11y ago
  I think the language is slightly confusing on their website. It appears they took part in a HM Treasury led consultation, along with 38 other organisations. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413766/PU1793_Open_data_response.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... (page 13)
neximo4 11y ago
This doesn't look HM Treasury-ey is this by some other organisation?
- ichaib 11y ago
  Let by us at the Open Bank Project (www.openbankproject.com)
  - neximo4 11y ago
    How does this work. Will banks be using the same API structure in general, or is it more sort of an advice type of thing. Also what type of operations are intended to be supported (read/write?)
    - sredfern2 11y ago
      The report sets out a framework rather than a specification at this point. It talks about a phased approach starting with open data (e.g. branches, products) then transaction history and then write (e.g. payment) options. PSD2 from the EU might well influence the operations supported first.
    - sredfern2 11y ago
      HM Treasury report defo aims at the UK Banks supporting the same API - which is the mission of Open Bank Project.
- sjtgraham 11y ago
  The report was commissioned by the government and delivered by a private company Open Data Institute Limited. This sandbox is from another private company Open Bank Project aka Tesobe.
krstck 11y ago
I've been dreaming of a standardized banking API for as long as I've been using online banking. It crushes my soul every time Mint makes me send them my actual log in credentials just to scrape transaction data. Really hope this catches on, but I think too many orgs have a vested interest in being the gate-keepers of your banking data.
- joering2 11y ago
  Mint has always pulled my data automatically from BOA, Chase and Wellfargo. Which banks are you using??
  - krstck 11y ago
    Mint is logging in on your behalf, unless you have a different service than I do.
    - sredfern2 11y ago
      Yep, the OBP approach is to use OAuth (currently 1.0a) so the App doesn't have to see the credentials.
- sredfern2 11y ago
  Thanks!
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
joefarish 11y ago
If you are interested in this, take a look at Mondo: https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ Some news coverage here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking-mondo-hopes-to-become-the-google-or-facebook-of-the-sector http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking... http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-got-the-banks-worried/ http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-g... http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ceo-wants-to-build-a-bank-for-people-who-hate-banks http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ce...
joefarish 11y ago
If you are interested in this, take a look at Mondo: https://getmondo.co.uk/ https://getmondo.co.uk/ They are launching soon and will have an API: https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ Some news coverage here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking-mondo-hopes-to-become-the-google-or-facebook-of-the-sector http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking... http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-got-the-banks-worried/ http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-g... http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ceo-wants-to-build-a-bank-for-people-who-hate-banks http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ce...
thesehands 11y ago
see also teller.io for the UK, Stevie gave a great talk on the same issue at a hackernews london meet up last year.
sjtgraham 11y ago
If you're in the UK and want a banking API (including payments and transfers), I'm building http://teller.io/ http://teller.io/. It's been in private beta about 2.5 months and access will be opening more broadly soon. I couldn't wait for banks to get themselves into gear so I reverse engineered all of their mobile apps, took their private APIs and expose a single unified API through Teller. Here is a video of me cURL-ing my bank account yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWccFD0wv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWccFD0wv8 Here is a CLI one of my beta testers @sebinsua/@nouswaves made for his bank account: https://github.com/sebinsua/teller-cli https://github.com/sebinsua/teller-cli So far the RBS banks, e.g. Natwest are in prod. If you bank with them, want super early access, understand it's beta product and will give some feedback: sg <> @ <> teller.io
- neximo4 11y ago
  How did you reverse engineer the Natwest/Ulster/RBS app. It is my understanding they use certificate pinning?
  - martinald 11y ago
    Certificate pinning is easy to defeat.
    - neximo4 11y ago
      Doesn't exactly answer the question..
      - alcari 11y ago
        If you can run the app on a jailbroken/rooted device, it's fairly easy to beat certificate pinning in a few different ways. Two that come to mind are: * find the certificate file in the app and replace it with your own. * hook the function that verifies the certificate and make it return true.
        neximo4 11y ago
jimmcslim 11y ago
I'd like to think the banking industry in Australia might follow this lead, but I'm not hopeful.
sredfern2 11y ago
Folks, Sorry about the initial slowness we had to tweak apache configuration in front of jetty. Here is the url again: https://uk.openbankproject.com/ https://uk.openbankproject.com/
shmapf 11y ago
"...require banks in the EU to open their payment and transaction systems to certified third parties" Does anyone know if this will mean that average Joe can't just write a script to access his account, because he isn't a "certified third party"?

89 points by ichaib 11y ago

tonylemesmer 11y ago

seems to be struggling with load. Anyone else?

aembleton 11y ago
Not working for me either. I haven't read it all yet but I think this article is related: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/16/banking-industry-uber-moment-standard-open-banking-working-group http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/feb/16/banking...
- cmdkeen 11y ago
  https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API seems to be related to them. The snazzy writeup suggests loads of people are involved but the project has a pretty low number of contributors. Is this the whole organisation or a subset of people doing some work relating to the concept. The idea of a common API is really fantastic mind you.
  - sredfern2 11y ago
    Hi Folks, Simon here from the Open Bank Project. We're based in Berlin but were involved from the early stages in the report published by the UK Treasury. We put up the sandbox to get feedback on the APIs etc. Guess we have some high load on one of our servers at the moment! Feel free to ask any questions. (AMA??)
    - underscorer 11y ago
      While I wait for the pages to load... Any fintechs (or other) actually planning on implementing this API? What is the relationship like with the industry? (Is there feedback being implemented in the API?) More information would help. There seems to be interest around the world to change/modernize the financial industry for consumers. Thanks for taking questions.

aembleton 11y ago

Finally loaded. Here is the blurb from their website: UK Open Banking A demo of Open Banking APIs in the UK In February 2016, a group of experts from the banking, FinTech, security and open data communities published a framework to deliver an open standard for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for UK banks. This work, led by HM Treasury, aims to increase competition and innovation in and around banking to improve outcomes for customers and thus further support the UK’s world-leading FinTech industry. The European Union is rapidly advancing legislation (PSD2) that will, upon implementation in the next two years, require banks in the EU to open their payment and transaction systems to certified third parties. This is a good moment for the UK to take a leadership role and influence the EU and beyond. We took this opportunity to reveal the first Open Banking API sandbox specificaly targeted at supporting discussion around the UK Open Banking standard. The sandbox we are showing today provides a selection of API calls relevant to the UK Open Banking Standards report. Feel free to explore the calls. We believe our technology gives the UK a tremendous headstart and access to a vibrant Fintech developer community. Click below and enjoy!

aembleton 11y ago
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenBankProject https://twitter.com/OpenBankProject Github: https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/ https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/ API Documentation: https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/wiki https://github.com/OpenBankProject/OBP-API/wiki API Explorer: https://uk-apiexplorer.openbankproject.com https://uk-apiexplorer.openbankproject.com
sredfern2 11y ago
thanks for your patience, should be faster now!

aembleton 11y ago

I just gave them my email address and was taken through to Mailchimp, where their address is given as being in Berlin! Strange that this is supposed to be led by HM Treasury.

beejiu 11y ago
I think the language is slightly confusing on their website. It appears they took part in a HM Treasury led consultation, along with 38 other organisations. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413766/PU1793_Open_data_response.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... (page 13)

neximo4 11y ago

This doesn't look HM Treasury-ey is this by some other organisation?

ichaib 11y ago
Let by us at the Open Bank Project (www.openbankproject.com)
- neximo4 11y ago
  How does this work. Will banks be using the same API structure in general, or is it more sort of an advice type of thing. Also what type of operations are intended to be supported (read/write?)
  - sredfern2 11y ago
    The report sets out a framework rather than a specification at this point. It talks about a phased approach starting with open data (e.g. branches, products) then transaction history and then write (e.g. payment) options. PSD2 from the EU might well influence the operations supported first.
  - sredfern2 11y ago
    HM Treasury report defo aims at the UK Banks supporting the same API - which is the mission of Open Bank Project.
sjtgraham 11y ago
The report was commissioned by the government and delivered by a private company Open Data Institute Limited. This sandbox is from another private company Open Bank Project aka Tesobe.

krstck 11y ago

I've been dreaming of a standardized banking API for as long as I've been using online banking. It crushes my soul every time Mint makes me send them my actual log in credentials just to scrape transaction data. Really hope this catches on, but I think too many orgs have a vested interest in being the gate-keepers of your banking data.

joering2 11y ago
Mint has always pulled my data automatically from BOA, Chase and Wellfargo. Which banks are you using??
- krstck 11y ago
  Mint is logging in on your behalf, unless you have a different service than I do.
  - sredfern2 11y ago
    Yep, the OBP approach is to use OAuth (currently 1.0a) so the App doesn't have to see the credentials.
sredfern2 11y ago
Thanks!

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

joefarish 11y ago

If you are interested in this, take a look at Mondo: https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ Some news coverage here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking-mondo-hopes-to-become-the-google-or-facebook-of-the-sector http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking... http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-got-the-banks-worried/ http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-g... http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ceo-wants-to-build-a-bank-for-people-who-hate-banks http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ce...

joefarish 11y ago

If you are interested in this, take a look at Mondo: https://getmondo.co.uk/ https://getmondo.co.uk/ They are launching soon and will have an API: https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ https://getmondo.co.uk/docs/ Some news coverage here: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking-mondo-hopes-to-become-the-google-or-facebook-of-the-sector http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/29/digital-banking... http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-got-the-banks-worried/ http://www.thememo.com/2015/06/25/meet-mondo-the-app-thats-g... http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/24/mondo/ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ceo-wants-to-build-a-bank-for-people-who-hate-banks http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/mondo-s-ce...

thesehands 11y ago

see also teller.io for the UK, Stevie gave a great talk on the same issue at a hackernews london meet up last year.

sjtgraham 11y ago

If you're in the UK and want a banking API (including payments and transfers), I'm building http://teller.io/ http://teller.io/. It's been in private beta about 2.5 months and access will be opening more broadly soon. I couldn't wait for banks to get themselves into gear so I reverse engineered all of their mobile apps, took their private APIs and expose a single unified API through Teller. Here is a video of me cURL-ing my bank account yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWccFD0wv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWccFD0wv8 Here is a CLI one of my beta testers @sebinsua/@nouswaves made for his bank account: https://github.com/sebinsua/teller-cli https://github.com/sebinsua/teller-cli So far the RBS banks, e.g. Natwest are in prod. If you bank with them, want super early access, understand it's beta product and will give some feedback: sg <> @ <> teller.io

neximo4 11y ago
How did you reverse engineer the Natwest/Ulster/RBS app. It is my understanding they use certificate pinning?
- martinald 11y ago
  Certificate pinning is easy to defeat.
  - neximo4 11y ago
    Doesn't exactly answer the question..
    - alcari 11y ago
      If you can run the app on a jailbroken/rooted device, it's fairly easy to beat certificate pinning in a few different ways. Two that come to mind are: * find the certificate file in the app and replace it with your own. * hook the function that verifies the certificate and make it return true.
      - neximo4 11y ago

jimmcslim 11y ago

I'd like to think the banking industry in Australia might follow this lead, but I'm not hopeful.

sredfern2 11y ago

Folks, Sorry about the initial slowness we had to tweak apache configuration in front of jetty. Here is the url again: https://uk.openbankproject.com/ https://uk.openbankproject.com/

shmapf 11y ago

"...require banks in the EU to open their payment and transaction systems to certified third parties" Does anyone know if this will mean that average Joe can't just write a script to access his account, because he isn't a "certified third party"?