The monetary companies trade is present process a seismic shift, pushed by Open Banking — a motion that promotes customer-centric banking via APIs. By enabling safe information sharing and seamless integrations
between monetary establishments and third-party suppliers, Open Banking unlocks new enterprise fashions and buyer experiences. Nonetheless, the journey to constructing a scalable API infrastructure for Open Banking is rife with challenges, particularly in
rising markets.
On this article, we speak via the challenges of architecting such infrastructures and one of the best practices to beat them. We additionally make clear how our group at OnePipe,
a trailblazing fintech group in Nigeria, is addressing these challenges head-on.
Challenges of Architecting Scalable API Infrastructure
To construct a scalable API infrastructure, you have to brace your self for the next challenges: 😑
1. Compliance with Regulatory Requirements
Open Banking ecosystems should adjust to complicated and evolving laws corresponding to PSD2 in Europe, CBN’s Open Banking laws in Nigeria and so forth. These mandates usually require implementing stringent safety measures (e.g., compliance with GDPR [NDPR in the case
of Nigeria], adherence to PCIDSS requirements, ISO 27001 certification and different safety requirements) whereas sustaining operational agility.
2. Dealing with Excessive Volumes of Site visitors
Open Banking APIs take care of various demand as third-party apps combine and develop. A sudden spike in site visitors throughout busy occasions (like mortgage disbursements or wage processing) can overwhelm poorly designed techniques, inflicting slowdowns and even crashes.
3. Safety and Fraud Prevention
Exposing APIs to exterior builders / events will increase the danger of knowledge breaches and fraud. Making certain safe entry management, monitoring API utilization, and imposing price limits are paramount to sustaining belief.
4. Information Standardization
Open Banking mandates constant information codecs to allow interoperability. Attaining this in markets the place legacy techniques nonetheless dominate may be difficult and resource-intensive. Whereas Open Banking continues to be taking form in some elements of the world like Africa,
key gamers like OnePipe are taking proactive steps to create requirements that bridge the hole between fashionable APIs and legacy techniques, serving to drive the trade ahead.
5. Latency and Actual-Time Processing
Issues are transferring quick as of late. Customers demand low-latency techniques, significantly for time-sensitive transactions like funds. Architecting your techniques to realize sub-second response occasions whereas scaling appropriately requires vital experience.
6. Integration with Legacy Techniques
Oops! Many monetary establishments depend on outdated legacy techniques. Integrating these with fashionable, microservices-based API infrastructures requires strategic planning and sometimes a phased strategy.
So, what greatest practices can we undertake when architecting scalable API infrastructure?
1. If Attainable, Undertake a Microservices Structure
Breaking down monolithic techniques into loosely coupled microservices can permit the Open Banking APIs to scale independently, making certain optimum efficiency throughout site visitors spikes. It additionally enhances fault tolerance, so failures in a single service don’t impression the complete
system. Engineering this with containers and instruments like Kubernetes and Docker can guarantee a extra versatile, environment friendly, and resilient infrastructure.
2. Implement an API Gateway
Use API gateways (e.g., Kong, AWS API Gateway) to handle site visitors, implement price limits, and supply centralized safety. Additionally, constructing your personal API gateway is actually potential, and it might probably present your organisation or startup with full management over site visitors
administration, safety, and customized options tailor-made to your particular wants. The benefit of constructing your personal is the flexibleness to implement distinctive insurance policies, optimize efficiency in your use case, and keep away from the constraints of third-party options, which
may be essential within the early phases of scaling.
3. Leverage Occasion-Pushed Architectures
Given the fast-paced nature of at the moment’s world and the necessity for pace in transactions, event-driven techniques might help allow environment friendly dealing with of high-volume, asynchronous operations, making certain clean processes with out blocking. Additionally they permit real-time occasion
processing, which is essential for well timed responses in Open Banking purposes. Think about a buyer, Damilola, who’s in an pressing scenario and must make a cost to cowl an emergency medical invoice. As she initiates the cost, the transaction can set off
an event-driven system the place the cost request is instantly authorised and processed asynchronously. Behind the scenes, an occasion dealer like Kafka picks up the cost occasion, sends it to the cost gateway/supplier, and verifies the transaction in real-time
with out holding up another processes. Damilola doesn’t have to attend for the system to course of all the things in a sequential method; she will get a fast affirmation that her cost is being processed. Inside seconds, the system updates her account stability and
the healthcare supplier’s system, all in real-time. That is the facility of event-driven architectures in motion: quick, environment friendly, and seamless transaction processing — precisely what Damilola wanted throughout her time-sensitive emergency.
4. Use Cloud-Native Infrastructure
Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP present the elasticity to deal with site visitors spikes with out requiring upfront capital funding. Options like auto-scaling and serverless features improve price effectivity and scalability.
5. Prioritize Safety
All the time be prepared for the “Dangerous Guys” — they’re continuously looking out for methods to use your system. Implement robust, safe authentication, add internet utility firewalls (WAFs), intrusion detection techniques, and run common safety audits to remain one step
forward and hold the dangers at bay!
6. Design for Observability
Don’t be blind to what’s taking place together with your transactions! Use distributed tracing, logging, and monitoring instruments (like ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch and so forth) to get real-time insights into system well being and API efficiency. This fashion, you may troubleshoot
and hold issues operating easily earlier than they flip into huge issues!
How OnePipe Is Fixing Open Banking API Infrastructure Issues
The
OnePipe Mantra — “The world wants a brand new sort of economic companies ecosystem. One the place everybody has a job to play, and everybody has some worth to seize. And whereas there’s a necessity for some gatekeepers, their affect must be minimal.”
As Open Banking continues to evolve in Nigeria, OnePipe has proactively labored with banks to standardize their APIs, enabling seamless collaboration with fintechs and different trade gamers, and driving innovation throughout the monetary
ecosystem. By addressing the area’s distinctive challenges via modern options, OnePipe has delivered:
1. A Unified API Platform
OnePipe supplies a single API that connects a number of banks, fintechs, and retailers, streamlining integrations. This eliminates the necessity for third events to construct and preserve a number of connections.
2. Middleware API for Legacy Integration
Many banks in Nigeria nonetheless function on legacy techniques. OnePipe acts as a middleware layer, translating requests from fashionable API shoppers into protocols appropriate with legacy techniques.
3. Scalable Cloud Infrastructure
OnePipe leverages cloud-native options to make sure excessive availability and efficiency. With auto-scaling capabilities, the infrastructure is ready deal with site visitors spikes throughout high-demand intervals, corresponding to payday transactions, lending and different banking as a service
occasions.
4. Safety on the Core
Recognizing the delicate nature of economic information, OnePipe employs strong safety measures corresponding to tokenized entry, price limiting, and steady safety watch. The platform additionally complies with Nigeria’s Open Banking regulatory framework, NDPR (Nigeria Information
Safety Regulation), and PCIDSS (Cost Card Business Information Safety Customary), making certain the very best ranges of knowledge safety. All of this helps preserve belief amongst stakeholders and ensures your information is in protected fingers.
5. Occasion-Pushed Structure
OnePipe makes use of an event-driven mannequin to make sure real-time processing of economic transactions.This reduces latency and supplies a clean person expertise for each monetary establishments and end-users.
6. Localized Improvements
In contrast to international options that will overlook native market nuances, OnePipe is deeply attuned to Nigeria’s monetary panorama and works carefully with its associate banks. Merchandise like
PaywithTransfer, GrowTrade, and
PaywithAccount, amongst different standard regional cost strategies, are being layered on prime of the bottom traditional API infrastructure, enabling the group to ship merchandise for monetary inclusivity
The Influence of OnePipe’s Improvements
By its modern structure, OnePipe has:
Empowered companies throughout Africa to launch monetary companies rapidly and cost-effectively.
Enabled numerous banks and fintechs to collaborate, fostering a sturdy Open Banking ecosystem in Nigeria.
Decreased the technical and monetary limitations for small companies to take part in Open Banking.
Conclusion
I hope you have been in a position to acquire some insights into what it means to architect a scalable API infrastructure for Open Banking and the technical challenges it comes with. By embracing greatest practices like microservices,
cloud-native architectures, and rock-solid safety protocols, fintechs can create techniques that not solely innovate but in addition pave the best way for monetary inclusion.
