Senior Software Engineer at Montran Corporation: „the level of preparation for the PSD2 deadline of March 2019 is very bad”

„Knowing the banking world very well, I know that there is a lot of talk about new banking but also a lot of reluctance to do things and keep the old ways as long as possible. In the light of the above I am not surprised that the level of preparation for the PSD2 deadline of March 2019 is very bad.”, according to an article written by George Voina (photo) on his blog.

Voina is not a fintech-passionate journalist, but a Senior Software Engineer, SME Payment Systems at Montran Corporation.

„Around Europe the percentage of prepared banks is below 40%, in Romania is even lower than that and some of the “prepared” banks just seem to mimic that they are ready.”, Voina added.

Here’s a list of what Voina has found so far:

Banca Transilvania
https://apistorebt.ro/bt/sb/

The first bank that really lunched a full portal for developers. Being the biggest commercial bank in Romania, it was I think a must to be the first.

The developer site looks good and with good information.

API features:

Payments: Provide our users with money transfer services, directly from your platform or application.

Accounts : Access the account information, balance and transaction history needed.

Confirmation of funds : Ensure that the customer’s account has the funds needed to perform a certain transaction.

Raiffeisen Bank
https://developer-test.raiffeisen.ro/

I heard about their API several months ago. I do not think they are officially launched, but they are opened

API features:

Accounts API Authorize Accounts API Consent API Payments API Periodic Payments API Payments Initiation API Authorize Confirmation of Funds API Confirmation of Funds API

ING Bank
https://developer.ing.com/api-marketplace/marketplace

They are launched in Europe as a group with the PSD2 offer but still no word that they are live in Romania.

API features:

Account Information API Confirmation of Available Funds API OAuth Payment Initiation API ayment Request API Showcase API Virtual Ledger Accounts API

Alpha Bank
https://developer.api.alphabank.gr/

They are launched with a developer site for Greece, Cyprus and Romania.

API features:

Accounts: Allows you to access key account data of Alpha Bank Romania customers Payments: Make money transfers from an authorized Alpha Bank Romania client’s account to any bank account

BCR (Erste Group)
https://developers.erstegroup.com/docs/apis/bank.bcr

This is the second biggest bank in Romania part of the Erste Group. They launched a group wide API based on NextGenPSD2 Framework but with some specific part for Romania.

API features:

PSD2 Account Information APIs PSD2 Confirmation of Funds API PSD2 Payment Initiation APIs

Unicredit 
https://developer.unicredit.eu/

This is another European banking group that launched a group wide developer API but with support for Romania and some specific things. The API is based on on Berlin Group Implementation Guidelines.

API features:

UniCredit Bank Romania AIS APIs UniCredit Bank Romania AIS Consent APIs UniCredit Bank Romania PIIS APIs

GarantiBank 
https://developers.garantibank.ro/

This looks like an internal developed API. Interesting that they have a dedicated site to Romania even if they are part of a bigger European banking group.

API features:

Accounts: This service group list accounts of a customer and read their details, balance, transaction list and transaction details. Card Accounts: This service group list card accounts of a customer and read their details, balance, transaction list and transaction details. Payments: This service group initiate a single payment transaction, check the status of a payment initiation, return the content of a payment object.

Citi Bank
https://sandbox.developerhub.citi.com/

This is a bank that announced their API globally. Still not 100% sure they offer support for Romania. They announced it but is still not stated on the API site.

API features:

Accounts: Verify Citi customer accounts and grant your apps access to account data. Authorize: Verify Citi customer accounts and grant your apps access to account data. Customers: Get approved access to shared Citi customer profile data for deeper engagement. Money Movement: Give Citi customers the ability to move money across accounts and institutions. Onboarding: Tap into the power of Citi acquisitions partner services. Pay With Points: Enable your app to accept Citi customers’ Citi rewards points to pay for their purchases. Utilities:Allow developers to get country specific variations.

LibraBank

api.librabank.ro/store/

For a bank that calls itself an Internet bank the developer site looks like in an alpha state. It looks like they just created the site, there is no API yet.

API features:

None yet.

OTP Bank
https://psd2dev.otpbank.ro/prod-devch/developer-portal/#/

This is a Hungarian bank with presence in Romania. They launched their developer API site for Romania also. Looks nice with good information on it.

API features:

Accounts APIs: Use our Accounts APIs to securely access a list of accounts for a given user, get detailed information on the account holder, or retrieve the account balance and the transaction history of a given account. Payments APIs: securely initiate a payment on behalf of a client, and verify whether the payment has been successfully executed. More APIs to come: We plan to extend our API catalogue, so check back here often to learn about our new APIs.

Bonus List: APIs of financial services that are not offered by banks in Romania.

Orange Money
https://www.orange.ro/money/psd2/index.html

This is one of the big Romanian mobile operators that is now involved also in the payments space. The mobile payments are not so big as in other regions (Africa and Asia) and we have to note that the other big mobile operator Vodafone just closed its money transfer solution (Mpesa) in Romania.

API features:

Read Account List Read Account Details Read Balance Read Transaction List Account Information Consent Request Confirmation of Funds Request Payment Initiation Endpoint Payment Confirmation Endpoint Entities Definition

TransferWise 
https://api-docs.transferwise.com/#transferwise-api

This is well known Fintech that also has a presence in Romania. Usually they offer access to their API to banks but they also have an offer for 3rd parties. In fact even as a simple user is easy to activate a developer account and see your own data through an API interface. Use some client like postman and you can view all your data from your TransferWise accountdirectly no longer using the mobile application or the website.

API features:

With Connected Applications, you can let your customers connect their TransferWise accounts to your product. Say you’re an accounting software – doing this could let your customers automate reconciliation. If you’re a payroll company, you could push customer payments right into TransferWise. Or you could push TransferWise notifications through your app. Whatever you want to build, you likely could!

Revolut 
https://revolutdev.github.io/business-api/#getting-started

This is another well know Fintech. They offer an open API for business accounts.

API features:

You can use the Open API to:

. Automate your own business financial operations

. Build integrations between Revolut for Business and your apps and publish them on Revolut Connect

In order to ensure safe and fair resource sharing, we define the following usage limits:

. Maximum 60 requests per minute for a given business

. Maximum 120 requests per minute per application

P.S. NOCASH note: there are at least two other sandboxes in the market. Here’s the list:

. BRD Groupe Societe Generale – https://www.devbrd.ro/brd/apisandbox/

. CEC Bank – https://apiportal-test.cec.ro/cec/tpp/