The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has published its Open Application Programming Interface Framework, a set of rules whose long-term goal is the introduction of 'smart banking,' while also planning an Open API on its website for public access next week.

The formulation of the Open API Framework is one of the seven initiatives announced by the HKMA in September 2017 to prepare Hong Kong for its journey into a new era of so-called smart banking. The regulator believes that open APIs (publicly available application programming interfaces that provide developers with programmatic access to proprietary software applications or web services) will make the banking sector more competitive, encourage more parties to provide innovative and integrated services that help customers do more things, and help the jurisdiction keep up with IT in banking services in the rest of the world.

Banks, technology/fintech firms, industry associations, consulting firms, payment card scheme operators and other people have been briefing the regulator in the run-up to this moment. All expressed enthusiasm. The so-called framework takes a risk-based approach to implementation of various Open API functions in four stages. It recommends the use of prevailing international technical standards for reasons involving fast adoption and security. The HKMA now expects banks to deploy Phase I Open APIs within six months and Phase II Open APIs within 12 to 15 months. Once it has received details of banks' deployment plans or 'roadmaps,' it plans to publish a summary of them for public consumption. It has yet to decide on the deployment timeline for Phase III and IV Open APIs.

Meanwhile, the regulator is setting an example to others by putting Open API on its website. Around 130 sets of information covering all financial data and important information published on the HKMA’s website will be made available for Open API by phases. On the first day, 50 sets of financial data and important information will be opened on API. These cover the information most frequently accessed by the public, such as statistics on Hong Kong dollar exchange rates, interest rates, the banking sector and other things. The remaining 80 sets of information will be opened using API by phases for completion by mid-2019. With the launch of HKMA’s Open API, stakeholders and members of the public will be able to retrieve information and data from the HKMA’s website in a more convenient and efficient way for research purposes or for the developing of new apps. Innovation is the watchword.