After Yes Bank, ICICI Bank launches mega API portal for enterprise clients

In direct competition to a set of APIs launched by Yes Bank in November, ICICI Bank has come up with its own version of an API (application programming interface) banking portal with close to 250 APIs, the company said in a release. 

ICICI Bank said that it will provide its clients an end-to-end experience in terms of integration with their products to go live. For example, a shopping app can integrate the bank's API to let the customer pay directly, without being redirected to the bank's website. Clients will also benefit in terms of a reduction in the time taken for the API to integrate into existing business solutions, from months to weeks. 

APIs, which form the backbone of a microservices-based architecture, are a set of instructions that enable third-party applications to communicate with a bank’s technology applications.  

The bank claimed that its portal has the maximum number of virtual APIs on offer by an Indian bank. Yes Bank had 50 APIs during its November launch.

The APIs would help partner companies co-create innovative customer solutions with higher efficiency, thus helping it increase productivity.  

The ICICI Bank API portal would help developers of potential clientele to sign up, create applications and test it out before going live. This would, in turn, help other businesses, fintech organisations, enterprises and e-commerce startups partner with the bank and co-create solutions that can be deployed at scale.  

The different categories in which ICICI Bank's APIs would be available include payments and collections, UPI payments, account deposits, card-related services as well as loan disbursement.

The clients would initially be asked to test in a sandbox environment after which the developers would be able to upgrade to a UAT (user acceptance testing) environment for real-time testing, before finally signing a non-disclosure agreement with the bank.

ICICI Bank also stated that the portal would provide a detailed workflow to move the API solution into the final production stage.  

Anup Bagchi, executive director, ICICI Bank, said the portal would provide a gateway for several prospective partner companies to tie up with the bank in a frictionless manner.

"It will also boost productivity for businesses, as they can now partner with us in a short span of time ranging from just a few weeks to few days, compared to the few months earlier,” said Bagchi.