Glossary
Open Finance API
An Open Finance API is a standardized interface that lets banking, payment and market-data systems exchange information securely and in real time – instead of every connection between a bank, a company and a payment network being built and maintained separately. Rather than a single product, it's an approach: expose account, payment and transaction data through a common, machine-readable protocol so that treasury, ERP and banking systems can talk to each other without custom point-to-point integration for every relationship.
What to know about Open Finance API
It replaces point-to-point integration
Without a standard, connecting to five banks means building and maintaining five different integrations. An Open Finance API gives every connection the same shape, so adding a bank is configuration, not a new integration project.
It runs on established, auditable standards
In Europe this typically means EBICS as the transport layer, ISO 20022 message formats (such as pain.001 for credit transfers and camt.053 for statements), SEPA Credit Transfer and Direct Debit, and X.509 certificates for authentication and encryption – not a proprietary format.
It's built for real-time visibility
Standardized, machine-readable data exchange is what makes real-time cash positions, automated reconciliation and Instant Payments possible across multiple banking relationships at once.
It's a compliance surface, not just a convenience
Because the interface is standardized and auditable, it's also where new regulatory requirements – like SEPA Verification of Payee (VoP) – get implemented once, rather than bank connection by bank connection.
Built by CREALOGIX
EBICS is CREALOGIX's implementation of this approach: an Open Finance API gateway connecting core banking, payment networks and market data through one standardized, audit-ready layer – already running 80% of the EBICS servers in use at Swiss banks.
See EBICS →