Quickly skimming through the table you would notice that most of these APIs offer a number of components from the Developer Experience checklist, and hence comes as no surprise why they are doing so well. One area we saw FinTech APIs lead, was with offering API implementations in multiple languages, in the form of SDKs, so developers can instantly start making use of these APIs in languages they are comfortable with.
We further ran a detailed analysis to find out how these APIs have gone about with their Developer Experience and what sets them apart from each other and remaining of the competition, which you can go through here: Popular Developer Experience Practices: FinTech and Banking APIs.
PSD2 is an Opportunity for Digital Transformation
FinTech APIs have built popularity, cashing on the exemplary experiences they provide, both to developers and customers, and Banking APIs that have followed suit have done well. But this is not the case for every bank out there. PSD2, although very explicitly requires banks to open up data and banking functionalities, it does not specify how banks are supposed to meet these requirements, with many just checking them off with bare minimum implementations.
Banks that are looking to just adhere to regulatory requirements and not do more, may miss out on big opportunities to expand and grow new business models, and may not be able to put themselves on the map with FinTech APIs.
According to a survey, only 59% of Europe’s 442 banks met PSD2’s 14th March deadline, to have a publicly available testing facility or a sandbox environment .
Of course, it is easier said than done and many banks are still struggling to prepare their APIs, with most of them slacking behind. In order to fulfill legal requirements, the API experience gets second fiddle. While understandable, it leads to a missed opportunity nonetheless
With the final 29th September deadline looming ahead, a number of Banking APIs are going to hit the markets, and only the ones that come with a developer experience will catch all the buzz, leaving the rest trailing on traction.
Automation is the Key to Scaling Developer Experience
So where does this leave API teams today who are still working on their API and have no time or resources to work on the consumption part of it?
And the answer lies in Automation.
With all hands busy on deck working on the core functionality of APIs, there is no reason that resources have to be dedicated to just work on producing the artifacts that make APIs easier to consume. Instead, let the machines do the working for you!
A lot can be done with an API Specification today. The document, when passed through CodeGen engines, can drive entire Developer Experience(DX) for APIs with automatic generation of DX components. And not just Documentation or Portals, but also complex components like SDKs, Code Samples, API Explorers and can even CI/CD pipelines so none of this has to be updated manually.