Tieto sees increase in Baltic companies seeking open banking solutions

In the run-up to the March Payment Services Directive (PSD2) deadline, Tieto saw an increase in businesses seeking open banking solutions, going live with five new financial institutions in the Baltic region.

Its open banking platform ensures businesses meet PSD2 regulatory requirements, enabling them to offer open APIs and co-operate with fintechs, to give them access to account and payment information. The service was implemented on 14 March 2019 by PrivatBank (Latvia), Signet Bank (Latvia), Meridian Trade Bank (Latvia, Lithuania), Coop Pank (Estonia) and Good Finance Company (Estonia).

Currently, Tieto supports financial institutions with an open banking solution, by providing a software platform, implementation services and business consultancy. However, the service will soon go beyond the scope of PSD2, to not only help banks developing their API strategy to be compliant with the regulations, but also have access to a platform that will support any future open banking strategy. This will include an API marketplace, API aggregation, Platform Banking and built-in API monetisation capability.

Ilkka Korkiakoski, Vice President, Head of Transaction Banking at Tieto said: “On 14March we reached a significant milestone for PSD2 regulation when financial institutions had to submit their APIs for testing, ahead of the regulatory technical standards (RTS) being enforced on 14 September. The task of being PSD2 ready is huge, so we are pleased to be able to support financial institutions with a comprehensive solution.

As the deadlines for PSD2 pass, business focus will switch from meeting regulatory requirements to working out how to get the most out of open banking, by protecting existing business and generating new revenue streams. Which is why our service will evolve to help them best achieve this.”

Tieto launched its Open API Hub in a cloud (https://api.tieto.com/) in December 2018 and it gives developers the opportunity to access and test a beta version of Tieto Sandbox. It has built its solution based on the Berlin Group implementation guidelines.

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Tieto aims to capture the significant opportunities of the data-driven world and turn them into lifelong value for people, business and society. We aim to be customers’ first choice for business renewal by combining our software and services capabilities with a strong drive for co-innovation and ecosystems.