OPEN-Finance technology provider Brankas Pte. Ltd. announced it has developed a first-of-its-kind publicly accessible license for next-generation Banking-as-a-Service software and Open Finance software.
According to Brankas Chief Technology Officer Kenneth Shaw, the license allows for digital banking and fintech innovation as well as lowers the cost barriers for startups, neobanks and traditional institutions to quickly prototype and launch new solutions, while retaining their own source code.
This is beneficial for customers as they have more options and enjoy better user experience since companies have the freedom to use, modify, redistribute and collaborate on its publicly available code, Shaw said.
Brankas got the inspiration to create this after it received a grant from the Monetary Authority of Singapore last year to develop its own proof-of-concept open-source core banking system.
Seeing the need for a modernized framework available to the public to address new open finance technology, the firm looked to existing ones for licensing in order to develop its open license. We felt this was necessary to protect community contributions, ensure open access and adhere to financial institutions’ data protection and security requirements, according to Shaw.
“Our open license allows our team to build and contribute in a way that is fair, equitable and open to independent developers, financial institutions and to our partners,” said Shaw.
“With this license, Brankas is able to continue to invest in the greater open-source community and to share our code freely with the world,” he added.
Established in 2016 to bring access to financial services in Southeast Asia, the company offers application programming interface (API)-based solutions, data and payments suites to banks, lenders, e-wallet providers and online businesses. Brankas partners with banks to build and manage their Open Finance infrastructure, producing APIs for real-time payments, identity and data, new account opening, remittances and more, Shaw said.
With its open banking technology, online businesses, fintech companies and digital banks can use its APIs to create new digital experiences for their users, he added.