BNP Paribas Securities Services recently released a set of application programming interfaces in its fund administration business, transforming the way the bank communicates with its asset manager clients.
BNP Paribas' new catalog of 17 fund accounting APIs, which automatically updates clients’ systems with information specific to their business held by the bank's securities services, marks an important milestone in the bank's digital transformation.
«System-to-system communication and real-time status updates via APIs enable us to enhance our operational efficiency and client experience at the same time,» said Paud O'Keeffe, head of Client Digital Experience, at BNP Paribas Securities Services in an interview with finews.asia.
This information includes data sets such as NAV calculations and distribution, and settlement instructions and status. Clients are also able to post information, such as NAV validation, directly in BNP Paribas Securities Services’ systems.
Benefits For Clients
Besides cost efficiencies, the APIs can really enable system-to-system integration, which serves in the area of innovation, O'Keefe notes.
Another benefit provided to clients is the real-time access to data and real-time usability of data. «Having our clients get real-time access to data means they can better manage their intra-day risks, and better manage their cash and collateral positions.»
Building Services Of the Future
Today, many of BNP Paribas' clients are already pulling in data from different custodian services and platforms, so it hopes that the new APIs will help them build upon the services that they already offer, and also to work out the next generation of data services.
«If we look at how technology is moving, there are a growing number of platforms emerging. To communicate with these platforms, and be a player in the platform area, we need to have an easy way of integrating into those platform aggregation services,» O'Keeffe explains.
Collaborations
A recent survey indicates that 70 percent of asset managers were concerned about the interoperability of APIs when thinking about solutions with their providers.
«Rather than releasing a set of APIs to BNP's (internal) standard, we build our services through a co-creation with our clients. We work hand in hand with our clients and understand their pain points and try to deliver solutions to address these pain points.»
«So, listening to the concerns of our clients, we work with Swift to make sure that all the APIs that we release, and all of the future APIs that we will release, will comply with the ISO 20022 standards - a global standard in banking,» O'Keeffe said.
