​NAB launches API developer portal

National Australia Bank (NAB) is making its APIs publicly available to allow third party developers to connect to select sets of the bank’s data.

NAB claims it will be he first major Australian bank to launch an Application Programming Interface Developer Portal when it goes live just before Christmas.

The developer portal will begin as a closed beta with NAB approving a small number of developers to take part in the initial concept before running an open beta more broadly in early 2017.

The platform will start with two NAB APIs, which will host data relating to the bank’s branch and ATM locations and its foreign exchange rates. Developers approved to take part in the beta will be able to plug into NAB data for testing and possible integration between their own systems such as websites or mobile apps, NAB said.

NAB’s CIO, Antony Cahill, said the bank had invested in its technology and built a rich source of APIs that it has been using for internal purposes and external partnerships to improve customer experience.

“With the rise of the digital age and evolving customer expectations, APIs have become core to banking infrastructure to enable rapid deployment of various functions across multiple channels to meet those customer needs and quickly keep pace as those needs evolve,” he said.

NAB’s API strategy is based on three key streams of customer enablement, partnership arrangements and open API categorisation, which the portal will be an integral part of, said Cahill.

“We are collaborating with a number of partners to both provide and receive data leveraging API technology including Xero, MYOB and VISA,” said Cahill. “We want to keep building our ecosystem with likeminded organisations to allow us opportunities to innovate and improve our experiences for customers,” he said.

NAB started using API technology in 2013 with the NAB Flik product (now ‘Pay to Mobile’ in the new NAB mobile banking app).