ING in France opens APIs to third parties

ING customers in France now have more choice in how they manage their money and make online payments.

From today, licenced third parties can – with the explicit request of customers – access their payments accounts to initiate payments, confirm the availability of funds, or get account information, for example for a money management app.

In the spirit of open banking, and in line with the new European Payment Services Directive (PSD2), ING in France is opening up its retail payments accounts to external providers via three application programme interfaces (APIs). Developers can use these APIs to create new and innovative services for customers while maintaining the security and experience they enjoy from ING.

“This is a big step in our journey to PSD2 compliance,” says Evelien Witlox, ING’s global tribe lead Payments.

“The decision to start in France was based on commercial as well as technical considerations. By 14 September 2019, customers in all 17 ING countries that fall under PSD2 will benefit from this open access to new and more innovative ways to manage their money online.”

The third parties connecting to ING have to be licenced by their national bank.

“We’re excited about the opportunities this creates, for our customers and for ING,” says Evelien. “By building PSD2 functionalities using modular components we can easily scale innovative new products, features and services and transfer them across our network to customers everywhere.”

Adds Frédéric Niel, acting head of Retail banking at ING France: “This early go-live allows ING to be frontrunner in the French market. It will also reassure third parties as they will be able to continue their activity in a more secure way using our APIs. We will use their feedback and the feedback from customers to provide a best-in-class customer experience.”

The APIs (Account Information Services, Payment Initiation Services and Confirmation Availability of Funds) are available on ING’s Developer Portal. Developers who want to work with ING can find the technical information and supporting documents they need on the site’s API Marketplace.

Source: ING