Open Banking & Open API

In the context of the ongoing systematic and phased development of the digital transformation of the financial sector, with a focus on ensuring technological advancement and consumer rights protection, the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in collaboration with the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and with the participation of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition, has developed and approved the Concept of Development for Open Banking & Open API in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2023–2025.

Open Banking enables banks to grant access to their customers’ data to third parties only with the customers’ consent, thereby improving convenience and service speed. For example, in banking services, open APIs allow customers to manage multiple accounts, conduct regular payments and transfers, optimize financial reporting, analyze income and expenses, and much more.

The implementation of Open Banking is based on the use of Open API technology, a globally recognized protocol for information exchange.

Traditional Banking vs. Open Banking

As part of the development of the Concept, the regulators NBRK, ARFR, and AZRK held preliminary discussions with second-tier banks. The current status of API technology usage among Financial Market Participants (FMP) was also clarified, and an assessment of the infrastructure and regulatory foundations for the implementation of open banking services was conducted.

The advancement of this digital area within the financial sector contributes to the emergence of new financial services and products, as well as business models resulting from collaboration between FMPs and other payment service providers based on Open API.

The Concept also includes strategic initiatives and development directions within the implementation of open application programming interfaces (APIs), namely:

• Development of standards,
• Alignment of the regulatory environment on the principle of “same activity, same risks, same regulation,”
• Establishment of an interdepartmental working body,
• Creation and optimization of technical infrastructure,
• Conducting a series of pilot projects in the year 2023.

ROADMAP FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONCEPT FOR 2023–2025

The overall development principle of the Roadmap is based on the implementation of four main directions:

1. Development of the Open API standard.
2. Coordination with stakeholders in the Open API ecosystem.
3. Piloting the business process within the developed Open API standard, followed by its approval.
4. Project scaling: expanding the list of participants in the Open API ecosystem.

Within these directions, the following activities are planned for implementation in 2023:

• Establishment of a Working Group for the implementation of activities within the Concept.
• Development of the architecture of the Open API Platform.
• Development and approval of “pilot” scenarios for customer account aggregation by the Working Group.
• Approval of the list of standards to be implemented in stages from 2023 to 2025.
• Development of threat models for participants in the Open API ecosystem and reaction algorithms, as well as accompanying operational documents.
• Identification of the list of regulatory acts necessary for the implementation and development of Open API and Open Banking.
• Conducting a pilot project for customer account aggregation scenarios.
• Updating and detailing the activities outlined in the Roadmap of the Concept for 2024–2025 based on the results of pilot projects, if necessary.