SpareBank 1: Axway brings solutions to banking challenges

SpareBank 1 is Norway’s second-largest bank in Norway and an alliance that provides digital solutions for 14 of their banks. Their goal is to ensure that their clients have independence, regional anchorage, profitability, and solidity.

SpareBank 1 realized they had some problems to solve when they started searching for an API Management solution. According to Rune Rasmussen, CTO at SpareBank 1, “they saw that they had a problem when it came to delivering services to the various digital arenas. They wanted to reuse and optimize development.” Yet, in 2015, they recognized that they needed to get on board the API bandwagon and that publishing externally was truly the way to go.

The solution

To publish their APIs externally, SpareBank 1 understood that the solution was to “go for a common-built Gateway for being able to publish APIs externally for their own digital arenas, as well as their partners.” This, in turn, would bring about the streamlined system they were searching for in their APIs. A positive step forward.

Creating value

By creating value for their platform, SpareBank 1 was able to go and solve the PSD2 challenge they had for regulatory requirements. Further, they were able to provide a solution for their digital services arenas.

This worked for services such as mobile bank and the Net bank, as well as other solutions. SpareBank was also able to “gain value and functionality from APIs to partners. They are now PSD2 ready with APIs in production.” This is a real win-win for SpareBank.

Benefits

When speaking with Rune Rasmussen, the biggest benefit for SpareBank 1 is that “they can reuse all they have developed. Meaning if they developed an accounts API, then they can reuse it in their Net bank, as well as their partners.” This helps SpareBank 1 not to have to start from scratch, hence faster delivery and lower costs all around.

Sopra Steria and Axway bring a great collaboration

SpareBank 1 looked around for various vendors to bring about their API transformation and provide them with a solution to their specific issues. What they discovered with Axway was that they were on the top Magic Quadrant list from Gartner. Further, when they realized that Axway had a local partner in Sopra Steria, they knew they had found what they were looking for and needed in terms of a solution.

Looking down the road for open banking

For SpareBank 1, looking down the road their goal is to establish and develop more APIs to be able to have their own company, as well as FinTech companies to provide more and innovative solutions on top of the bank functionality. The Axway solution met all their needs for their AMPLIFY™ API Management platform.