APIContext recently published its UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024 Report, providing an in-depth analysis of the open banking APIs offered by various financial institutions in the UK. The report focuses on the performance of APIs exposed by the large CMA9 UK banks, traditional High Street banks, credit card providers, building societies, and neobanks. API performance is a critical aspect of open banking as it ensures efficient data exchanges between banks and third-party providers, enhancing the overall customer experience and fostering trust within the open banking ecosystem.
The UK is widely recognized as a global leader in the open banking sphere, making it crucial for financial institutions to prioritize API performance to meet regulatory standards, stay competitive, and meet the evolving demands of modern customers. The latest report sheds light on key trends and challenges impacting the UK open banking industry.
One of the notable findings of the report is the shift in roles among different types of banks. Neobanks have emerged as leaders in both availability and speed, with platforms like Tide and Monzo excelling in API performance by offering near-perfect availability and rapid response times. In contrast, traditional High Street banks are experiencing slower services with high latencies, impacting both user experience and operational costs. While CMA9 banks maintain stable services, they are slower compared to neobanks, indicating a shift in performance dynamics within the industry.
The report also highlights the variability in cloud provider performance. Despite a general decline in performance across all platforms, there has been an increase in variability. Azure, in particular, showed a significant decline in performance, especially in Northern Europe, with latency exceeding 2,000ms. On the other hand, AWS and IBM outperformed Azure and Google Cloud, maintaining reliable p99 times under 600ms for hosting open banking APIs.
Furthermore, the choice of data centre plays a crucial role in determining the performance of banking fintech applications. Akamai Connected Cloud (ACC) UK and AWS UK deliver the best performance, with p99 response times of around 1084ms and 1150ms, respectively, making them ideal for critical services. In contrast, Azure and Google data centres exhibit slower performance in certain regions, emphasizing the importance of selecting the right infrastructure for optimal API performance.
Mayur Upadhyaya, CEO of APIContext, emphasized the significance of the report in highlighting the progress and challenges in the UK open banking ecosystem. He acknowledged the improvements made by traditional banks to narrow the performance gap with neobanks, underscoring the need for resilient infrastructure choices to ensure fast, reliable, and conformant API endpoints.
The report’s analysis was based on key performance metrics, including API endpoint availability, reliability, latency metrics, cloud provider performance, and a comparative analysis of different bank types. Data was collected from APIContext monitoring Financial-grade API (FAPI) consent endpoints through approximately 8 million API calls conducted between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
In conclusion, the report serves as a valuable resource for financial institutions seeking to enhance their API performance to meet regulatory requirements, improve customer experiences, and maintain leadership in the evolving open banking landscape. It highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation of API performance metrics to drive innovation and trust within the open banking ecosystem. To access the full APIContext UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024 Report, interested parties can download a copy from the APIContext website.