Non-face-to-face Business Soaring
Hana Institute of Finance said in its report on April 14 that South Korean banks need to accelerate their digital conversion by making more use of open application program interfaces (APIs) with the ratio of non-face-to-face business soaring in the wake of COVID-19, which will drastically change their business models in the end.
U.K.-based deVere Group, one of the largest financial consulting firms in the world, also said that more and more people are avoiding contact these days and this new tendency is leading to more demand for related fintech services. For example, U.S. fintech firm 401GO, which provides retirement pension services, is expanding its customer base by zero fee.
Under the circumstances, the concept of Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is drawing more and more attention in the banking sector. It can be defined as an API-based platform on which a banking system and a third-party service are interconnected for banking services for customers.
The examples include the API-based platform of ICICI Bank in India, which was recently released with more than 500 services so that customers can handle their mortgage loans, insurance, and many more on the single platform.