Enhancing Digital Banking Experiences with IBM API Connect
A leading financial institution sought to modernize its digital ecosystem by creating a seamless, productized API experience for its developer partners. The goal was to simplify onboarding, accelerate API delivery, and enhance customer experiences through secure and scalable integrations.
By deploying IBM API Connect®, the bank built a unified API management platform that streamlined developer access, reduced onboarding time, and improved governance across its API lifecycle.
Business challenge
The bank’s digital transformation strategy focused on enabling an open banking ecosystem where internal and external developers could build, integrate, and innovate faster. However, the existing onboarding process was manual, time-consuming, and lacked visibility across multiple departments.
Key Challenges:
- Long API onboarding cycles for developers and partners.
- Limited automation and manual approval workflows.
- Lack of centralized API documentation and monitoring.
- Difficulty in maintaining governance and security at scale.
The organization needed a robust API management solution to accelerate time-to-market, enforce consistent policies, and ensure secure access across thousands of APIs.
Solution
The bank partnered with Nexright to implement IBM API Connect®, creating a single platform to manage, secure, and monitor the full API lifecycle — from creation and publishing to analytics and monetization.
Solution Highlights:
- Unified API Management: Consolidated multiple tools into one centralized platform.
- Automated Onboarding: Reduced developer setup time from weeks to hours.
- Integrated Governance: Enforced policies for authentication, rate limiting, and data privacy.
- End-to-End Visibility: Provided analytics on API usage, performance, and partner engagement.
Solution components
- IBM API Connect®
- IBM Cloud Pak® for Integration
Developer Portal & Self-Service Access
The bank launched a self-service developer portal that simplified registration, API discovery, and testing — improving engagement across internal and third-party teams.
API Lifecycle Automation
Using API Connect, the institution automated versioning, approval workflows, and deployment, ensuring faster delivery of new financial services.
Enhanced Security and Governance
Comprehensive policies for encryption, identity management, and throttling protected sensitive financial data and ensured regulatory compliance.
Result
- Reduced API onboarding time by 69%, accelerating developer enablement.
- Improved API availability and uptime, enhancing user experience.
- Enabled 292+ active APIs serving internal and partner ecosystems.
- Achieved stronger security and governance, ensuring full compliance with open banking standards.
The transformation with IBM API Connect has helped us productize, improve, and simplify our onboarding process. The unified architecture and self-service tools have significantly improved developer experience.
— Head of Digital Transformation, Leading Financial Institution