Are Australian Open Banking APIs up to the task?

FinTech Australia

18 Jan

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Performance data from 2021 reveals that most - but not all - Open Banking APIs are fast and reliableJanuary 2022 - Frollo, Australia’s leading Open Banking intermediary, has published its 2021 Open Banking API performance monitor. Based on over 15 Million API calls on its Open Banking platform in 2021, the report compares speed and - for the first time ever - reliability between banks. With only a few exceptions, most banks were found to be delivering a fast and reliable customer experience. On average, the API response time in 2021 was 0.86 seconds and the reliability was 98.8%. Neobank Up led the charge, with an average response time of 0.26 seconds and 99.88% reliability of their Open Banking APIs in 2021..

Performance remains stable as the ecosystem grows

From July to December the number of live Data Holders included in Frollo’s Open Banking API analysis increased from 11 to 40. Despite this growth, the average industry performance remained stable. API response times averaged below one second and reliability never dropped below 98%.

Up is the fastest and most reliable Data Holder in 2021

With an average response time of 0.26 seconds and 99.88% reliability across all Open Banking APIs, neobank, Up outperformed all other Data Holders in 2021.Eight of the 25 Data Holders made it into the bottom right quadrant of fast (< 1 second) and reliable (98%+) as represented in the graph below. Meanwhile, five Data Holders took more than two seconds to respond, with a reliability of less than 96%.

Neobanks up to 36x faster than slowest Data Holders

Although industry averages show a fast and reliable ecosystem, a closer look at the two most popular APIs (for collecting transaction data and account information) shows a big difference between the front runners and some of the slower Data Holders.Neobank Up had an average response time for the Accounts API of 0.11 seconds. That’s more than 36x faster than HSBC, which took 4.05 seconds to respond on average.11 Data Holders, including 86:400, bcu and Beyond Bank, had a response time of 0.5 seconds or less when their Transactions for accounts API was called. The slowest Data Holder (MyState Bank) took close to 4 seconds, or almost 5x as long as the leaders.

About Frollo

Frollo is a purpose driven fintech and Australia’s first Open Banking intermediary. We help businesses use Open Banking data to deliver better customer outcomes. From reducing debt and increasing savings, to providing a better, more personalised customer experience.Our modular, end-to-end Open Banking platform enables businesses to bring Open Banking powered use cases to market quickly by leveraging Australia’s most advanced and reliable CDR Gateway, with plug & play access to lending, personal finance management and customer onboarding solutions..Trusted by clients like ANZ, Volt, REA Group, P&N Bank, bcu and Bank of Queensland, Frollo is an Australian market leader in Open Banking.Assets and data