Open banking standards: payments

Comparing features of open finance APIs. Part two of several.

Part one was account data.

Open Banking standards: account data

We’ll look at the same four specifications:

• OpenBankingUK

• NextGenPSD2

• STET PSD2

• Open Financial Exchange (OFX)

See the previous article for an overview of how they differ.

Payment specification designs

I had to switch up the format for this article because these payment APIs are pretty hefty.

For example, the NextGenPSD2 API specification for payments is made up of 288 operations!

NextGenPSD2 payment APIs with hidden repeated endpoints.

So, we’ll compare the payment API specifications by looking at the different dimensions involved.

Feature comparison

The Open Banking UK specification consists of the following attributes combined in different ways:

Locality

• Initiate a domestic payment (UK)

• Fetch a domestic payment (UK)

• Initiate an international payment

• Fetch an international payment

Payment type

• Single payment

• Scheduled payment

• Standing order (recurring payment)

Consent data

• Capture consent

• Fetch consent

Fund confirmation

• Confirm funds for a domestic payment

• Confirm funds for an international payment

• Confirm funds for an international payment

Additionally, there is a file payment type that works differently to the others.

Each feature group has its consent features that allow clients to capture and fetch customer consent.

NextGenPSD2 has the following attributes:

Locality

• Initiate a domestic payment (SEPA)

• Get a domestic payment (SEPA)

• Get a domestic payment status (SEPA)

• Delete a domestic payment (SEPA)

• Initiate a domestic payment (SEPA Instant)

• Get a domestic payment (SEPA Instant)

• Get a domestic payment status (SEPA Instant)

• Delete a domestic payment (SEPA Instant)

• Initiate a domestic payment (Target2)

• Get a domestic payment (Target2)

• Get a domestic payment status (Target2)

• Delete a domestic payment (Target2)

• Initiate an international payment

• Get an international payment

• Get an international payment status

• Delete an international payment

Message format

• Domestic payments (SEPA) [ISO20022]

• Domestic payments (Instant) [ISO20022]

• Domestic payments (Target2) [ISO20022]

• International payments [ISO20022]

Payment type

• Single payment

• Bulk payments

• Standing order (recurring payments)

Consent data

• Capture consent

• Fetch consent

• Capture cancellation authorisation

• Capture cancellation authorisation