US banks are opening up their gates ... by sharing APIs banks get access to innovation.
Citigroup, BBVA Compass, Bank of America and Capital One are among the large U.S. banks that have been making pieces of their internally developed software code available to outsiders. Other banks are likely to follow. The banks and others are sharing code through application programming interfaces — software gateways that let applications work together. Some consider APIs a key to banks' survival and relevance in a mobile-first world. By sharing APIs to their proprietary software with nimbler, unregulated tech companies, the argument goes, banks can innovate much faster than they could by limiting application development to their own compliance-inhibited, resourced-strapped IT organizations.