LEADING technology enablers in the financial sector have banded together to promote the use of customer-allowed software robotics toward holistic financial inclusion in the Philippines. Brankas, in collaboration with FinScore, Finverse and Smile API, as well as support from the Open Finance Committee of FinTech Philippines Association, has published a white paper on how robotic process automation (RPA)-based application programming interfaces (APIs) directly support and help realize the objectives of the Open Finance Framework issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2021.
Providing the guidelines for enabling Open Finance in the Philippines and setting the standard across Southeast Asia, this regulatory framework is aligned with the BSP Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2020-2023 aimed at strengthening customer preference for digital payments and pushing more innovative and responsive digital financial services. It focuses on greater competition in the financial services market, enabling more informed financial decisions for consumers, and encouraging greater control of their data and finances.
“The implementation of the BSP Open Finance Framework will potentially change the lives of Filipino consumers and leads us a step closer toward holistic financial inclusion in the Philippines,” Brankas chief executive officer Todd Schweitzer said, citing the importance of RPA to develop bank-managed APIs securely available to verified third parties.
“Customer-consented RPA is the crucial technology that we need to get there. By allowing the safe and secure use of RPA, we as an industry can collectively enable Filipinos to avail new and alternative financial products and services, with better quality and at an affordable cost, without compromising their financial consumer and data privacy rights,” he explained.
Dubbed “RPA-based APIs: Unlocking the Potential of Open Finance,” the document discusses how they are the only readily available technology that can enable a fully inclusive fintech ecosystem for customers to securely access their bank’s or financial institution’s online services.
The use of RPA technology is consistent with advanced Open Finance industries like the European Union, the United States and Australia.
With its legitimate and recognized utilization globally, it is deemed an interim solution prior to bank-supported open APIs being made available by the thousands of financial institutions in the Philippines, and a fallback to ensure financial consumer choice when bank-managed APIs are offline, underperformed or unavailable.
The white paper underscores that RPA-based APIs are legal in the country under prevailing laws, and are enabled by key policies under competition, consumer protection, and privacy laws. In particular, it implements the financial consumer’s data privacy rights to access and data portability.
While RPA technologies are readily used and trusted by local and foreign customers for credit scoring, reconciliation and accounting operations, e-commerce payments, and transfers to digital bank accounts, there are concerns and perceived risks surrounding them.
Thus, open, fact-based discussion among industry and regulatory bodies can enable an Open Finance industry that protects consumers, empowers customer choice, and allows next-generation solutions.
