TrueLayer launches data API in Germany
London-based developer TrueLayer wants to be a player in Germany with the launch of its data API platform.
Germany has “long understood the value of opening up access to banking data”
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of open banking (it was unleashed on 13 January 2018), TrueLayer says its data API will mean that businesses, especially fintechs, will be able to avoid “costly and time-consuming integrations of the dozens of fragmented banking APIs in Germany and across Europe”.
The data API includes the ability to verify identity and account ownership of users, and personal finance management.
Vedika Jain, product manager for the data API at TrueLayer, says Germany has “long understood the value of opening up access to banking data by introducing back in 1995, an open banking protocol called HBCI (Home Banking Computer Interface)”.
Jain explains that the protocol was later re-born as its successor FinTS which is now supported by more than 2,000 banks locally – “making it one of the most open banking infrastructures in the world”.
Over the years, the firm has secured a series of partnerships with companies including Zopa, ClearScore, CreditLadder, Canopy, Plum, BitBond, Emma and Anorak.
This year it is due to launch its second major product focused on payments.
TrueLayer was founded in 2016 by Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti. It has received $11.9 million across multiple round of investments from various VC firms, including Northzone, Anthemis Group and Connect Ventures.
