Co-op Bank opens APIs in a bid to promote partnerships and innovation among corporates, Sacco’s and SMEs

Co-op Bank has opened its APIs to help promote partnerships and innovation & build disruptive business models and platforms that deliver a seamless customer experience.

An application program interface (API) is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other. An API defines the correct way for a developer to request services from an operating system (OS) or other application and expose data within different contexts and across multiple channels. An Open API also known as a public API are published on the internet and allows the owner of a network- accessible service to give a universal access to customers.

APIs are simple and easy to use, and accessible from web or mobile application. They provide an easier and faster way of partnering with Fintechs. Besides being a safe and secure mode of transacting, APIs enable real time update of payment status to deliver a seamless customer experience.

The Bank believes in co-creation and innovation that enables people, businesses and the society to grow. It believes that innovative products and services that benefit their customers and the public in general are key to success.

With the Co-op APIs dubbed Co-opConnect, the Bank aims to publish as many banking services as possible enabling their Corporate and Sacco customers to add value to their mobile apps & web services.

There’s two categories – the account information services APIs and the transactional APIs.

The Transactional API’s feature the regular banking functions:

Internal Funds Transfer – transfer funds from a Co-op Bank account to another Co-op Bank account.

Pesalink send to account – this enables customers to use Pesalink while sending money from a Co-op Bank account to another bank account in a different bank.

Instant Notification Service – real time notifications to a customer’s accounting system of any activities in the respective customer’s account i.e debits and credits.

Send money from a Co-op Bank account to an M-Pesa wallet.

Account Information Service APIs

This category shows the account balance as at a given time. The balances have many variations:

Cleared, Booked, Blocked, Available, Un-cleared Balance and Arrears Amounts. Clients also use this feature to access their overdraft limits information.

Other features on the Account Information Service APIs include:

Account Transaction Inquiry – Shows the status of a specific transaction. For example was a cash deposit successful.

 Account Mini Statement – Shows the latest 10 transactions in your account.

Exchange Rate Enquiry – Show the days foreign exchange for all major world currencies e.g. USD, GBP, EUR, CAD etc. that are offered by Co-op Bank.

Account Validation – Confirms that a provided account (mostly from a third party) is a valid account number within the bank’s system.

Status Enquiry – shows status of a specific request for example if you send a Pesalink transaction on Open Banking the status enquiry API will provide an update whether the transaction has reached Co-op Bank and is been processed.

Before launching an innovation, Co-op Bank ensures that it weighs the business needs and the prevailing market situation versus the opportunity. This ensures that it meets the customer need and keeps up with the changing market trends.

Co-op API’s can be accessed by clicking on this link.