Jyske Bank: The first Danish bank to seize Open Banking opportunities

August 23, 2019 | Louise Basse

“An important part of Jyske Bank’s DNA is to differentiate us from other banks by teaming up with fintechs in order to offer digital banking solutions in a quick and intelligent way. That’s why we chose to partner up with Nordic API Gateway”.

For many years, banks have developed most of their banking solutions in-house.

But as a result of today’s Open Banking journey, many fintechs are starting to offer simple plug-and-play solutions that banks can implement right away. To keep up with innovation and all the possibilities that bank technology promises, banks are starting to team up with fintechs and open the digital doors to their customers.

We talked to Jyske Bank’s Managing Director, Peter Schleidt, about how they’ve embraced the new changes.

An ecosystem of functionalities 

Delivering user-driven digital services is one of the core opportunities of Open Banking.

Unfortunately, many banks have been hesitant about what investments to make, and how to create new services that won’t be too expensive, taking time, risks and compliance into consideration.

Luckily, Jyske Bank isn’t afraid to take the leap to embrace the new opportunities:

“We’re not going to be the ones who develop all of our services in-house. We’ll much rather be cherry picking powerful business solutions and create our own ecosystem of functionalities,” Peter Schleidt explains and adds:

“If a fintech with an attractive solution can integrate it in a cheaper, faster, and better way than we’re able to do it ourselves, we can offer compelling solutions and stay ahead of the emerging competition”.

When Jyske Bank initiated their talk with Nordic API Gateway back in 2017, it didn’t require many cups of coffee or discussions to land a deal.

In just three months, Jyske Bank was up and running with their new solution that enables all of Jyske Bank’s B2C customers to get a complete financial overview of their accounts across banks”, Peter Schleidt explains and continues:

“The service we built with Nordic API Gateway is exactly that kind of solution we want to integrate. In this way, we’re quickly able to deliver convenient and intelligent services that responses to our customers’ needs”.

The race for relevance

Even though fintechs are helping Jyske Bank to boost innovation and bring value to their banking experience, they should also be seen as competitors, fighting for the customers’ attention. And that’s exactly why it’s important to team up instead of competing against each other:

“Because of PSD2, everyone can build tailor-made financial services. Fintechs especially are eager to find new ways of providing people with personalised and convenient banking solutions,” Peter Schleidt explains and concludes:

“That’s why relevance has become more important than ever. If we can offer our customers a relevant banking experience that suits their way of living, they are more likely to stay with us. If not, they will go somewhere else. This is a race towards remaining relevant. A race that we simply can’t lose”.

Jyske Bank has ambitious plans for the future, and it won’t be long before they reveal the next big thing.