The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of UK Finance or its members.

They are a powerful tool for driving innovation, enabling businesses in the financial services industry to develop new products and services whilst providing a secure and standardised way to exchange pertinent data quickly and efficiently between both users and organisations.

The Standard’s Advisory Panel (“SAP”) was established by the Bank of England and Pay.UK to provide industry insights and advice on the development and adoption of new payment standards in the UK and includes members from across the payments ecosystem, standards setters, providers and users.

Given the opportunities and pace of innovation, to address the risks of divergence, fragmentation and discrepancies in the ecosystem when designing and implementing APIs, the Standards Advisory Panel commissioned a new best practice framework. This framework includes recommendations, covering aspects such as versioning and security when designing and implementing payment APIs in the UK. 

An industry-led group coalition, using its experience and awareness of payment API implementations, built on its knowledge of ISO-led standardisation work effort. It has now defined the Framework with both SAP and UK Finance’s Standards Engagement Forum (“SEF”) support. APIs are the norm now in the Payments industry, UK Finance, via the SEF are delighted to support the development and awareness of best practices in this space. 

The Framework is for any organisation responsible for developing, maintaining, or monitoring the effectiveness of, or control for, any UK payment APIs. The best practice guidance within the Framework is also applicable to a wide range of industry APIs and is easily shared with non-technical stakeholders providing a valuable resource for communication and standardisation.

We are now seeking wider interest in and feedback to the Framework. 

At this time, we would welcome your feedback by contacting apiframework@ukfinance.org.uk by 26 August.

After closing, feedback will be addressed, and a final version of the guidance published. After this time all users and organisations creating or implementing financial APIs should consider adopting the principles within.

The Framework itself will continue to evolve, with feedback elicited from industry regarding its relevance, accuracy and value to its intended audience and will be reviewed on a regular cadence.