The Central Bank of the UAE rolled out its open finance framework this year, onboarding its first fintechs and allowing them to launch payment services under the framework — a milestone that paves the way for broader industry cooperation. The regulation standardizes secure cross-sector data sharing and transactions through a trust framework, an API hub, consumer consent protocols, and infrastructure services to support cross-sectoral data sharing and transaction initiation.

Local banks have been preparing for this moment for a while. Our friends at Mashreq in April launched their own API marketplace as part of efforts to support this cross-industry collaboration between fintechs, banks, and other financial institutions. The marketplace offers a flexible subscription model, and is designed with a “developer-first mindset”, with comprehensive documentation and sandbox environments to test out different codes and applications.

How does that work, you ask? To give one example, the bank is offering instant payment APIs for its corporate clients as well as financial institutions, with MultiBank being the first to be fully integrated with central bank-backed instant payment platform Aani. This allows MultiBank’s clients to carry out real-time transactions, including domestic fund transfers and bulk payments.

We had a chat with Mashreq’s new global head of transaction banking, Vivek Batra (LinkedIn), to talk about how open finance will change the way banks and fintechs operate, why APIs are important in this transition, where he sees demand for APIs, and what he identifies as the most important prospects for collaboration with fintechs. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

Enterprise: How do you think the era of open finance and the introduction of API hubs like Mashreq’s will impact the banking sector over the next few years?

VB: Open finance is fundamentally reshaping the banking and financial industry landscape. Over the next few years, we expect open finance to drive a shift from traditional, siloed banking models to a more collaborative, ecosystem-driven approach — where banks, fintechs, corporates, and developers co-create solutions tailored to specific industry needs. Platforms like the Central Bank’s API Hub are pivotal to this transformation, providing a central infrastructure to plug in our product and services, while Mashreq API Marketplace is designed not just as a technical gateway, but as a strategic enabler for our clients.

Enterprise: What specific services do you see Mashreq partnering with fintechs for?

VB: We see opportunities for partnerships with fintechs in areas like advanced analytics, GenAI, embedded finance, and digital channel enhancements like mobile banking apps and customer journeys. We’re looking to cooperate with them across several high-impact domains, including trade finance and receivables, digital channels UX, open banking and APIs.

Enterprise: What’s demand looking like for your APIs right now?

VB: We have developed over 25 essential APIs that are empowering clients to integrate banking services directly into their ERP systems, treasury platforms, and customer-facing applications. The market demand is growing and we have successfully enabled clients with our API connectivity solutions across many sectors, and there are many more at the advanced stages of implementation.

Clients are adopting APIs for payments, cash, trade, and various needs. Probably the most used API right now is related to validation, checking that payments are going to the right beneficiary. It sounds like a very small thing, but not so far back this didn’t even exist as a concept — and today it’s the most common and popular usage for APIs.

Just like we track a transaction pipeline, we track an API pipeline. We now have all essential APIs on the platform developed, tested and implemented, spanning payments, statements, validation, collections, virtual accounts, balance enquiries, and utility payments. We’re working on new industry solutions and are hoping to expand access to other regional markets where we’re present.

Enterprise: What differentiates a bank’s API hub? Is it sheer volume, or distinctions within the APIs themselves?

VB: Anyone can create an API. If I do it three weeks before you, it doesn’t mean anything. But where the rubber hits the road is when it comes to actual co-creation with clients. Having the ability to sit with a client and develop an API for a specific use case that they need — that’s where it becomes meaningful.

Enterprise: How do you see the next stage of open finance developing in the UAE? Could we start seeing digital asset solutions become more mainstream now with this additional cooperation between fintechs, non-banking financial institutions, and banks?

VB: Digital assets are one part of open finance, but they are not the whole picture. Open finance includes digital assets like tokenized currencies, stablecoins, and crypto-based instruments; banking APIs for payments, account info, lending, etc.; embedded finance banking services integrated into non-bank platforms; data portability allowing customers to share their financial data across providers; and third-party fintechs building on top of bank infrastructure.

So while digital assets are a key enabler — especially in areas like programmable money, cross-border settlements, and decentralized finance — they sit alongside many other components that make up the open finance landscape.

It will require a lot of players to come together, so you’ll have a number of players moving in step to make sure it works together. It’s not just one bank and one regulator — it’s an ecosystem. The possibilities are tremendous, and as we move into a more open and transparent economy, we will start embedding not just finance, but non-finance activity as well under this framework.

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