All you need to know about BaaS

By Team OPEN
January 20, 2020
3 min read

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is all the rage in the fintech community today.

And we at Open were super excited to join forces with MEDICI to launch the first-ever extensive report on BaaS at one of the world’s largest Fintech events – the Singapore Fintech Festival.

And it couldn’t have been better! 😁

It was thrilling to witness the crowd dropping by our stall & joining the conversation on one of the most trending topics in Fintech.

No worries if you couldn’t watch the action live.

Here’s a quick roundup of everything to get you on the speed with what’s happening in the world of BaaS. 👇

The Big Picture

We’re living in exciting times when BaaS has become a sought after business & revenue model for banks and Fintech ﬁrms alike.

Before you confuse BaaS with Open banking, let me stop you right there.

While Open Banking is a regulation that encompasses both open data and open capabilities, BaaS is purely a business model that exposes banking APIs and processes to third-party developers.

The primary reason for BaaS receiving an amazing success in markets like Europe is the advent of open banking regulations and traditional banks coming on board with it.

Figo, Fidor Bank, SolarisBank, Railbank, and Bankable are some of the early adopters of BaaS & have shown great success in adopting the Banking-as-a-Service model and are generating huge revenues through it.

And are also paving the way forward for new fintech to dive into the success of BaaS.

BaaS Models Explained

To date, banking-as-a-service is broadly classified into three different categories. Let’s have a look at them –

Leading BaaS Models - Source: Open & Medici's BaaS report

API STORES: Traditional or challenger banks that offer their APIs directly to consumers & Fintechs to build better banking services.

WHITE-LABEL PLATFORM (B2B2C): Companies that provide APIs on a white-labeled platform to enable FinTech players to offer specific banking services – such as issuing debit cards.

BaaS As CO-BRANDING: New age FinTech players or neobanks who provide their cutting edge BaaS platform in a co-branded proposition to traditional banks.

Neobanking – The most sought after model in BaaS

Neobanks are at the forefront of success amongst various Banking-as-a-Service models & are proving to be the key drivers of this disruptive change in Fintech.

And we at Open are ecstatic to be the neobanking anchors in the Asian market. Having kicked off our strategic alliance with ICICI Bank in Oct 2017 we are now partnered with 15 banks. It’s really exciting to witness the Indian market open up to this golden opportunity of collaboration.

The future holds a lot more

Today, Banking-as-a-Service is a win-win for all the players in the ecosystem. With banks & fintechs working together, it’s a great revenue model for everyone involved.

Now, I’ll not hold you back anymore. Go ahead & go check out the report yourself!