NatWest unveils three new APIs for corporate customers

UK bank NatWest has added to its ‘Indirect Access Payments’ suite of APIs with the launch of three new APIs to support corporate, commercial and institutional customers’ demands for real-time payments.

For commercial and corporate treasury teams, the three new APIs sit in the bank’s host-to-host solution, Bankline Direct, which integrates with customers’ Treasury Management Systems (TMS) or Enterprise Resource Systems (ERP), for use in payments and reconciliation activities.

The first of the three new APIs from NatWest will enable direct initiation of CHAPS, Faster Payments and international transfers and for corporate and commercial customers to receive near real-time payment status notifications.

The ‘Account Reconciliation’ API will “pull and schedule reports to enable treasury teams to directly access information seamlessly and optimise the power of their data”.

Finally, the Autopay Direct Bacs API has been developed for the launch of a new product, aimed at large corporate customers to allow for Bacs payments to be submitted “unattended and seamlessly”.

Jonathan Hall, head of digital at NatWest, said: “Our newest APIs use the latest technologies to support our customers’ needs. The result is a seamless and secure transition to real-time payments in the digital, always-on economy.

“As we continue to innovate, our API products will allow our customers to improve their interaction with us and receive essential data more quickly.”

NatWest’s existing ‘Indirect Access Payments’ suite of APIs are used by NatWest agency banks and indirect Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to process secure bank-grade and non-bank grade domestic payments.

The new APIs use industry-standard security and ISO20022 formats.

In May this year, NatWest became the first UK bank to go beyond the Competition and Markets Authority’s requirement for banks to provide variable recurring payments (VRPs) in support of sweeping, signing agreements with payment providers TrueLayer, GoCardless and Crezco to offer VRPs.

NatWest now has agreements with six payment providers to offer VRP as a new payment method, having recently signed agreements with Token, Yapily and Tink.