The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has launched Project Aperta, an initiative aimed at improving open finance interoperability, reducing frictions, and cutting costs in global finance.
The project focuses on connecting the domestic open finance infrastructures of different jurisdictions, enabling secure, encrypted data sharing via APIs.
Initially, it will focus on trade finance for SMEs, targeting products like letters of credit, trade credit insurance, and supply chain financing, with many more applications to follow.
Businesses currently face costly inefficiencies due to excessive manual paperwork and limited digital data portability.
Project Aperta aims to address this by creating a prototype of a multilateral cross-border interoperability network, which will allow licensed third-party providers, including banks and fintechs, to exchange data securely across jurisdictions.
Around 70 jurisdictions regulate open finance, each with different approaches such as regulatory-led or market-led systems.
These differing standards hinder cross-border data flow.
Project Aperta seeks to overcome this by using proven standardised APIs, promoting interoperability, and avoiding fragmentation in scope, standards, and solutions.
The prototype will enable the secure sharing of consumer and business data across borders.
This will facilitate faster account opening and reduce the time and costs associated with international trade, allowing businesses to share data like letters of credit and electronic bills of lading.
Project Aperta is a collaboration between the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the central banks of the UAE, Brazil, and Hong Kong, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, the International Chamber of Commerce Digital Standards Initiative, and the Hong Kong University Standard Chartered Foundation Fintech Academy.