With bexio, one of the leading Swiss providers of business software is joining the bLink open finance platform. SwissSalary, Counteo and LIMMOBI are also new to the platform. Using the standardized Account & Payments Services API on bLink, SMEs can automatically integrate account and transaction data from their principal bank into their accounting tool. This significantly reduces the administrative effort for SMEs, solving a key customer problem with the new interface. This is also becoming increasingly important for banks.
Following the go-live of OpenWealth, bLink is also gaining additional traction on the open banking interfaces based on the official Common API standards of the Swiss Fintech Innovations (SFTI) industry association. The four software providers are also the first participants to benefit from an optimized admission check on bLink. Thanks to this, on-premise solutions can now connect in addition to cloud solutions.
Interface reduces administrative effort for SMEs
Software solutions such as bexio have set themselves the goal of simplifying the everyday office work of SMEs. The better the access to relevant data regarding their customers, the more efficient they are. With a connection to bLink, SMEs can easily link their digital accounting with their principal bank and integrate corresponding account and transaction data automatically via a standardized interface. Approval for data exchange by the SME is given in just a few minutes via the principal bank’s e-banking and can be revoked at any time.
Because bank transactions make up a significant part of accounting, the overall effort for SME administration is thus decisively reduced. The accounting is also continually kept up to date. This also creates opportunities for new features for the software providers. Matthias Paulus, Product Owner of bexio, is pleased: “The connection to bLink allows us to standardize and further stabilize data exchange with banks. In the future, this will allow us to focus on our core competencies and the processing of this data, and provide our customers with even greater automation in payment transactions.”
Win-win-win situation: the interface also adds value for banks
The customers of the business software are always also customers of a bank. The added value of direct data integration for SMEs is therefore also passed on to the brand of the bank offering the interface. This service allows banks to reinforce the value proposition to their SME customers. Furthermore, cooperation with software providers also offers banks the potential of additional offerings, such as in the area of expense management in combination with card data. The interface thus generates added value for all participants involved in the data exchange.
The decisive advantage of bLink for both banks and software providers lies in its scalability. With a single connection, numerous innovative use cases can be implemented on the existing Account & Payments Services interface without additional effort, and new partnerships can be established with the platform’s participants. Matt Zürrer, CPO of bexio, is excited about the future: “We are already looking forward to offering our customers numerous new connections with bLink, such as in the cantonal bank segment.”
