Open-sourcing an open banking reference app

Key to continually developing capabilities is recognising new opportunities to apply what we’ve learned in new and innovative ways. Recently, the increasing adoption of open banking APIs by the financial services and fintech sectors presented such an opportunity to the NearForm team.

Using the latest open source tools, best practices and our own proven workflows, we developed a multiplatform open banking reference app that addresses real-world challenges. That reference app is now open-sourced on GitHub .

From decades of experience building modern, flexible solutions for a range of enterprise needs, NearForm has codified our learnings around the tools, techniques and foundational decisions that work, again and again. We call these Accelerators, as they enable us to begin any project several steps ahead and shave weeks off the project timeframe and budget while prioritising quality.

The demands of a project dictate which accelerators we use to build the solution. For the open banking reference app we developed with IBM, we started with Polaris, which delivers a single codebase for streamlined, consistent delivery across web, iOS and Android.

To develop the reference app, we considered a specific real-world challenge in which a mother wants to ensure her daughter has enough money in her bank account while travelling. To accomplish this , the mother needs to know when her daughter’s account balance falls below a specific amount and the ability to quickly transfer money directly into her daughter’s account. The mother and daughter have separate individual accounts at different banks and use different mobile platforms (iOS vs Android).

Using the Polaris accelerator, open banking APIs and IBM API Connect, we built a reference app that deploys across web and mobile platforms using a single codebase that can be deployed and maintained by a single team.

Watch the brief webinar for a video walk-through of the app and an in-depth view of the Polaris architecture and tools used:

[caption id="attachment_300008989" align="alignnone" width="553"]

See the open banking reference app in action [/caption]

The open banking reference app has been open-sourced and is now widely available . As with all of our accelerators, NearForm will continue to support the app technology into the future.

We know the value of contributing to the open source project and supporting the OS community. Our work in open source software (OSS), and our contribution to the Node.js project, in particular, build value for the wider ecosystem and lends that value back into all we do.