To build competitive advantage and prepare for future requirements, such as the impending PSD2 regulation, Portugal's leading payments processor, SIBS, applied a forward-thinking strategy using unique API infrastructure to create a differentiated customer experience.

SIBS built a revolutionary open-banking platform from scratch using the TIBCO platform to change the way users and 24 financial institutions in Portugal do business. It also developed an award-winning digital wallet app and a marketplace for all Portuguese banks and customers.

Compliance and Open-banking Innovation

Using the new Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and today's highly dynamic and competitive payment sector, SIBS identified the opportunity to develop innovative services and added-value business models. APIs would provide secure adhesive for those new services and deliver a seamless transaction experience. The SIBS team, then, was looking for a best-of-breed partner to help them build a platform to enable it all.

"For the open banking platform itself, we started from scratch," explained Head of Digital Transformation Diogo Rodrigues. "We created a multi-technology platform using TIBCO as the core because we had a good experience with TIBCO on our main transformation project."

SIBS saw a big opportunity to leverage data, and the company is becoming more dynamic every day. "We need to keep innovating, we need to be dreamers. But, we also need to be careful because we are a crucial part of the economy. We work with TIBCO as the foundation of our broader technology stack, and with other supporting systems, as well. The fact that it's very flexible helped us create interconnections that solved most of our problems," said Mr. Rodrigues.

An Open-banking Marketplace for the Portuguese Economy

SIBS' API Market platform created a revolutionary solution for financial institutions, a marketplace where banks and other third parties can find new services and share their apps with millions of customers. "We have 24 financial institutions enrolled in our open banking platform, and this makes us very proud. All of these financial institutions could have created their own API catalog, but they are using ours."

The new solution changed the way Portugal uses financial services. “Users now have access to more third-party solutions that can help them with their finances, and they can be assured that their data is secure."

With the flexibility that open banking provides, SIBS can easily integrate banks into its network and speed service delivery. "Open banking is the future, the way all people will interact with their financial information, and TIBCO enabled it."