FAQs - Business Accounts

This section outlines some of the most important FAQs pertaining to the Business Accounts module. If you have any other queries, please reach out to us at [email protected].

1. Connected Banking

a) What is Connected Banking?

Connected banking is a secured way of sharing the business account data of any
the customer between Banks and third parties with due consent of the account holder.

b) What is the need for Connected Banking?

The personal and business banking landscape has evolved significantly in the last decade. With multiple regulations from regulatory bodies and banks’ own checks and balances, the process has given rise to more complexity.

Many fintech organizations help traditional firms to simplify these processes, however, to get access to the data they still rely on manual transfer or screen scraping. This current system of data sharing limits consumer control and may create data privacy concerns and security issues. Connected Banking provides for secure sharing of data via API methods.

c) What are the security protocols followed by Decentro to enable Connected Banking?

The linking of the business account is initiated by the customers, thus ensuring the customer has complete control over the onboarding transaction. It is only after the customer approves the linking request over the net banking portal, that Decentro allows access to account details to any fintech with whom the customer has a standing legal agreement.

d) How will Connected Banking benefit my platform?

By embedding banking into your platform through Connected Banking, you’re allowing your customers to share their bank account-related information with you directly from the bank. This integration will allow your platform to pull bank account balances, account statements, and also initiate transactions from within your platform. This gives you access to pull information and initiate transactions without having to compromise on the privacy of your users. Therefore, Connected Banking will give you much-needed insights about your users and will allow much tighter integration with your platform. Also, by integrating banking into your platform, you will be able to increase the time spent on your platform by these users.

e) How does Connected Banking work?

Decentro’s Connected banking APIs allow you to link users’ business bank accounts to your platform. This enables you to fetch account information like balance and statements and also initiate money transfers directly from your platform.

f) How will the user approve the connected banking request?

To enable Connected Banking, you will need to ask the user to share some basic bank account-related information with you. For instance, user ID, corp ID, and username. Once this information is entered into the ‘link account API’, you will receive a redirect URL to the bank’s internet banking portal. The user can use this link to login and approve the connected banking request you initiated. To approve the request, the user will get an OTP on the registered mobile number. Once done, the account will be linked to your platform.

g) How can I get the user’s bank account information into my platform?

Once the user links their account and authorizes your platform to fetch their banking information, you will be able to get the balance and statement and can initiate money transfers from their account directly from your platform using Decentro’s APIs. For this, your Decentro credentials will be verified and the information will flow via our APIs directly into your platform.

h ) How will the user be able to manage the Connected Banking permissions?

The user will have to log into their internet banking portal to manage the Connected Banking permissions they’re granted. Once they are logged into their internet banking portal, they will have an option called “Connected Banking” inside which they will be able to approve or reject new Connected Banking requests and also manage existing connections they have approved. Using this, the user will be able to unlink their account from your platform at any time.

i) How will the user know the amount of the money transfer the platform is initiating?

To initiate a money transfer transaction through connected banking, the platform first needs to generate an OTP and needs to mention the amount of the money transfer in the generated OTP request. This amount is then mentioned in the bank's OTP message the user receives. Therefore, the user will always be aware of the amount of money transfer they are approving by sharing the OTP.

j) Can I access the bank account of any bank using connected banking?

Yes, any account of our underlying partner banks can be linked. For example, Yes Bank, ICICI, etc.

k) What accounts can be accessed from Connected Banking?

Most banks allow current accounts to be accessed using connected banking. In some banks, savings accounts and OD accounts can be accessed as well. Below is the list of banks where savings accounts can be accessed.

• ICICI
• Kotak

None of the banks expose loan accounts or credit card accounts as part of the connected banking stack.

l) Does Connected Banking require instant customer approval?

This depends on the underlying bank. Only some banks like ICICI, Kotak, and Axis support instant linkage. There are other banks like Yes Bank, RBL, StanC

2. API Banking

a) What is API Banking?

Application Programming Interface or API allows a Third Party Entity to use a platform to access a common set of services and tools. With respect to banks, this means that the core banking functionality i.e. Money transfer, account statement, balance, etc. can be accessed by a set of common APIs provided by Decentro.

b) Which core banking functionalities can be accessed using API Banking?

As of now, through API Banking, you can fetch the account balance, and account statement, and initiate money transfer transactions, without needing to develop a GUI.

c) What are the possible use cases of API Banking?

• Track changes in account balance through statements (monitor account post lending)
• Automate money transfers through APIs (lending repayments, subscriptions, etc.)
• Reconciliation of payments
• Accounts receivable and payable monitoring
• API Banking has found its applications in multiple use cases. Any business can integrate its ERP with Decentro’s APIs to manage payables and receivables. Any 3rd party lender can use Decentro’s KYC services to verify the identity of its customers and their credit-worthiness.

d) What is the difference between Connected Banking and API Banking?

Connected Banking is where a platform builds a GUI or embeds banking management into its existing platform, thereby offering an alternate option to the user to track and manage their bank account. In the case of API Banking, there is no GUI that will be developed to track and manage an account. The APIs will be integrated into the company’s software to be able to perform these banking actions independently on its own bank account.

e) How does it work for accounts that have a maker checker process enabled?

There are two methods of enabling a maker-checker system here - one is via our APIs and one is via the bank branch / physical form submission directly. The branch/physical process will override the API flag and method. If the maker checker system is enabled, by default, the transactions made via our APIs will go into a ‘pending for approval’ stage and these transactions will need to be approved by the checker then via the usual net banking portal.