The future is now: No-hassle entrepreneurship via Rabo Embedded Services

“The world is changing at a breakneck pace. But that also presents new opportunities. For example, entrepreneurs are faced with the growth of digitization. That has an enormous impact on society, where people are doing more business and making more purchases online. That trend has only been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Where 40 percent of consumers regularly paid with cash just two years ago, today it’s only around 20 percent. At the same time, the platform economy is on the rise. Entrepreneurs offer their products and services via other companies’ online platforms and want the same ease of use that they experience as consumers. Fast, simple, and where they need it. “

“Legislation in the area of digitization is also changing all the time. Take the European legislation for consumer and business payment transactions, known as PSD2, for example. It requires financial service providers to share data with third parties if customers grant permission to do so. That in turn creates more and more new services, with a lot of benefits for businesses and consumers.”

“Rabobank is proactively adapting to these developments. We do that by offering our financial services on the business platforms that entrepreneurs use every day to run their businesses. That way, they can arrange financial issues at the time and place that’s most convenient to them. That’s what we mean by ‘Rabo Embedded Services’. To provide the services, we prefer to work together with a growing number of partner firms that weave our financial services into their online platforms and customer journeys using APIs.”

“Consider the example of a party that offers a bookkeeping package, which includes an API that offers a real-time connection to the bank. As a result, the bookkeeping module gives an entrepreneur constant access to their current financial data. Via our partner Bizcuit, for example, an entrepreneur can immediately see how much financing they qualify for, with a few clicks they can apply for the loan with Rabobank online, and they’ll have the money in their account within 24 hours. With Rabo Embedded Services, we are constantly offering more and more financial products like that. So entrepreneurs no longer need to go to an office or log in to a separate Rabobank online environment; they can stay on the platform where they arrange all of the rest of their business. That way, we can be wherever our customers need us, and offer them even more convenience.”

“This type of service is really just a new twist on the cooperative Rabobank. Because for more than a century, we’ve been bringing entrepreneurs together to improve the economy. And now we do that online, together with our partners. With Rabo Embedded Services, we’ve found a new application for cooperative banking. That doesn’t mean the bank as we know it today will disappear. We’ve just added an extra distribution channel that better suits the way entrepreneurs work today.”

“As a cooperative bank, we know that we need to be where entrepreneurs need our services. Developers can access Rabobank’s financial products using APIs to help them optimize their own customer journeys. We’re constantly expanding the selection of APIs too. We already have them for the areas of payment services, identity services, financing, account information and leasing. If you’re interested in the opportunities available for the customers of your business platform, take a moment to check out our website!”