Sutor Bank announces to enhance its offer for digital businesses such as fintech startups, marketplaces and platform companies with new banking APIs. With immediate effect, partner firms can now access Sutor Bank’s core banking system as well as its investment management software. This enables firms to offer a full range of banking processes to their own customers, including investing, lending and payments.
Via the new APIs, e-business companies such as marketplaces now have the opportunity to manage their payment processes in an automated and regulation-compliant manner.
The API offer makes Sutor Bank the first traditional bank to allow partner firms unrestricted access to its banking system.
Sutor Bank becomes “One Stop Shop” for digital businesses
Announcing the move, Sutor Bank’s owner and managing director Robert Freitag said: “With the Sutor start-up platform, Sutor Bank already gives fintech companies a head start by providing them with its technical, administrative and customer-specific know-how. With the new APIs Sutor Bank is becoming a one stop shop for all digital businesses.”
“In the future, firms will receive all banking services from Sutor Bank as their single source, allowing them to provide these services to their own customers.”
Sutor Bank is co-operating with the software provider PASS to enhance its API infrastructure. PASS delivers the API for the core banking system. The API for the investment platform was developed by Sutor Bank itself. This allows companies to integrate their mobile and web-based applications with Sutor Bank’s IT systems and use all of its banking processes. Several of the Bank’s current partners are already working with the new APIs. These include payment service providers, marketplaces, insurers and other fintech companies.
Individual solutions based on APIs
As well as offering white-label banking services, Sutor Bank also works with fintech firms on developing joint business models. “Our experience shows that APIs are not sufficient for co-operations since they solely represent the technical side of things,” said Robert Freitag. “In most cases we have to design a process to meet our clients‘ requirements as well as the regulatory once – even if it’s only a simple payment process at the first glance.”
“Sustainable business models have to comply with regulatory rules — today and in the future. Our experience shows that many business models fail not because of technical issues, but because of regulatory ones.”
Sutor startup platform: A track-record of successful startup co-operations
The Sutor startup platform has already helped several fintech companies with very diverse business models to enter the market successfully. Among them are fairr.de and Deposit Solutions, two of the most successful finance startups in Germany.
“Startups can focus entirely on the development of their business models, while Sutor takes care of all banking-specific processes,” explains Robert Freitag.
In addition, co-operating with a traditional private bank that meets the exacting rules of different regulatory bodies, firms are able to build trust among their customers and investors.
About Sutor Bank.
Sutor Bank is an owner-managed, independent private bank which was founded in 1921. It caters to both B2C and B2B businesses.
The B2C business originally consisted solely of a traditional wealth management department, which received awards for outstanding performance by n-tv and Focus Money seven years in a row, as well as a foundation management unit serving some of the oldest foundations in Germany.
The B2B business has been working for financial sales organizations since 1989. For these companies Sutor Bank provides product development, product administration, depot management and other banking services.
Since 2013 Sutor Bank has been working on the digitization of its business areas and is now pursuing a comprehensive fintech strategy: The bank has enhanced its B2C business with digital investment offerings and created the banking platform on the B2B side of things.
Sutor’s banking platform provides all the products, services and IT systems digital companies need from a licensed bank to start and run their own business models. All IT systems are equipped with APIs to facilitate an easy and quick access.
Currently, Sutor Bank is supporting digital companies from the areas of investing & saving, P2P lending, payment and neo banking. Among the partner firms are Zinspilot/ Deposit Solutions and fairr.de, two of Germany’s most successful fintech startups.