API & Microservices
Design, build and govern APIs and microservices that are consistent, secure and ready for regulated environments.
The API & Microservices blueprint establishes the standards, patterns and infrastructure for building well-governed service-oriented systems in financial services. It covers API design conventions, service communication patterns, contract testing strategies, API gateway configuration and versioning policies — providing the consistency layer that enables autonomous teams to deliver independently without diverging into incompatible implementations.
Key Features
API Design Standards and Style Guide
Opinionated conventions for REST and gRPC API design covering resource naming, error handling, pagination, filtering and versioning — aligned with Open Banking and ISO 20022 interface expectations.
Service Communication Patterns
Reference implementations for synchronous (request-response), asynchronous (event-driven) and hybrid communication, with guidance on when each is appropriate in payment, lending and compliance flows.
Contract Testing Framework
Consumer-driven contract testing setup using Pact or similar tooling, integrated into CI pipelines to catch breaking interface changes before they reach shared environments.
API Gateway and Security Baseline
Gateway configuration patterns for rate limiting, OAuth 2.0 / mTLS enforcement, request validation and audit logging — meeting the security expectations of financial services API exposure.
Use Cases
Open Banking API Layer
BankingDesigning and implementing PSD2-compliant Open Banking APIs with consent management, strong customer authentication integration and TPP onboarding workflows.
Internal Payments API Platform
PaymentsBuilding a consistent internal API layer across payment initiation, clearing, settlement and reconciliation services to replace point-to-point integrations between legacy systems.
Risk and Compliance Service Mesh
LendingDecomposing a monolithic risk engine into independently deployable microservices for credit scoring, affordability calculation and policy evaluation with well-defined API contracts.
Technical Stack
Deliverables
- →API Design Style Guide(Reference document)
- →Microservice Reference Implementation(Code repository)
- →Contract Testing Pipeline Configuration(CI/CD configuration)
- →API Gateway Security Baseline(Infrastructure-as-code)
Expected Programme Outcomes
8–12 weeks
saved on API standards setup
90%+
interface consistency across services
4–6 months
of integration rework avoided
95%+
across all service teams
Prerequisites
- →Service boundaries identified (see Domain-Driven Design blueprint)
- →Cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes cluster available
- →Authentication and identity provider selected
Interested in API & Microservices?
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