Bank as a Platform (BAAP): Rewiring Financial Services for a Modular Future

The last decade in fintech has forced banks to move beyond their traditional roles. It’s no longer just about offering financial products - it's about rethinking architecture, collaboration models, and how value is distributed.

Bank as a Platform (BAAP) is a direct response to this shift. More than a trend, it’s a structural evolution in how banks build, scale, and engage with the ecosystem around them.

For anyone in fintech, digital banking, or software architecture, this isn’t a model to monitor — it’s a foundation to build on.

What Is Bank as a Platform?

BAAP is a model where banks expose their core capabilities - onboarding, KYC, payments, credit scoring, account provisioning - as modular services, delivered via APIs that can be consumed by third parties.

The bank stops being the end-to-end provider and becomes the infrastructure behind the scenes.

Think of it like AWS, but for regulated financial services.

Unlike Banking-as-a-Product, which bundles services into ready-to-use components, BAAP is about enabling others to create. It gives fintechs, developers, and platforms the tools to build their own experiences - tailored, embedded, and scalable.

At its core, BAAP is driven by four principles:

• API-first openness
• Modular, scalable architecture
• Partnership-driven strategy
• Monetization through usage, not just deposits

BAAP, BaaS, and Open Banking: What’s the Difference?

These three models often overlap, but their intent and structure differ significantly.

While Open Banking is compliance-driven, and BaaS focuses on embedding banking into other products, BAAP is about building ecosystems where the bank remains visible, monetized, and strategically central.

The Architecture That Enables It

BAAP is not a cosmetic shift. It requires rethinking the bank’s technical backbone, moving away from monoliths to composable, API-driven services.

Here’s what that typically looks like:

• Domain-driven microservices with clear responsibility boundaries
• Cloud-native infrastructure with CI/CD and dynamic scaling
• API gateways like Apigee or Kong to manage traffic, auth, and analytics
• Developer tools including sandboxes, live docs, and versioning
• OAuth2-based security, dynamic consent, and end-to-end auditability

Often, the hardest part isn’t the tech — it’s building the mindset and governance that support real platform thinking.

It’s about empowering teams, removing silos, and structuring for scale.

Real-World Examples

BBVA (Spain)

One of the pioneers in Europe. Through its API Market, BBVA offers identity verification, scoring, and payment services via public APIs - enabling partners to build with confidence on its infrastructure.

Starling Bank (UK)

Operates as both a product and a platform. Its Marketplace integrates third-party services directly into the banking app, while its APIs allow external developers to build financial features using Starling's rails.

Fidor Bank (Germany)

Created fidorOS, a modular banking system used by partners to launch financial services or full-stack digital banks.

Nubank, Inter (Brazil)

While not explicitly BAAP labelled, their internal architectures are modular and service-driven - enabling fast iteration and independent product development across teams.

Why This Model Matters

Business impact:

• Unlocks new revenue streams through API usage and partnerships
• Expands reach via third-party channels without growing headcount
• Enhances strategic positioning as a platform provider
• Encourages innovation at the edge, not just in-house

Technical advantages:

• Reduces time-to-market for new offerings
• Enables service reusability across teams and partners
• Prepares infrastructure for AI, ESG, tokenized assets, or real-time regulation

As Basikon notes, banks that embrace BAAP become financial operating systems, powering embedded finance across sectors — from mobility to retail, from logistics to B2B SaaS.

Where Glazed Fits In

At Glazed Solutions, we help banks and fintechs bring the BAAP model to life -not just as an architecture, but as a scalable product strategy.

We support:

• Modular microservice design tailored to business domains
• Implementation of secure, developer-friendly API layers
• Developer portals that attract and retain integration partners
• Custom frontends that consume services dynamically and adapt to context

Whether you're opening your core or building on someone else’s, we help you go from vision to execution, with clarity, speed, and strategic impact.

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