Simpler than this, I really wish my bank had a github-style webhook support for so that integration with other services could be great.
BankAPI
21–30 of 87 posts
Re: BankAPI
#22This is a cool project, but considering how over-regulated banks are these days (at least in Europe) I think it's very unlikely that they would actually use this. Most bank software is still written in Cobol code that they have invested four decades into and are now too afraid to rewrite or even touch. So, specifying the requirements for an interbank message system would probably take them a few years already, and im…
I used to work for one of the megabanks. The majority of their credit card processing is written in Fortran and runs on 20-30+ yr old mainframes. They don't dare touch it. "If it ain't broke..." There are certain universities that teach Fortran specifically for companies like this; any student of Fortran has an automatic offer once they graduate.
Are you sure it was Fortran and not Cobol?
Normally Fortran was used for academic/math (ForTran stands for Formula Translation, Cobol in busines (Cobol stands for COmmon Business-Oriented Language).
Re: BankAPI
#23HN really needs to show a 2nd level to some domains in the headline:
BankAPI (trustly.github.com) not BankAPI (github.com)
Always takes me a moment or two to work out if it's a Github specific link or a project on Github
Re: BankAPI
#24This is a cool project, but considering how over-regulated banks are these days (at least in Europe) I think it's very unlikely that they would actually use this. Most bank software is still written in Cobol code that they have invested four decades into and are now too afraid to rewrite or even touch. So, specifying the requirements for an interbank message system would probably take them a few years already, and im…
I have worked for banks and data centers/bank service providers and have not seen a single line of Cobol but millions Java-LOC and REXX.
REXX was my first introduction to programming for a real production system (at a national bank). It was one of the few usually-available, general-purpose toolsets that you could pretty much rely on to be available for "hacking something together."
Fond memories of my REXX days, although I shudder to think of going back..
Re: BankAPI
#25HN really needs to show a 2nd level to some domains in the headline: BankAPI (trustly.github.com) not BankAPI (github.com) Always takes me a moment or two to work out if it's a Github specific link or a project on Github
This doesn't link to trustly.github.com though.
Re: BankAPI
#26What's the motivation for this? Is it coming from inside the industry/is it a suggestion/fun project? I'm don't understand the purpose - it's all about transmission, not data. Banks could sure do sure do with a standardised API, but is interbank message encryption a problem needing solved? I've haven't heard anything like that. The author is very sure of it's production-readiness. If this transpires to be true, then…
They call it "production grade quality", but I don't see a test suite.
Re: BankAPI
#27I don't think that's how banking works to be honest. Money move from bank to bank via the countries central banks if I'm not mistaken. Then the central bank reconcile everything in batch processes to ensure that banks aren't just making up money (well more than they are legally allowed to). Denmark has had a few occasions in the last few years where this has failed because one bank failed to deliver their transaction…
IIRC, thats mostly done using SWIFT [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT_message_types
... for more background, SWIFT is an essentially global monopoly on international interbank transfers with all messages recorded in full by the US and its allies[1]. Despite claiming they only send messages, in effect money is moved and there are documented cases of it being seized off the wire by the US even in EUEU state transactions. It opened its first 'international center of operations' in Virgina (~CIA HQ) as a first order of business after accruing partaking institutions at a speed frankly unbelievable given the technology of the time. It was billed as a telex replacement.[2] After recently dispatching with its carefully developed apolitical facade and banning Iran (after receiving Europe's blessings at the behest of UANI, which is essentially Mossad + CIA old guard[3]), it pissed off India (who depend on them for energy security) and raised eyebrows in Russia and China.
While it's probably critical for the future of humanity for a project like this to succeed, frankly anything that leaves the trust and reputation aspects to manual negotiation as per conventional business is just lipstick on a pig. In this sense, Bitcoin is superior. For some more ambitious ideas forming in this area check out http://ifex-project.org/
[1] Quote from European Data Protection Supervisor in response to FOIA: "since at least 2001" http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/information_on_financial_...
[2] http://www.swift.com/about_swift/shownews?param_dcr=news.dat...
Re: BankAPI
#28Is there any potential synergy between this project and Open Transactions? http://opentransactions.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Re: BankAPI
#29I dont know if anyone is interested, but someone once asked me to look into the SWIFT messaging system, i'd never done anything with banking before. I made a little once page app as i learned it which breaks it down to what everything does.
It doesnt do anything except send to a validation API, which currently is down cuz i've not touched it in months, but i figured some people might find this interesting.
Re: BankAPI
#30Are there any banks actually using this? Or is it more like a suggested spec draft?
Yes some of the largest Northern European banks.