Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) announced an expansion of its account opening API connectivity to custodians, with SEB being the first to implement the solution. This builds on last year’s API integrations with major European fund distribution platforms, Allfunds, Clearstream and Euroclear.

BBH’s account opening API supports straight through exchange of account opening requests and confirmations between distributors, banks, platforms and custodians, helping shift onboarding from days to hours (and in some workflows, minutes).

Investors increasingly expect the same kind of digital onboarding they receive in everyday banking. By bringing API driven account opening into the custodian ecosystem, BBH helps support cost effective, risk minimising processes, improved transparency and fewer operational breaks.

“Custodians are expected to deliver a faster, more transparent digital onboarding experience, but workflows can still depend on manual steps and back and forth confirmations,” said Niklas Nyberg, Head of Global Custody, SEB. “BBH’s account opening API helps streamline connectivity, reduce operational friction and improve turnaround times for our clients.”

The addition of SEB forms part of BBH’s strategy to expand transfer agent connectivity through APIs to custodians, complementing our existing connections with platforms.

“Investors now expect a digital and seamless onboarding experience,” said Manuel Dienhart, Transfer Agency Product Executive and Global Head of TA at BBH. “Extending our account opening API into the banking ecosystem is the next step in making account opening a standardized, API enabled utility for the funds industry, so firms can onboard at scale with greater transparency and control.”

Source: BBH