Open-API Ecosystem Board Sounding Partner — Corporate Treasury

The mandate

The board repeatedly asks whether the bank is building an API distribution advantage or subsidising bespoke connectivity that partners will eventually commoditise. Management papers combine regulated open interfaces, corporate embedded-finance propositions, aggregator traffic and bilateral treasury integration under one adoption number. Directors cannot see who owns client outcomes when authentication, consent, liquidity data and payment initiation cross organisational boundaries.

The adviser will reserve three days monthly for a committee-chair briefing, commercial and architecture challenge, plus review of one major partner or investment paper. Six Board Digital Committee meetings are included. A view on a critical partner incident or strategic term sheet is expected within twenty-four hours; transaction diligence beyond the regular allocation needs a separately authorised scope.

The appointment runs for twelve months from January 2027. In month ten, the committee will evaluate whether its API investment principles are embedded and either close the mandate or propose one six-month successor term with a narrower question. Only the full board can approve renewal, and management cannot carry unused advisory days forward to prolong the relationship.

This adviser holds no line authority, executive responsibility, procurement vote, product approval or regulated accountability. The appointment shapes board judgement but does not negotiate partner contracts, direct architects or represent the bank to supervisors. Executives must record their decisions and may reject advice; the adviser’s presence is not independent assurance that API controls or economics are adequate.

No more than two other financial-services retainers may run concurrently. Interests involving competing Gulf banks, treasury platforms, API aggregators, core-banking providers or a potential ecosystem investee require disclosure. Compensation from a party in live negotiation triggers recusal and may end the term where confidential roadmaps or pricing make credible separation impossible.

Why the board wants this voice

Directors have strong banking and regional-market experience, but none has scaled a multi-sided API business while carrying regulated service accountability. Strategy teams emphasise distribution and architects emphasise standardisation, leaving partner power and exception economics underexamined. The board wants an operator who can expose when an ecosystem creates durable value and when it merely externalises integration complexity.

What you will own

• Press directors to separate mandated access, corporate connectivity, embedded payment initiation and monetisable data services in every portfolio discussion.
• Test partner economics across acquisition, integration, support, liability, fraud, liquidity, service credit and eventual bargaining-power scenarios.
• Challenge whether consent, authentication, entitlements and transaction status remain understandable to corporate clients across multi-party journeys.
• Shape principles for standard versus bespoke interfaces, including who funds exceptions, how they expire and what evidence justifies productisation.
• Probe accountability boundaries when an aggregator, ERP, fintech or treasury platform controls part of the client experience but not regulated liability.
• Frame investment gates around active client use, retained revenue, support cost, operational resilience and reversibility rather than published endpoint counts.
• Coach the committee through partner concentration, platform dependence and regional interoperability choices without assuming management’s negotiation role.

Candidate qualifications

• Built or governed an API ecosystem for transaction banking, payments, treasury technology or regulated embedded finance at significant corporate scale.
• Negotiated commercial and accountability boundaries across banks, enterprise platforms, fintechs and aggregators without confusing technical consumption with value.
• Stopped or repriced bespoke API work after full support, liability and exception economics were made visible to executive decision-makers.
• Presented open-banking or embedded-finance choices to a board and separated regulatory obligation from defensible strategic differentiation.
• Understands consent, strong authentication, entitlement, fraud and service-resilience consequences across multi-party corporate transaction journeys.
• Maintained robust conflict boundaries while advising financial institutions, technology suppliers and investors with overlapping ecosystem interests.

Non-negotiables

• Able to attend all six board meetings in Dubai and protect three advisory days each month for the stated twelve-month term.
• Will disclose banking retainers, supplier relationships, investments and transaction interests before seeing partner roadmaps or commercial terms.
• Accepts that the adviser cannot direct teams, select vendors, approve products or carry any executive or regulated accountability.
• Must bring API platform operating and commercial evidence; broad digital-banking strategy experience without ecosystem scale is insufficient.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an API partnership whose apparent adoption concealed poor economics and the board decision your evidence changed.
2. 49 words maximum. List current interests involving banks, treasury platforms, aggregators or embedded-finance providers relevant to this appointment.
3. 49 words maximum. Which measures would distinguish durable corporate API use from endpoints published or traffic routed through one dominant partner?