{"id":5295,"date":"2020-07-30T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T16:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:46:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:46:02","slug":"why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","status":"publish","type":"gsma_theme_resources","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","title":{"rendered":"Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? A comparison with other industry standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are a variety of approaches that mobile money providers could potentially use to deliver open APIs to their ecosystem partners, such as creating their own bespoke APIs or utilising an existing API standard aimed at Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs). Mobile money providers can also integrate with interoperability software which offer DFSP APIs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/mobile-for-development\/mobile-money\/mobile-money-api-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The GSMA Mobile Money API (GSMA API)<\/a> Specification offers an alternative approach. By providing a harmonised API Specification for mobile money use cases developed in collaboration with the mobile money industry, it promotes an industry defined common API.<\/p>\n<p>This paper examines these different approaches and outlines the findings of detailed analysis undertaken on the scope of the existing API standards and APIs, and how they compare with the GSMA API. Based on this examination and analysis, the paper argues that adoption of the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification offers unique benefits for mobile money providers and presents the optimum approach for delivering open APIs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/mobile-for-development\/mobile-money\/mobile-money-api-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read the blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are a variety of approaches that mobile money providers could potentially use to deliver open APIs to their ecosystem partners, such as creating their own bespoke APIs or utilising an existing API standard aimed at Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs). Mobile money providers can also integrate with interoperability software which offer DFSP APIs. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"image":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Capture.png","json":{"gsma_resources_type":"Document","gsma_resources_thumb":"[4999]","gsma_resources_file":"[]","gsma_resources_multi":null,"gsma_resources_wgr":null,"gsma_resources_video":"","gsma_resources_image":"[]","gsma_resources_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/mobile-for-development\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards-2\/","gsma_resources_date":"","gsma_resources_button":"Download"}},"tags":[],"resource_categories":[],"algolia_discover_type":[1997],"class_list":["post-5295","gsma_theme_resources","type-gsma_theme_resources","status-publish","hentry","algolia_discover_type-resource"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.9 (Yoast SEO v25.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? A comparison with other industry standards - GSMA Middle East &amp; North Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? A comparison with other industry standards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are a variety of approaches that mobile money providers could potentially use to deliver open APIs to their ecosystem partners, such as creating their own bespoke APIs or utilising an existing API standard aimed at Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs). Mobile money providers can also integrate with interoperability software which offer DFSP APIs. The [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GSMA Middle East &amp; North Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T11:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GSMA_logo_colour_web_small.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? A comparison with other industry standards - GSMA Middle East &amp; North Africa","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? A comparison with other industry standards","og_description":"There are a variety of approaches that mobile money providers could potentially use to deliver open APIs to their ecosystem partners, such as creating their own bespoke APIs or utilising an existing API standard aimed at Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs). Mobile money providers can also integrate with interoperability software which offer DFSP APIs. The [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","og_site_name":"GSMA Middle East &amp; North Africa","article_modified_time":"2025-10-28T11:46:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GSMA_logo_colour_web_small.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/about-us\/regions\/middle-east-and-north-africa\/gsma_resources\/why-is-there-a-need-for-the-gsma-mobile-money-api-specification-a-comparison-with-other-industry-standards","name":"Why is there a need for the GSMA Mobile Money API Specification? 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