YAP
YAP Technical Briefing
Published March 2, 2021
Supported by Shopify and Brankas
Overview
YAP is an API platform that sits between banks and businesses across Asia — think Marqeta-adjacent, but covering processing plus full retail-bank orchestration across five to seven Asian markets (roughly 300 fintechs in India today). The briefing walks through YAP's granular API catalogue (wallet / card issuing, multi-currency travel, neo-banking primitives) and a real YAP-powered product: PaisaBazaar's Step-Up credit card, an Indian credit-builder card where customers book a fixed deposit and 80% of the FD becomes the starting credit limit. The demo covers Indian identity verification (PAN, Aadhaar share-code, UIDAI OTP), UPI penny-drop account verification, instant issuance of both virtual and physical cards, and the card-control API for toggling channels, setting limits, and delivering statements as PDF or JSON for custom branding.
0:00 Introduction to YAP — API platform across Asia
YAP is an API platform that sits between banks and businesses in emerging markets. Think of YAP as something between Marqeta and a core-banking partner — YAP runs its own processing and extends it to fintechs launching cards, wallets, and neobanks.
0:30 Processing, bank orchestration, retail banking
YAP's capability set covers processing, card issuing (wallet, card, multi-currency travel), and full retail-bank orchestration. Today it powers roughly 300 fintechs in India across five to seven Asian markets.
1:30 API documentation — a worked credit card flow
Tour of YAP's documentation and APIs organized around a customer journey: onboarding, KYC, card registration. Instead of a monolithic endpoint, YAP exposes granular APIs that slot into whatever flow the fintech is already building.
3:00 PaisaBazaar Step-Up Credit Card — credit builder for India
A real YAP-powered product: PaisaBazaar's Step-Up card. Like a US credit-builder card, it targets users new to credit — you book a fixed deposit, and 80% of the FD is offered as a credit limit that the bank raises as your score grows.
3:30 Indian identity: PAN, Aadhaar, OTP verification
The onboarding flow tailored for India: PAN, mobile-number OTP verification, Aadhaar share-code flow (similar to SSN verification in the US), and UIDAI-issued OTP confirmation before any account is created.
6:00 Penny drop via UPI for account verification
YAP verifies bank account ownership via a penny-drop through UPI — collect IFSC code and account number, drop a single rupee, and confirm the UPI response matches what the user typed before issuing the card.
8:30 Card set: virtual and physical, real-time unveil
Once the FD is booked and KYC is complete, the YAP API issues both a virtual card (instantly usable in-app) and a physical one. End users can reveal virtual card details, toggle cards on/off, link add-on cards, and set preferences.
10:00 Programmable card controls and statements
Channel-level controls: disable contactless, block ATM withdrawals, set per-channel limits, set daily usage limits. Card statements are available as PDF or JSON — fintechs can wrap their own branding on the JSON response.
Topics: Payments, Cross-Border, Developer Tools
