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Grand Central is the unified API platform for banking integrations. Connect your core banking systems, third-party services, and applications through standardized APIs, built-in connectors, and data orchestration.

Platform overview

Learn about Grand Central’s architecture, components, and enterprise capabilities

Get started with connectors

Deploy your first connector integration in minutes with our step-by-step guide

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What is Grand Central?

Grand Central is Backbase’s integration platform that enables banks to:
  • Unify disparate systems through standardized APIs
  • Accelerate time-to-market with pre-built connectors
  • Ensure compliance with built-in security and audit capabilities
  • Scale across multiple banking domains
The following sections describe the platform’s key features.
Create a consistent API experience across all your banking services, regardless of the underlying system architecture.
Leverage our extensive library of banking connectors for payments, account management, lending, and more.
Keep your systems synchronized with real-time data flow and event-driven architecture.
Built-in security controls, encryption, and compliance frameworks for banking-grade protection.

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Core architecture components

Connectors

Pre-built integrations that connect Grand Central to banking systems, third-party services, and APIs

Unified APIs

Standardized interfaces that abstract complex banking operations into consistent endpoints

Domains

Logical groupings of related banking capabilities like payments, accounts, lending, and compliance

Data orchestration

Real-time data flow management between different systems and services

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Integration patterns

Grand Central implements proven integration patterns for banking data orchestration.

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Event-driven architecture

Grand Central uses event-driven patterns to ensure real-time data synchronization across your banking ecosystem. The following diagram shows how data flows from your core banking system through Grand Central to various channels:

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API gateway pattern

All external integrations flow through Grand Central’s unified API layer, providing:
  • Consistent authentication across all services
  • Rate limiting and throttling controls
  • Request/response transformation for legacy systems
  • Comprehensive logging and audit trails

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Banking domains

Handles all payment-related operations including transfers, bill payments, and international remittances.Key features:
  • Real-time payment processing
  • Multi-currency support
  • Fraud detection integration
  • Regulatory compliance (PSD2, Open Banking)
Manages customer accounts, balances, and transaction history across multiple core banking systems.Key features:
  • Account aggregation
  • Real-time balance updates
  • Transaction categorization
  • Multi-bank support
Provides secure authentication, authorization, and customer identity management.Key features:
  • SSO integration
  • Multi-factor authentication
  • Identity verification
  • Compliance reporting
Supports loan origination, credit scoring, and lending workflow automation.Key features:
  • Credit bureau integration
  • Automated underwriting
  • Document processing
  • Regulatory reporting

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Data flow principles

All integrations follow consistent principles for data handling.

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Consistency

All data transformations follow consistent patterns regardless of the source or destination system.

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Reliability

Built-in retry mechanisms, dead letter queues, and circuit breakers ensure reliable data delivery.

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Scalability

Horizontal scaling capabilities handle increasing transaction volumes and system loads.

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Security

End-to-end encryption, audit logging, and compliance controls protect sensitive banking data.

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Quick start

Ready to integrate with Grand Central? Choose your path:
1

Understand the platform

Review the core architecture and integration patterns
2

Set up your first connector

Follow the Getting started guide to deploy your first integration
3

Explore payment APIs

Discover the payment domain capabilities
4

Go live

Use the Getting started guide for production deployment
Ready to implement? Follow the Getting started guide to deploy your first connector. For definitions of Grand Central terminology, see Platform terminology.