Rabobank's PSD2 and Premium APIs require authorization, and we offer the following authorization APIs:

PSD2 – OAuth 2.0
Premium – Authorization services, which is an OAuth 2.0 implementation for premium APIs.

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The difference between these APIs is the consent days.

PSD2: Consent is valid for 180 days.

Premium: Consent is valid indefinitely until revoked.

These APIs enable your application to communicate with Rabobank on behalf of a user, while keeping their usernames, passwords, and other information private.

Download spec files(s):

If an API requires access authorization, this is specified in the API reference as Type: OAuth2.

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The Consent Details Service API provides information about user consents to third parties if authorized by the end users.

Before you begin

Make sure you have a working sandbox account in the Rabobank developer portal. Read Get Started to set up an account and register an Application.

After your account set up is complete, configure the OAuth 2.0 redirect URI for your application.

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If you have more than one redirect URL listed in the developer portal, make sure to provide the same redirect URI (as provided during registration) in the redirect_uri query parameter during an authorization call.

Next, subscribe to the API you want to use and the OAuth 2.0 services OR Premium Access Authorization API to your application.

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A subscription to these APIs is only required if you want to use the Consent Details Service API.

This API provides the services needed to obtain tokens for OAuth 2.0 secured APIs.

Endpoint:

Premium: <https://oauth.rabobank.nl/openapi/oauth2-premium/>
PSD2: <https://oauth.rabobank.nl/openapi/oauth2/>

OAuth authorization flow

Applications using APIs that require access authorization should follow the OAuth authorization code flow. This flow gives your application access to resources if approved by the user.

Request Authorization

Your application identifies the permissions (known as scopes) it requires from the resource owner and requests authorization to access their private information.

Example:

A user wants to use your application for creating payment requests, but they don’t want to share their account balance with it. The scopes your application requests enable:

Your application to request access to only the API resources it needs.
Users to control the amount of access they grant to your application.

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Rabobank provides the end-users information to recognize the authorization page and avoid fraud. Embedding this page results in difficulty of recognition and is considered a security breach. If this happens, your account is placed under review for further deliberation.

To avoid this consequence, you should not embed Rabobank's authorization page in your application.

Your application redirects the user to the following path:

https://oauth.rabobank.nl/openapi/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code&scope=SCOPES&client_id=CLIENT_ID&state=SOME_IDENTIFIER

https://oauth.rabobank.nl/openapi/oauth2-premium/authorize?response_type=code&scope=SCOPES&client_id=CLIENT_ID&state=SOME_IDENTIFIER

The request contains the:

Parameters that identify your application.
Permissions the user grants to your application.

URI Parameter	Required?	Example	Description
response_type*	Yes	response_type=code	This indicates the authorization grant flow. Value = `code`. Other response types are currently not supported.
scope	Yes	scope="bai.accountinformation.read"	Scopes represents the permissions to resources that your application requests from the user. Your application can request multiple scopes using a space-separated list of scopes.
client_id*	Yes	ab588acc-2ac4-446c-abdd-06c2ea8b097a	This ID uniquely identifies your registered application. The client_id is registered at the Rabobank Developer Portal.
state	No	ABC123def567	An opaque value to maintain state while the user is being redirected back and forth between your application and Rabobank. The state parameter should be used to prevent CSRF attacks.
redirect_uri	No	your.redirect.url	Required only if you have more than one `redirect_uri` in your application. If you add multiple redirect_urls to your application in the portal you should use this parameter to identify which redirect_url should be used for a specific call.

State parameter

You can use the state parameter to maintain state during the authorization code flow and prevent CSRF attacks.

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Use a strong value to prevent malicious users from being able to manipulate the state parameter.

User side: A window is displayed asking the user to give their consent to grant access to your application.

Login and consent

The user decides whether to grant the permissions to your application or not. After the user's decision, the Rabobank OAuth server redirects the user agent back to your application using the URL available in Application details in the Rabobank developer portal.

If the user approves the access request, a response is sent from the Rabobank OAuth server to your application's URL containing an authorization code and state parameter:

https://your.redirect.url?code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE&state=SOME_IDENTIFIER

For PSD2 - the consent is valid for 180 days.

For Premium - the consent is valid indefinitely until revoked.

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If an active consent already exists, a new active consent is created. The consent is not overwritten by additional consents from the same user.

The user can choose to revoke their consent at any time. If they do this, it voids the access token and the refresh token. If the consent has been revoked or expired, your application receives a response with a 403 Forbidden CONSENT-INVALID status. You can gain access again by requesting authorization from the user.

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You may use the Consent Details Service API to see the status of the consent and verify if it has been revoked.

If the user does not approve the request, then the response from the Rabobank OAuth server to your application's URL contains an ‘access_denied’ error message.

https://your.redirect.url?error=access_denied

If the user cancels before authorizing the request, then the response from the Rabobank OAuth server to your application's URL contains an ‘access_denied’ error message.

https://your.redirect.url?error=access_denied

In case of an approval, the API redirects the user to your application, together with an authorization code. Your application uses this authorization code to request an access token from the Rabobank’s APIs you want to use.

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The authorization code is valid for short time and can only be used once. Your application should use the code immediately after receiving, It is not necessary to store this code.

Access and Refresh Tokens

After your server receives an authorization code, it can exchange it for an access token by making a request to the Rabobank server.

Your application must include the access token in all API requests that require user authorization.

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Access tokens should be stored securely and only be used on the server side. If your application doesn't require constant access, it is recommended not to store the access token.

Access token

Your application requests an access token in exchange for the authorization code by making a POST request to one of the following endpoints:

PSD2: /oauth2/token
Premium: /oauth2-premium/token

POST /oauth2/token
Headers:
    Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    Authorization: Basic BASE64(CLIENT_ID + ":" + CLIENT_SECRET)

Body (x-www-form-urlencoded):
    grant_type: authorization_code
    code: AUTHORIZATION_CODE

POST /oauth2-premium/token
Headers:
    Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    Authorization: Basic BASE64(CLIENT_ID + ":" + CLIENT_SECRET)

Body (x-www-form-urlencoded):
    grant_type: authorization_code
    code: AUTHORIZATION_CODE

This request is secured with Basic authentication using your applications:

Client ID as username
Client Secret as password

Example:

Client ID: ab588acc-2ac4-446c-abdd-06c2ea8b097a
Client Secret: J6aA1fL8vJ6xV0iI5bX4nR4nA8pK7dG3cI0jK5mR6rN2qQ3pP0

Authorization: Basic YWI1ODhhY2MtMmFjNC00NDZjLWFiZGQtMDZjMmVhOGIwOTdhOko2YUExZkw4dko2eFYwaUk1Ylg0blI0bkE4cEs3ZEczY0kwaks1bVI2ck4ycVEzcFAw

The client secret should be stored securely and used only on the server side.

Parameter	Example	Description
grant_type	authorization_code	This states the method that an application can use to obtain an access token. There are several types of grants, which allow different types of access.
code	2aks1bVI2ck4ycVEzcFAwYUExZkw4dko2eFYwaUk1Ylg0blI0bkE 4cEs3ZEczY0kwYWI1OD hhY2MtMmFjNC00NDZjLWFiZGQtMDZ jMmVhOGIwOTdhOko	The `AUTHORIZATION_CODE` your application received in the previous step.

In requests to Rabobank APIs secured with OAuth 2.0, you must add the access token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN

If the token has expired or the consent has been revoked, your application receives a response with a 401 Unauthorized status.

Refresh token

If the access token expires you can obtain a new one by using the refresh token, you receive this token with the access token.

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To avoid unsuccessful requests, your application should refresh the token before it expires.

Your application can use the refresh token to obtain a new access token if:

The user's consent has not been revoked, and
The refresh token has not expired.

This token can only be used on the server side an is valid for one time use. This token should be stored securely.

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The access token has a refresh limit of 4096 times. When this limit is met, a new consent is required from the end user.

Request Examples:

POST /oauth2/token
Headers:
    Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    Authorization: Basic BASE64(CLIENT_ID + ":" + CLIENT_SECRET)

Body (x-www-form-urlencoded):
    grant_type: refresh_token
    refresh_token: REFRESH_TOKEN

POST /oauth2-premium/token
Headers:
    Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    Authorization: Basic BASE64(CLIENT_ID + ":" + CLIENT_SECRET)

Body (x-www-form-urlencoded):
    grant_type: refresh_token
    refresh_token: REFRESH_TOKEN

Parameter	Example	Description
grant_type	refresh_token	This states the methods an application can use to obtain an access token. There are several types of grants, which allow different types of access.
code	tGzv3JOkF0XG5Qx2TlKWIA	The `REFRESH_TOKEN` that your application received with the previous set of tokens.

Your application can use the new access token to make requests to the Rabobank API(s).

Receive Tokens

The response contains the access token, the refresh token, and their expiration times in seconds and the timestamp when consent was given.

The access and refresh token length and lifetime values received in the response should not be hardcoded, these values received are dynamic and subject to change.

{
    "token_type": "bearer",
    "access_token": ACCESS_TOKEN,
    "expires_in": 86400,
    "consented_on": 1507267950,
    "metadata": "a:consentId 123a1a2a-888c-4015-8099-f88b080d0bbb",
    "scope": SCOPES,
    "refresh_token": REFRESH_TOKEN,
    "refresh_token_expires_in": 2592000
}

Security Considerations

The client secret, access token, refresh token, and data that you have retrieved from Rabobank APIs are sensitive. They need to be handled carefully, we recommend to follow the recommendations below:

Keep tokens and client secret server side

The client secret of your application, the access tokens and the refresh tokens should never be sent out to the user (or be available to them).

Any traffic that sends one of these items should be server-to-server communication.

Use HTTPS

You are required to handle the transport of codes and tokens and so we recommend using HTTPS prevent hackers.

Type of Communication

Requirement

Client – server communication

When your client connects to your server:

make use of HTTPS to prevent hacking e.g. using a rogue wifi access point. You should always check the certificate during the HTTPS handshake. It has to be your certificate and it has to be valid, this is also known as certificate pinning.
make use of HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). This ensures that the client always uses HTTPS to the specified domain.

Server – server communication

When connecting your servers to the Rabobank’s API server the use of HTTPS is required. You should always check the validity of our Rabobank HTTPS certificate.

Redirect to the preferred browser of the user

The authorization page as mentioned in the Oauth authorization flow must be opened in the user's preferred browser. Rabobank users can only confirm they are authenticating with the genuine Rabobank site if they have the tools provided by their browser, such as the URL bar and Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate information.

Redirecting authorization in native applications

For native applications, our authorization page must be opened in the default browser. Rabobank users can only confirm they are authenticating with the genuine Rabobank site if they have the tools provided by their browser, such as the URL bar and Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate information.

Native applications can use custom URL schemes as redirect URIs, in order to redirect the user back from the browser to the application that is requesting permission.

Any attempt to embed Rabobank’s authorization page in your application will result in a permanent ban from using Rabobank APIs.

Use Stable OAuth 2.0 Client Libraries

We recommend to use stable libraries for performing the OAuth 2.0 process, instead of implementing your own.

If we suspect that your application has been compromised or detect suspicious activity, your application could be permanently banned from using Rabobank APIs.

Keep your application and its environment secure

Your application should be protected against cross site scripting, SQL injection, and other OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities. This is to prevent the leakage of sensitive information.

We recommend you do security tests on your application and its environment at regular intervals and with every major change.

Storing sensitive information

Make sure that only your application is capable of saving any sensitive information. We recommend you encrypt any sensitive data, and you limit the authorization of any storage devices.

More information on OAuth 2.0

For more information on OAuth 2.0, see:

Troubleshooting common OAuth 2.0 related problems

See the OAuth2 error and troubleshooting guide for information on common problems and solutions relating to connecting to the Rabobank OAuth 2.0 flow.