I’m building an application that needs access to current bank lending rates for different loan types like mortgages and personal loans. I’m looking for solutions that meet these criteria:
- Cost-effective or free access (budget is limited)
- Up-to-date information that refreshes regularly
- Focus on Indian financial institutions but international data works too
I’ve tried looking through various API marketplaces and financial data services but most require expensive subscriptions or don’t include lending rate information. My main questions are:
Does anyone know of free APIs that provide this banking data?
What about alternative approaches like web scraping from bank sites or using official financial regulatory sources?
Are there government agencies (like Reserve Bank of India) that offer this information in formats suitable for developers?
I’d appreciate any suggestions or experiences you can share!
What I’ve tried so far:
- Checked multiple API platforms but found limited free options for loan rates
- Visited comparison sites and individual bank portals but they lack developer-friendly access
- Considered scraping but worried about legal issues and changing website structures
- Reviewed central bank resources but they mostly publish PDF reports instead of live data feeds
Ideal solution would include:
- Affordable API access to current lending rates
- Reliable way to monitor rate changes across multiple banks
- Developer-friendly financial data service for personal projects
most free apis for indian banking rates suck. i built a small script that scrapes rbi’s site weekly and stores the data locally - not perfect but gets the job done for my side project. also worth checking fintech startup api docs since they sometimes include rate data in free tiers even when it’s not well advertised.
Had the same problem on a fintech project recently. I discovered that RBI’s Database on Indian Economy (DBIE) has lending rates available through their API, although the documentation is not very clear about it. You can access both historical and current rates from major banks for free, but it requires some setup. I found success by combining FRED data for international rates with manual updates from RBI’s weekly reports. Although this process isn’t fully automated, it provided solid data for both local and global comparisons. Regarding web scraping, I recommend contacting smaller banks’ IT teams directly; they often share rate data for legitimate development projects, especially for educational or research purposes. While scraping does carry risks, establishing direct partnerships generally yields better data quality.
I’ve worked with financial data APIs for three years and hit the same roadblocks. Alpha Vantage has some lending rate data through their economic indicators endpoint, but it’s mostly US-focused. For Indian data, check the Open Government Data Platform India - they’ve got RBI datasets in JSON format instead of just PDFs. Here’s what worked for me: I combined approaches. Built a simple Python scraper using BeautifulSoup for major banks like SBI and HDFC. Stick to their official rate pages since they’re usually stable. Just scrape responsibly - add delays and follow robots.txt. Banks typically update rates monthly, so you don’t need to hit them constantly. Quandl’s free tier sometimes has central bank data, though their Indian lending rate coverage is hit-or-miss. Also try fintech communities on GitHub - developers there often share datasets or know about free APIs that aren’t well-known.