What changes are AIB making?

The OBIE Read/Write API specification (in v3.0, 3.1, 3.1.1, 3.1.2 and 3.1.3) require both TPPs and ASPSPs to sign all payment messages. The OBIE Specification makes use of the "b64" header parameter and this controls whether the usage is Base64URL encoded before signing. This header is not widely supported in the majority of JWT libraries and therefore requires us to make a change.

When are we making this change?

The change will be implemented in AIB's Sandbox environment on June 1st 2020 with a view to implementing to live APIs on the 16th of June 2020.

What does this mean for you?

You as a TPP, under the specification mentioned above must not validate the message signature during the period of the waiver.

OBIE will update the conformance harness to not generate or validate the message signature during the period of the waiver. After expiration of this waiver, TPPs must support message signatures as defined in their Payment Initiation APIs implementation. We as an ASPSP will include details of which version we support in our API documentation which can be found on our Developer Portals.

For further information on Waiver007 please refer to the Open Banking documentation in the following link:

https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/pages/1112670669/W007

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate in reaching out to our support mailbox api@aib.ie.

Additional information

• Our supported version of payments endpoints is currently v3.1.1
• To validate signatures, AIB are expecting the following headers in x-jws-signature format:
  • Validation will fail if x-jws-signature is NOT sent or signature is invalid
  • A signature will be deemed invalid if the b64 header is true or missing, for example, if the payload was Base64URL encoded before signing.
  • The JWS must contain the following headers {"b64":false, "crit":["b64"]}
• Where required, AIB will send the signature for all existing API endpoints that require messages to be signed in request and or response
• Please note, this signature will NOT be Base64URL encoded.
• The JWS will contain these headers {"b64":false, "crit":["b64"]}
• This will be applicable for all existing API endpoints that require messages to be signed in request and or response.