Commonwealth BankControlled operating costs without slowing the customer experience
The Challenge
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) licenses proprietary property data that is the industry standard for Australian property intelligence. Putting real-time property estimates inside its banking app meant facing the friction most established companies know well.
- Costs keep rising, and nobody can say what they buy.Data providers often charge per API call. Without middleware, repeated requests from thousands of app users mean spiralling, unpredictable costs.
- Data everywhere, no single source of truth.Raw property data had to be cleaned and merged with CBA’s lending criteria, interest rates and borrowing power calculators before customers saw one answer.
- IT investment isn’t paying off.Querying the proprietary data straight from a phone meant complex data, heavy payloads and a risk of delays and timeouts, which would undermine both the data licence and the app.
The Solution
ToolTwist’s Message Service Gateway (MSG) manages the flow of property information between the app and the data, working with the systems CBA already had rather than replacing them. It acts as an “intelligent pipe”, first in the dedicated iPhone app and later within the CommBank app.
- Translates requests.The app sends simple requests. MSG turns them into the queries the data provider needs and sends back only what the customer needs, which cuts data use.
- Caches repeat lookups.Popular property reports and suburb profiles are cached. If two users look up the same property in a short window, the second is served from cache instead of a new paid call.
- Keeps credentials safe.MSG holds the API keys and certificates, so sensitive credentials are never stored on the phone.
- Fails gracefully.If the data service has a problem, the app shows the last known data or a clear status message instead of failing the search.
ToolTwist’s Role
Our engineers designed and built the data bridge.
- Built for peak load.MSG handles thousands of lookups at once in busy property periods, such as “Super Saturday” auctions.
- Combined the data.The proprietary property facts are joined with CBA’s interest rates and borrowing power calculators in one response.
- Fast on mobile.Time to first byte was reduced, so images and estimates appear as the customer types an address.
Impact
- Controlled operating costs.Caching cuts repeated paid API calls, so data costs are easier to manage as usage grows.
- One trusted answer.Property facts, rates and borrowing power arrive together in one consistent response.
- A return on what was already built.CBA gets more from its data licence and its mobile channel without replacing either.
- Results customers notice.The property feature remains one of the most popular for Australian homebuyers.
Commonwealth Bank has a data-rich, bank-grade property experience that is accurate, fast on mobile and has data costs under control.