Numbers stack up for UK open banking three years on
Nearly six billion calls were made from fintech application programming interfaces (APIs) to bank servers in the UK in 2020 and more than four million open banking payments were completed.
Figures from the UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) said more than four million open banking payments were made in 2020, compared with 320,000 in 2018, and nearly six billion API calls were made to servers in the UK, compared with just 66.8 million in 2018.
After three years of the UK’s open banking regulation, the OBIE also revealed that about 300 fintech firms currently offer open banking services and 2.5 million consumers use them, with hundreds of thousands of new users added each month.
In January 2018, banks were required to implement the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Open Banking regulations. This led to the development of APIs in banking to give consumers more control over accounts. Through these APIs, third parties and multiple finance firms can use a consumer’s data to recommend the best service, including bank accounts.
The end goal was to increase competition in a sector dominated by large financial services companies. Back in 2016, the British Banking Association said opening up data from everyday banking transactions had the potential to revolutionise the way consumers and businesses manage their money. “Making more bank data openly available will make it easier for people to shop around for products tailored to their needs and get the best deals,” it said.
Now entering its fourth year, “open banking is well on its way to revolutionising the way individuals and businesses can use their financial data for their benefit”, according to the OBIE.
To read more, please click on the link below…
