The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has today published its second bi-annual report assessing the impact of open banking on consumers and SMEs. The work relates to an ongoing commitment to track the impact of open banking for years to come. According to the new data, adoption of open banking services continues to grow with 8% of digitally enabled consumers estimated to be regular users of at least one open banking service. This has grown from 5.5% in December 2020. One area that is particularly strong is open banking payments. Between February and August 2021, there were 11 million payments, compared to 700,000 in the whole of 2020. Recently, HMRC announced it had received more than £1bn in open banking payments, less than six months after launching. Importantly, if open banking apps and products are to grow in popularity then it’s key that they are easy to use, inclusive and help the customer achieve their financial goal. The data shows over three-quarters (76%) of people saying they will or are likely to continue using the services and 90% reporting they are easy to use and set up. 83% of respondents indicated that they would be interested in expanding their use of open banking-enabled services. Encouragingly, the findings indicate that growing adoption of open banking services is improving the financial health of the UK. When looking at money management apps and tools specifically, the research has for the first time been able to understand the extent to which customers are seeing positive outcomes in terms of their financial health: Customers using these apps and tools said that they were helping them to keep on top of expenditure (75%) and keep to a budget (64%), reduce unnecessary expenditure (62%), shop around more (59%) and reduce fees and costs (55%). When looking at savings apps we saw strong evidence that these services were helping people with their savings, even if some had only recently started using the app: We also found that 64% claimed the apps had increased their total level of savings. Of the respondents who claimed their savings had increased: 37% of these customers said they were concerned about their level of savings, suggesting these apps seem to be encouraging consumers who have had historic problems savings start to put aside some money. We also explored whether the use of open banking saving propositions was encouraging individuals who had never previously saved. Over a fifth (22%) of respondents said this was their first adult saving account. While predictably a higher proportion of respondents aged 45 and over had previously had a savings account, even in this age category use of the app had encouraged new savings behaviour (16%). A quarter of those aged under 45 had never previously saved. It is estimated that half of the UK’s open banking users are aged 25 to 44, and that many early adopters of open banking enabled services are typically less experienced and have lower financial confidence. Charlotte Crosswell OBE, Chair and Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) commented: “I’m really pleased the Open Banking Impact Report points to a continued growth in open banking services. The focus in the past few years has been building the infrastructure completely from scratch. We’re now beginning to see exciting new providers and products emerge with an even stronger pipeline. It’s great to see continued adoption from consumers and SMEs, but importantly seeing that these tools are solving real world issues such as saving and budgeting. That’s really important to me and the best is very much yet to come.” You can download the report here. Notes to editors: *OBIE was set up by the CMA and funded by the UK’s nine largest banks and building societies: Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Danske, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, RBS Group and Santander. Contact: OpenBankingMedia@cicero-group.com, 0207 297 5971 About the study sample Marketing Means (UK) Ltd conducted 4,014 online interviews using a consumer panel to draw a broadly representative UK-wide sample of adults aged 16+. All fieldwork was conducted between 25th August and 14th September 2021. In addition, one of the third party providers offering an open banking app also agreed to share the online survey invitation with a sample of their customers. This fieldwork was conducted between 9th and 25th September 2021, and added a further 152 interviews. – – – ENDS – – – For further information, please contact: press@openbanking.org.uk About us The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) is the entity set up by the CMA in 2016 to deliver open banking. Its trading name is Open Banking Limited.The OBIE is governed by the CMA and funded by the CMA 9 (Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Danske, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, Natwest Group and Santander). Its works with the CMA 9, as well as challenger banks, financial technology companies, third party providers and consumer groups. The OBIE’s role is to: Enforce the obligations on the CMA 9 under the CMA Order Design the specifications for the Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) that banks and building societies use to securely provide open banking Support regulated third party providers and banks and building societies to use the OBIE’s Open Banking Standards Create security and messaging standards Manage the OBIE’s open banking Directory which allows regulated participants like banks, building societies and third-party providers to enrol in open banking Produce guidelines for participants in the open banking ecosystem Set out the process for managing disputes and complaints