Consultation

Have your say on draft Open Banking Standard v4.0 – consultation now open 

25 April 2024
consultation

We have opened consultation for v4.0 of the draft Open Banking Standard, the first major release of the Standard since September 2018. 

 Overview of changes  

The proposed mandatory updates reflect several Order-related activities to ensure the Standard remains fit for purpose and aligns with international best practice in terms of messaging standards (specifically ISO 20022) and security (specifically FAPI 1.0 Advanced).  

The updates also include improvements to information flows (payment status and error messages) in line with the JROC workstream 4 recommendations which OBL and Pay.UK were asked to implement in the December 2023 JROC Update Report.

This release is a significant achievement, marking the first major release since 2018 to ensure the UK Open Banking Standard remains aligned with underlying global standards and provides a platform for improved information flows, benefiting all ecosystem participants.

We are grateful for the widespread support and collaboration of the ecosystem in developing these updates and look forward to receiving further feedback during the consultation period.

Fiona Hamilton, OBL Standards Director

The planned changes also reflect: 

  • Technical Design Authority decisions for updates to the Read/Write specifications 
  • one change request to ensure one of the CMA9 can meet its regulatory requirements 
  • updates to the Management Information (MI) specification and the Customer Experience Guidelines 
  • changes to address minor outstanding known issues (i.e., errata). 

Given the nature of the changes, and that they are “breaking”, we have also updated the Operational Guidelines and are considering migration strategies to try, as far as practical, to minimise disruption to the ecosystem. 

The proposed updates to each part of the Standard are clearly outlined here. These include an overview of the changes, change logs, and forms to share your feedback.  

Feedback process

We welcome responses to the consultation from all interested parties. Written consultation responses are due by midday on Tuesday 28 May 2024.  Please submit a feedback form for each part of the Standard you wish to comment on. 

We will assess and respond to all submitted feedback, with a view to releasing v4.0 as a final version of the Standard by the end of June 2024. An updated Functional Conformance Suite tool will follow this by August 2024. 

If you have any issues accessing the material on the Confluence site, or any other questions, please email the OBL Standards Team. 

Feed back on the draft of Standard v4.0