Following the publication of the Consumer Priorities Report today, Imran Gulamhuseinwala OBE, Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) responded: “We welcome the Consumer Priorities for Open Banking report from the OBIE’s Independent Representatives, which gives a clear picture of just how much consumers and small businesses have to gain from using innovative new products and services powered by Open Banking. An estimated £18 billion a year is significant by anyone’s standards and could make a tangible difference to businesses and households. Taking into account recent recommendations as set out in BEIS’ Smart Data Review, it is clear that the blueprint Open Banking has created has the potential to extend into other sectors to really help people make their hard-earned money work harder for them. “However, this is now the time to really build upon the encouraging activity we are seeing in the ecosystem. Open Banking is clearly showing promise and potential to make a truly seismic change in how people move, manage and make more of their money. Everyone in the Open Banking ecosystem now needs to play their part in seizing and scaling the opportunities that lie ahead.” View the full Consumer Priorities report. View report highlights – – – ENDS – – – For further information, please contact: press@openbanking.org.uk – for Media enquiries About Us: Open Banking is a new, secure way for customers to take control of their financial data and share it with organisations other than their banks. Open Banking has the power to revolutionise the way we move, manage and make more of our money. For businesses, it is about making the management of cashflow and receiving payments cheaper and easier. Open Banking will make things simpler, faster and more convenient. Open Banking follows the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the supply of personal current accounts (PCAs) and of banking services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Open Banking was created to enable innovation, transparency and competition in UK financial services. It is tasked with delivering the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures and security architectures that will enable developers to harness technology, making it easy and safe for individuals and SMEs to share the financial information held by their banks with third parties. Open Banking will bring substantial benefits. It gives customers and SMEs greater market choice and greater control over their money and associated data, along with better and easier access to new financial services providers in a secure environment. Notes to Editors: The Open Banking Implementation Entity (the “OBIE”, which trades as Open Banking Ltd.) was set up by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) in September 2016 to fulfil one of the remedies mandated by the CMA following an investigation into UK retail banking. The CMA’s investigation into the retail banking market (whose findings were published in August 2016) concluded that older and larger banks do not compete hard enough for customers’ business and that Open Banking should deliver a new, secure option for customers to be able to compare the deal they are getting from their bank. Open Banking was created to enable innovation, transparency and competition to UK financial services. It is tasked with delivering the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures and security architectures that will make it easy and safe for customers to share their financial records by January 2018. The data provided by Open Banking will enable developers to harness technology that allows individuals and businesses to share their financial records held by their banks with third parties. The OBIE is a private body; its governance, composition and budget was determined by the CMA. It is funded by the UK’s nine largest current account providers and overseen by the CMA, the Financial Conduct Authority and Her Majesty’s Treasury. The 9 mandated institutions (referred to as the CMA9) are: Barclays plc, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Santander, Danske, HSBC, RBS, Bank of Ireland, Nationwide and AIBG.