About OPEN BANKING LIMITED

Open Banking Limited (OBL) – the Implementation Entity described in the CMA Order – built the UK’s world-leading Open Banking Standard and industry guidelines to drive competition, innovation and transparency in UK retail banking. 

There are now 10 million active users – consumers and SMEs -of open banking-powered financial management apps and payment tools in the UK.

Delivering the Roadmap

THE ORIGINS OF open banking

In 2016, The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a report on the UK’s retail banking market. The report found that established banks don’t have to compete hard enough to gain customers’ business, while newer banks find it difficult to access the market and grow. One of the CMA’s recommendations to tackle this lack of competition was open banking.

Since 2018, the open banking ecosystem has enabled customers and SMEs to share their current account information securely with third party providers, which use that data to tailor their apps and services to peoples’ specific financial circumstances.

COMPLETION OF THE ROADMAP

In January 2023, the CMA announced the completion of the Implementation Roadmap. This marked a pivotal milestone that has benefited businesses, consumers and the wider UK fintech sector.

As it prepares to transition to the future entity, OBL now looks to the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee and its recommendations on the design of the future entity and the vision for open banking.

We continue to support the ecosystem and provide critical services. Its activities can be broadly grouped into three areas:

BRINGING OPEN BANKING TO LIFE

1
Supervisory activities

We enable the Trustee to discharge their regulatory obligations, by:

  • Providing secretariat services to the Implementation Entity Steering Group
  • Recording and managing the governance of CMA9 requirements under the CMA Order and Roadmap
  • Collating management information (MI) from the CMA9 on their implementation of the Open Banking Standard and Roadmap items, and the performance of those implementations
  • Providing frequent reports to the Trustee based on this monitoring
  • Supporting the Trustee in issuing directions in situations where performance or implementations are deemed to be below expectations, followed by the ongoing monitoring of adherence to those directions
  • This work is carried out primarily by the Office of the Trustee, which includes the Monitoring team, who draw on the wider expertise of colleagues across the entire organisation and particularly the Management Information team.
2
Championing the opening banking ecosystem

We develop the Standard and promote the ecosystem, by:

  • Publishing and maintaining the Open Banking Standard
  • Operating the Evaluate/Consult/Implement process by developing content and running consultations and working groups
  • Promoting open banking to the wider ecosystem, end user organisations and new verticals, to encourage participation, highlight use cases and fuel adoption
  • Curating and producing research, expert analysis, thought leadership and insight that is of value to ecosystem participants.
3
Providing critical services and infrastructure

We underpin the day-to-day running of open banking in the UK, by:

  • Developing and operating the Open Banking Directory, which is the trust framework that sits at the heart of open banking
  • Providing tangible technical assistance to all ecosystem participants, including financial institutions, pre-paid and credit card providers, and TPPs – from certification and on-boarding through to BAU support
  • Maintaining the highest principles of security and counter-fraud within the ecosystem and providing an information-sharing platform between participants
  • Enabling ecosystem participants with a platform for managing disputes and complaints.

LATEST NEWS AND INSIGHTS

CONTACT US

If you have an enquiry about OBL or would like to talk to our team about the Open Banking Standard or services, please email us. For anything else, please visit our contact us page.

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