The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has, today, announced that Imran Gulamhuseinwala will become the new trustee for the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). Mr Gulamhuseinwala, who was awarded an OBE this year’s Honours List, is a London-based partner in EY’s financial services practice and its Global Head of Fintechs. He has been involved with the OBIE’s work through its stakeholder working groups and has been active in financial technology as both an investor and a start-up founder. He succeeds Andrew Pinder CBE, who has passed away following a short illness. Keith Ford, CEO of the OBIE, said : “We were immensely saddened, personally and professionally, to lose Andrew and profoundly grateful to have had the benefit of his experience and drive through the complex process of creating the OBIE and delivering the first of the CMA’s remedies. Our thoughts are with his friends and family. “As I am sure Andrew would agree, Imran is a fine choice for Trustee. He is closely involved in the development of financial technology here in the UK and around the world and has a detailed understanding of the considerable challenge before the OBIE.” At the direction of the CMA, the UK’s nine largest providers of bank accounts to personal and small and medium-sized enterprise (‘SME’) customers (collectively, the ‘CMA9’) were required to set up and fund the IE. The Trustee is nominated by the CMA and responsible to the CMA9. He oversees the OBIE and ensures that it is operating properly, effectively fulfilling the CMA remedies to schedule. The CMA’s announcement of Mr Gulamhuseinwala’s appointment can be read <here>. The IE was created in 2016 to fulfil some of the remedies the CMA set out following an investigation into UK retail banking. The full result of that inquiry can be found in the report ‘Retail Banking Market Investigation’ which was published on 9 August 2016 but, simply put, it required that the UK’s largest banks give the customer the ability to securely share their financial data with other companies. This will make engaging with the full range of financial services far easier for customers: from product comparison to effortlessly getting highly personalised advice, Open Banking is designed to give the customer real power. It is created by a set of technologies and standards that the OBIE is charged with building and launching in January 2018. These will form the basis for the future development of retail financial services in the UK, opening the market up to new entrants and driving competition amongst incumbents. For further information, please contact: press@openbanking.org.uk 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 and 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: 1. 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. 2. 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. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. Open Banking 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. 6. 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.