Download open banking highlights – January 2021 299 regulated providers made up of 219 third party providers and 80 account providers, with 105 regulated entities that have at least one proposition live with customers. Commenting on the January highlights, OBIE’s Implementation Trustee Imran Gulamhuseinwala OBE said: “In the 3 years since PSD2 made open banking in the UK a regulatory requirement we have come a long way. With the roadmap and standards in place, a strong growth story is prevailing – we now have more than 3 million active users and a thriving, expanding ecosystem. Elsewhere, exciting times in the payments space as we commenced with the second stage of VRP consultation and Government (HMRC especially) seeking to leverage open banking technology. Within the OBIE, I am particularly encouraged by the Accutrainee scheme, as diversity and inclusion are values on which we place great importance.” New open banking entities with live customers: Vibe Pay Limited Visible Capital Limited Equifax Ltd Visit the OBIE App store Powered by Open Banking The Big Exchange partners with Moneyhub The Big Exchange, a new online social, environmental, and impact investment platform co-founded by The Big Issue, has teamed-up with data, intelligence, and payments platform Moneyhub. Through the partnership, The Big Exchange intends to further its mission of financial inclusion by leveraging open banking technology to deliver a meaningful and free money management service to its community at a time when it is most useful and help drive personal financial resilience in 2021. VibePay’s bid to make account-to-account payments the default way to pay and get paid VibePay Business has launched a new open banking-powered dashboard to enable SMEs to activate instant account-to-account payments with their customers, see transactions easily in one place, and access the important data behind their business finances. The new offering hopes to spur greater connectivity between businesses and digital-first customers, allowing SMEs to better engage with their audiences to drive sales, increase reach and conversion. Nuapay and Beam tie-up to offer fast, direct, and secure open banking payments to SMEs Nuapay, the open banking firm powered by Sentenial, has joined forces with FinTech Beam, which specialises in providing payments services to small businesses. Beam will be able to provide open banking payments to its customers via WooCommerce – the open source eCommerce plugin for WordPress – as a result of the partnership. UK business will benefit from fast, direct and secure open banking payments. TrueLayer launches payments-as-a-service product Open banking API provider TrueLayer launched its first payments product, which will provide firms with the ability to onboard customers and bypass card schemes using faster payment rails for account-to-account payouts and deposits. PayDirect embeds in-app instant payments and withdrawals, while conducting all KYC and AML processes for on boarding customers. Key Highlights 13th January 2021 – Three years since PSD2 marked the start of Open Banking, the UK has built a world-leading ecosystem 14th December 2021 – Accutrainee launches new scholarship to encourage diversity within the legal profession 21st January 2021 – OBIE launches Variable Recurring Payments and Sweeping consultation phase II Information correct as at 31st January 2021. Produced by the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). – – – 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