Open Banking in the UK has topped 5 million users according to a statement by the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). The data is provided by the CMA9, the nine banks and building society mandated under the CMA Order to implement open banking in the UK.
Charlotte Crosswell, OBIE trustee, said that Open Banking was expected to improve increased competition and new and innovative solutions and the progress is encouraging:
“ This accelerated growth strongly represents a world-leading and thriving ecosystem bringing an ever-increasing range of real-world solutions, that in turn is driving mass user adoption.”
The OBIE said that while it took 10 months to increase the number of Open Banking users in the UK from 1 million to 2 million in 2020, it took just four months to go from 4 million to more than 5 million now. Additionally, the total number of payments made via Open Banking rose to 3.86 million in January 2022, a 19.3% increase in December last year.
Karl MacGregor, co-founder and CEO of Vyne, told CI:
“Payments made through open banking are more cost-effective, transparent, and seamless, benefitting both consumers and merchants. The figures released today by the OBIE show the remarkable progress made by the industry over the past four years to make open banking a success in the UK. Reaching 5 million users is a testament to the ongoing innovation and collaboration of open banking product and service providers, and the vibrancy of the ecosystem – and it’s still only the start of the open finance journey. I am proud of the contribution Vyne has made, enabling and supporting financial innovation across the industry.”
CEO of the OBIE, Henk Van Hulle, stated:
“What a great time to be joining the OBIE! This is great news for the open banking community. I am delighted to see such accelerated growth in end-user adoption rates. This demonstrates that the tremendous efforts of everyone across the whole ecosystem continue to bear fruit. It also shows what a superb job the team at the OBIE are doing in building and running the supporting infrastructure.”
Open Banking (or Open Finance) requires financial services firms to enable APIs for data sharing – once authorized by individual users. Open Banking should remove intrinsic friction with the financial services sector while empowering businesses and consumers to migrate to new services in a streamlined process. Incumbent financial services firms should be more inclined to offer more competitive services for its clients.
The OBIE is the entity set up by the CMA9 as ordered by the CMA in 2016 to deliver open banking.