This week, the United Kingdom governmental organization Open Banking Limited celebrated the seventh anniversary of PSD2 and the creation of open banking. Open Banking Limited is the implementation entity described in a Competitions and Market Authority Order. It created an open banking standard and industry guidelines to drive competition, innovation and transparency in UK retail banking.
There are more than 11.7 million active users of open banking-enabled products in the United Kingdom, and more than 22.1 million open banking payments are made monthly.
Open Banking Limited said 2025 is a pivotal year in open banking, with the Data (Use and Access) Bill progressing through Parliament. That paves the way for a long-term regulatory framework for open banking and the evolution into open finance.
PSD2 was implemented in the UK on Jan. 13, 2018. Over those seven years, Open Banking Limited has facilitated its implementation through the Open Banking Standard and helped to foster an ecosystem worth £4 billion to the economy.
Relevant statistics
- 1.7 billion application programming interface (API) calls per month.
- 22.13 million open banking-powered payments in November 2024, 3.12 million of which were variable recurring payments.
- Nearly 400 million successful payments since 2018.
Open Banking Limited said the Data (Use and Access) Bill signals clear intent from the Government about the importance of building on open banking’s data-sharing principles to deliver a smart data economy worth an estimated £10 billion over the next 10 years. The bill will enable the necessary secondary legislation to be introduced which is needed to establish the long-term regulatory framework for open banking, putting it on a commercially sustainable footing.
It also allows for additional smart data schemes – open banking is the first smart data scheme in existence – with the next evolution being open finance which encompasses a wider range of financial products and services, such as investments, insurance, and pensions, and beyond into other key economic sectors such as energy and telecoms.
Alongside the bill, the organization said open banking will play an important role in carrying forward the Government’s National Payments Vision, fostering competition, innovation and consumer choice in the payments landscape.
“As we reflect on the last seven years, we should be collectively proud of the financial innovation and the benefits open banking delivers to consumers and businesses, as well as the wider economy,” Open Banking Limited chair and trustee Marion King said. “We’re at a pivotal stage in the evolution of open banking, with legislation and regulation coming forward that will not only put it on a commercially sustainable footing fit for the long term but also move us towards open finance and other smart data schemes.”
“Open banking is just seven years young, and much has been achieved,” CEO Henk Van Hulle added. “Adoption continues to grow month-on-month, with over 11 million active users in November 2024. The UK pioneered this financial innovation, and our standard keeps on providing a blueprint for many jurisdictions across the globe.
“2024 saw an unprecedented growth and delivery. 2025 will be another step change. This year will see the expansion of open banking into the next generation of open finance and data. UK’s thought leadership on data usage and access puts the UK at the forefront of data and payments innovation globally. We will, therefore, have a keen eye on interoperability as the industry looks to enable world-class cross-border data sharing.”
