UK Open Banking Users Grow To 7 Million

In January, more than a million people in the UK used open banking for the first time.

Open Banking Limited (OBL) said in a press release on Tuesday (Feb. 21) that the number of consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using open banking in the United Kingdom has gone over the 7 million mark for the first time. This is because 1.2 million new users signed up during the month.

“It is significant that 1.2 million of these are first-time users,” OBL CEO Henk Van Hulle said in the release. “From access to cost-effective credit, building a regular savings habit or making more informed financial decisions — open banking is delivering the means for our citizens to improve their financial wellbeing.”

A press release says that this news comes five years after the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) made open banking a legal requirement in the United Kingdom.

When that law went into effect, the U.K. was still a member of the European Union (EU). It told banks they could share account information with non-bank third parties that had been given permission. So that this could happen, PSD2 required financial institutions to make application programming interfaces (APIs) that could be used to start payments and ask for account information.

The release also said that the OBL report comes at a time when key recommendations about the future of open banking will soon be made public.

In a press release, OBL Chair and Trustee Marion King said that open banking makes the market more competitive and gives consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) access to new and innovative financial tools.

“As we await key recommendations on the future for open banking from the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee, this strong growth underlines the need to continue the momentum so that the many benefits of open banking are developed, promoted and made available to millions more of our citizens,” King said in the release.

According to a Jan. 16 report, the U.K. banking sector is looking forward to open finance’s next stage, when a new body will replace the implementation entity.

According to the multi-regulator Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC), the new body will oversee the open banking environment.

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