UK open banking tops 1 billion payments

Open Banking Limited reported that more than 1 billion payments have been processed in the UK using open banking. The organisation also recorded 100 billion API requests and said the average response time to a payment request has fallen to 349 milliseconds, a 50ms improvement.

Open banking enables banks and third-party firms to share customer-permissioned banking data through application programming interfaces (APIs). The system traces back to a 2017 Competition and Markets Authority order that required UK banks to implement open banking to give customers more control over accounts and to increase competition.

The 100 billion API calls reflect adoption by banks, fintech firms and other service providers. The 349ms figure measures how quickly a platform responds to a payment initiation or data request. Open Banking Limited attributed the faster response times to operational improvements across the ecosystem.

Economic analysis commissioned by Open Banking Limited and carried out by EY found open banking has delivered about £8.2 billion in benefits to date. EY’s modelling projects roughly £7.4 billion a year within five years and up to £43 billion a year when open banking reaches full maturity and open finance expands to include products such as mortgages and loans.

Henk Van Hulle, chief executive of Open Banking Limited, described the milestones as “reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in open banking and demonstrating an ecosystem that continues to scale in both volume and capability.” He added the organisation will continue to focus on resilience, performance and innovation as the next phase of open banking and open finance progresses.

In February, Ron Kalifa, former Worldpay chief executive, warned the UK risks losing ground and that it had “laid the rail track, but hesitated to run the trains.” He noted open finance has not yet been fully implemented and pointed to other countries moving ahead with their programmes.

Open Banking Limited and industry backers have called for continued investment and regulatory co-ordination to expand open banking into open finance and to meet the economic gains projected by EY.