The UK’s embrace of open banking marked a major milestone today after the competition watchdog confirmed its roadmap towards the implementation of the technology was now fully complete.
The Competition and Markets Authority said all nine banking providers mandated under its Open Banking Roadmap had now completed the implementation phase, after Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland finally rolled out all the requirements. That includes the use of variable recurring payments or VRPs, which allows customers to connect authorized payment providers to their bank account.
The roadmap’s completion, which has come significantly later than envisaged by regulators, cements the UK’s position as a major global player in open banking technology and paves the way for enhanced financial control, smarter payments, and greater flexibility to customers.
Dan Turnbull, Senior Director, CMA, said: “Today’s update is an important milestone. The completion of the Roadmap cements the move to the future of open banking, one that can expand the benefits of open banking.
“As we move towards this future, we will continue to ensure the Standard is maintained and that the nine banking providers are held to their ongoing obligations.”
The news follows previous announcements from the CMA in January 2023 and October 2023 that seven banking providers – Barclays, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander – had completed the Roadmap.
The CMA had previously expected its roadmap to have been fully implemented before the end of 2022, but a small number of banks including the Bank of Ireland, suffered setbacks over the rollout of the technology. In June last year, the watchdog wrote to the bank expressing its frustration over the delays and warning it would “consider whether to take further enforcement action should Bank of Ireland fail to complete the implementation of the roadmap in a timely manner.”
The completion of the roadmap prepares the UK for the next phase of financial innovation as the government prepares to introduce the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, which aims to build on the achievements of open banking and deliver the benefits of data sharing to smart data schemes in key economic sectors, including energy, telecoms, transport and retail.
The milestone comes amid signs the UK’s adoption of open banking is gathering pace, with 11.32 million users in July, a 12% uplift from the previous month, according to figures from Open Banking Limited.
In terms of payments, 19.54 million payments were made in July, and of these, VRPs for sweeping accounted for 2.45 million – a growth of 23.9%. With an expanding user base, the open banking ecosystem is valued at over £4 billion.