White Paper
In this fourth annual report, APIContext evaluated the performance of UK Open Banking APIs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.
The UK’s Open Banking system is arguably the most advanced in the world, having been in place since at least 2018. The time in market for this ecosystem offers lessons and best practices to other countries that are looking to implement similar API-driven financial systems; as well as banks and financial institutions that seek to differentiate through quality customer experiences.
In this updated report, APIContext evaluates the performance of Open Banking APIs provided by various types of financial institutions in the UK. These include the major “CMA9” banks (the nine largest banks required by UK law to provide Open Banking services), traditional High Street banks, credit card companies, building societies (similar to credit unions in the United States), and new digital banks, often called neobanks.
All the data in this report are based on real API calls, having tested the APIs in real-world conditions using the same process that consumers would go through. These calls followed the FAPI (Financial-grade API) standards, which are specifically designed for securely sharing sensitive financial data.
The report includes:
Key analysis of the UK's Open Banking API performance 2023 - 2024
Availability and reliability of API endpoints
Latency metrics (DNS, TCP connect, SSL handshake, processing, and total time)
Performance by cloud provider (AWS, IBM, Azure, and Google)
Comparative analysis between different bank types (CMA9, traditional, and neobanks)
Cloud provider comparison and other detailed findings
Key takeaways and recommendations for various players in the ecosystem
176 downloads