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@ketharaman I read this slightly differently, the payment can come from any bank abroad that has implemented SWIFT gpi, the receiving bank in the UK must be Lloyds as currently they are the only one that has implemented this service. Would be interesting to know which one of us is correct?

Interesting post Max, as a colleague used to say try it out on friends and family first to find the problems with your idea before releasing into the wild.  

Open Banking is of little interest to the average person because they are not very good at programming APIs.

When compelling use cases emerge that offer value, as Melvin says above, then people will take them up without even being aware that open banking provides the plumbing.

Presumably there is lots of work being done by the likes of Moven and  Intuit and others to produce solutions that take advantage of Open Banking. It overcomes the problems of the old screen scraping technology but must offer something more compelling than just account aggregation and PFM functionality to be successful.

What is the difference between management accounts and financial statements.

Haven't SME lendors always used P&L, Balance Sheet, Cashfow as the basis for credit decisions?

Also, are you saying there is a standard API for financial statements that allows FIs to automate collection of that data?

Hey Alex interesting article and interesting idea. I am travelling next week and use Monzo when abroad due to the more favourable exchange rate. I could try to log my expenses for the trip by adding all Monzo transactions to a Google Docs spreadsheet. There are lots of possibilities although it may be while before the IOT goes mainstream?

That is a heck of lot of dollars to pay for a small fish that has a "small merchant base of half a million clients" which are all little fish themselves.

That is an interesting article thanks Ketharaman, great use of technology although not sure why it includes blockchain, but maybe you will explain that in the follow-up.

The question is my mind is why hasn't this been done before, for example with trains in the UK. Presumably there's a database that logs train arrival times, why hasn't the process for claiming compensation been automated? If my train runs late then the compensation is issued to my bank account automatically.

Also in the EU there is statutory compensation for late or cancelled flights which again few people bother to claim because of the hassle, why not make it automatic so no need to claim if your flight is late or delayed then you just get sent the cash?

Of course I am aware the answer in both cases above is that the wonderful institutions that run our railways and airlines rely on the friction to discourage claims. If they had to pay out for every late arrival then they have to charge more for our journeys, hence they have our best interests at heart! 

@Sreeram yes I did use Yodel in the past but it became too much effort to keep all the usernames and passwords correct and up to date, there was too much friction in use so let it lapse after a while.

What I would like as a customer is a view of my net financial position. That includes my current account, savings account, mortgage, credit card, the current value of my property, the value of my portfolio of shares and/or pension savings.

My assets and liabilities in other words, same as you would do for a corporate, treat personal customers as an enterprise, use analytics to provide trends to give me my position in the future, provide guidance such the benefits of paying off your mortgage early, automated sweeping of balances, etc.

(But take care to be optimistic, there is no point telling a millenial if you continue on this course you face penury when you retire even if its true as that may not change their financial behaviour rather it will make them spend more on drink to drown their sorrows)

The closest I have to having all my finances in one place is the Moven here in the UK. I can see my current and savings accounts and credit card balance across different banks, and this is presumably what Barclays and HSBC and other banks will seek to emulate? 

@ketharaman but the iDeal payments in the Netherlands has about 60% of the market, far more than credit cards, in spite of not offering protection, deferred payment or rewards. The retailers reward customers paying with iDeal with lower prices and free delivery as @FrankNolden says above. This very local to the Netherlands and may not apply elsewhere but it does show what is possible given the right conditions.