Latest Open banking News: Finextra Research

NatWest preps for live roll out of variable recurring payments

Following recent live tests, NatWest is to begin pilot testing of variable recurring payments with its open banking payments product Payit in the first half of 2022, with plans to scale to a commercial product ready by early 2023

07 March 2022

News/startups

Gig economy subscription app SteadyPay raises $5m

UK-based gig-economy app SteadyPay has closed a $5 million Series A funding round led by Digital Horizon.

07 March 2022

News/retail

Irish postal service takes on incumbents with Tink money management app

Irish postal services provider An Post has teamed up with European open banking platform Tink, to bring new money management services to its customers.

01 March 2022

News/payments

Open banking passes five million user milestone

There are now more than five million active users of open banking services in the UK, five hundred thousand up on January's headline total, with tax payments driving the growth in numbers.

17 February 2022

News/retail

TrueLayer enters five new European markets

UK open banking platform TrueLayer has expanded to five new European markets.

27 January 2022

News/startups

Saudi fintech Lean raises $33 million

Lean Technologies, a Saudi fintech firm whose founders include the son of the kingdom’s former oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, has raised $33 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

24 January 2022

News/crypto

Numbrs converts into bitcoin vault, blaming banks for demise of original business model

Zurich-based account aggregation app Numbrs has transformed into a bitcoin storage vault after blaming jealous banks for killing off its original business model.

19 January 2022

News/retail

OBIE celebrates 4.5 million users on open banking anniversary

Marking the fourth anniversary of PSD2 becoming a regulatory requirement across the EU, the UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has issued a statement citing substantial adoption of the initiative across 3.9 million consumers and 600,000 small businesses.

13 January 2022

News/predictions

Starling pulls Facebook advertising; preps SaaS offering

Starling CEO Anne Boden says the bank has pulled all paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram until Meta tackles fraudsters advertising on its platforms. In her annual letter, Boden also confirms the planned launch of a Software as a Service (SaaS) proposition during 2022.

07 January 2022

News/retail

Fintech founders accuse Starling's Boden of trying to stifle innovation

Starling Bank chief Anne Boden has been accused by 53 fintech founders of trying to thwart innovation in financial services, following her comments to a Treasury Select Committe that Open Banking has failed to encourage bank account switching.

04 January 2022

News/payments

NatWest initiates first live Variable Recurring Payment transaction

NatWest has become the first UK bank to conduct a live transaction using Open Banking-initiated Variable Recurring Payments.

15 December 2021

News/people

OBIE seeks CEO

The Open Banking Limited (OBL) board is seeking a CEO to lead the day-to-day running of the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) and its transition to an entity that will observe the CMA’s next consultation on future governance arrangements.

10 December 2021

News/predictions

Open Banking adoption in UK lending set to hit 70% in next two years

A quarter of UK lenders now use Open Banking technology, with half of those that don't planning to do so in the future, according to research from Credit Kudos.

10 December 2021

News/people

Wise replaces chair with ex-Netflix CFO

Money transfer app Wise has named David Wells, the former CFO of Netflix, as the chairman of its board of directors.

09 December 2021

News/startups

Visa invests in Latin American open finance startup Belvo

Visa has invested in Belvo, backing up a recently-announced partnership with the Mexico City-based open finance API platform.

08 December 2021

News/regulation

New York Fed opens innovation centre

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has launched an innovation centre in a partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

01 December 2021

News/regulation

FCA boosts Open Banking by removing 3-month re-authentication requirement

Fintech firms will no longer need to re-authenticate customers every ninety days for continued access to bank account data, but they will need to prove customer consent, under modifications to Open Banking rules spelled out by the Financial Conduct Authority.

30 November 2021

News/payments

Visa invests in Australian Open Banking platform Basiq

Australian Open Banking platform Basiq has received an equity investment from Visa, continuing the trend for card schemes to invest in technology that threatens to bypass their traditional payment rails.

24 November 2021

News/wholesale

Tide to open business platform to SMEs with accounts at other banks

In a bid to counter account switching fatigue, Tide is opening access to its suite of business banking tools to SMEs who hold accounts with other banks.

24 November 2021

News/startups

Open finance challenge winners unveiled

An Australian startup working to green the housing market has won a global open finance challenge run by NAB, CIBC, Itaú Unibanco and NatWest.

23 November 2021