Norwegian banks Sbanken, Sparebanken Vest, and Sparebanken Sogn og Fjordane are bidding to get ahead of the PSD2 innovation curve, enabling mutual customers to view their accounts across the banks from within their own online banking platform.
The initiative, which is set to be rolled out well ahead of the mandated introduction of the revised Payment Services Directive in autumn next year, is intended to give the banks a head start in the account aggregation space ahead of the entry of third party fintech firms and Big Tech players.
"If Norwegian banking customers are already used to seeing their customer relationships across banks, the entry barrier for foreign players will be significantly higher," say the banks in a joint statement.
The project was managed out of the Norwegian fintech cluster, Finance Innovation, in Bergen. Atle Sivertsen, CEO of Finance Innovation, says the project partners are in the process of drawing up co-operation agreements that will be extended to other banks who wish to join.
Christoffer Hernæs, chief digital officer in Norwegian online bank Sbanken, says: "We are already in dialogue with more banks about this, and encourage the rest of the industry to embrace the same mindset. We are open to sharing our data with anyone who wants to take part."