Exploring the data driven future of fintech at Innovate Finance Global Summit, panellists covered new developments across open banking, open finance, and digital identity.
The most illuminating of these panels was a fireside chat between OBIE's Marion King and Open Banking Excellence's Helen Child. At the start of the session, Child announced that they had revamped their planned talking points after new UK recommendations for open banking were announced earlier this week.
On this news, King said: "My first impressions are, this is great. Pretty much everything is covered. What we have here with the JROC roadmap is direction, ambition, momentum, but without being too prescriptive."
While King acknowledged that there were still aspects to figure out, she added that this plan provides "the real positivity of hope to innovators, to fintechs, to build their business models around open data, smart data, and begin to move the industry forward."
King summarised the five key themes of these new recommendations, which are:
- Levelling up availability and performance;
- Mitigating the risks of financial crime;
- Ensuring effective consumer protection if something goes wrong;
- Improving data flows to third party providers and end users;
- Promoting the use cases of open banking.
Child then posed questions around short term expectations given that the roadmap is set across the next two years. King argued: “nothing in terms of payments will change immediately, but the dialogue will change, the ‘can do’ will change. In terms of working through the government’s frameworks that are already in place.”
Child also asked King whether she believes that these recommendations, which consist of 29 points, give the UK the platform to maintain their global leadership position. King responded: “it does but we have a lot to work through. One of the pressing things is: what is a commercial model? What is an economic model that underpins the open banking we have today to go forward to open finance, that utilises smart data to create new business models and create benefits across communities?”
Further to this, King mentioned a continued problem for open banking: “We have to find a way to get sustainable funding. We can’t every year go through another budget waiting to get approved.” She continued: “This cannot be a free service for all because this is investment”
Concluding on a positive note for the future of open banking, King stated: “We really are now going to drive this forward, we really are going to be creating new opportunities new businesses, moreover, demystify and making it easier for consumers businesses to manage their financial health.”