Open banking remains a hot topic for credit unions and commentators, and here are a couple of things worth paying attention to.
First, The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE, the body responsible for setting standards and guidelines that drive competition and innovation in UK retail banking) has developed an infographic, based on CFCFE’s paper on open banking authored by the Finance Innovation Lab. The infographic can be seen here and our paper, in case you missed it, here.
Second, the Finance Innovation Lab is now looking ahead to the emergence of open finance. Marloes Nicholls of the Lab describes this as the aim to “open up more data about people’s finances, including insurance, mortgages, pensions and investments – not just payments.” Marloes offers some examples of how this might work in action: “support for staff to choose the most relevant options from complex employee benefit schemes; assistance for landlords to manage the finances associated with their properties (such as rent, mortgage payments, expenses and tax) in one place; and tools for younger people to understand how the financial actions they take today will impact their pension in the future” (more details here). This is clearly going to impact on credit unions, just as open banking has. If you are interested in learning more, you might want to register for a Lab / StepChange Zoom event on 24th June, called Open Finance; ‘Open X’: What’s the Use? More information here.
So, are you excited by these data opportunities? Or worried? Get in touch with CFCFE via nick.money@swobodacentre.org.