Press Releases

5 million users – open banking growth unpacked

24 February 2022
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The OBIE recently celebrated passing the 5 million open banking users milestone. Here we take a look back at 2021 and how our thriving, world-leading ecosystem delivered this impressive growth.

2021 Insights:  

Regulated Providers  

By the end of 2021 there were 337 regulated providers enrolled in the OBIE Directory – up from 294 at the close of 2020. This growth points to the continued value firms receive from direct participation in open banking. 

Payments made using open banking: 

At the end of 2021, cumulatively over 26.6m open banking payments had been made. An increase of more than 500% in 12 months. 

Ecosystem Numbers (December 2021)  

  • 337Regulated Providers   
  • 245Third Party Providers   
  • 92Account Providers 
  • 124 regulated entities with at least one proposition live with customers   

OBIE’s GOALS for 2022  

  • Help to foster competition and innovation by continuing to add new FinTech’s to the ecosystem and supporting them to bring new and exciting propositions to market. 
  • Continue to strengthen the corporate governance and culture of the organisation 
  • Work to ensure that as we approach transition, the collective effort, hard work and investment that has already gone into establishing open banking in the UK is extended to other sectors.

Charlotte Crosswell, Chair & Trustee, OBIE said: 

“2021 was a year of growth for open banking in the UK. We witnessed a 60 per cent increase in the number of active open banking users, with adoption increasing at a rate of approximately one million new users every six months. Similarly, OB payments increased by an impressive 500 per cent year on year. The OBIE navigated a number of difficult challenges, but sought to listen, learn and reform as a number of organisational, governance and cultural changes were made. As we move forward in 2022 and these internal improvements continue, we want to see the growth momentum that took us to the recent 5 million user milestone continue.”

January  

  • OBIE celebrates the third anniversary of open banking and reaching the 3 million active users’ milestone.  
  • VibePay launches an open banking-powered dashboard to enable SMEs to activate instant account-to-account payments with their customers. 
  • OBIE publishes its response and revised its proposals following the first phase of its consultation into Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) and Sweeping. 

  

February  

  • HRMC awards open banking contract to Ecospend, taking open banking to the core of public life.  
  • Equifax acquires transaction data analytics company, AccountScore, to improve its open banking and insights capabilities. 
  • The Kalifa Review of UK Fintech is published and sets out recommendations to strengthen the UK’s Fintech landscape.  
  • The OBIE first Annual Report is published showcasing the significant progress that has been made to develop open banking in the UK.  
  • For the first time in a single calendar month, more than one million open banking payments are processed. 
  • OBIE launches the Counter-Fraud Maturity Self-Assessment tool and teams up with IASME to launch the Counter-Fraud Fundamentals certification scheme. 

March  

  • Credit agency Experian expresses public support for open banking’s value in accelerating mortgage application processes. 
  • The CMA launches its consultation on the future governance of open banking. 
  • The FCA publishes resulting feedback from its call for input on open finance, identifying wide support for its continued development. 
  • UK Finance sets out its vision for open banking. 

April  

  • The OBIE publishes additional documents following the conclusion of the second phase of its consultation on Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) and Sweeping.  
  • GoCardless integrates Instant Bank Pay into its global payments platform to launch open banking payments.  
  • Analytics company Yougov acquires open banking start-up Lean App. 

May 

  • HMRC launches open banking-enabled option for PAYE payments – tax paid directly from workers’ salaries – powered by Ecospend.  
  • John Penrose, MP, endorses open banking stating; “We should roll out open banking to open everything, setting the new global standards for simple, safe data sharing in future and establishing a strong digital image of a new post-Brexit global Britain. 
  • OBIE publishes Extended Customer Attributes (ECA) Standard. 

June  

  • OBIE launches its first Consumer Evaluation Framework (CEF) report, assessing the impact of OB on consumers and SMEs. 
  • Payments giant Visa acquires open banking provider Tink. 
  • 13,000 parent teacher associations (PTAs) across the UK, leverage open banking payments to reduce fees on the £120 million they collect each year. 
  • Clearscore raises $200 million to ease consumer access to credit through open banking.  
  • Smart Data Working Group releases Spring 2021 report, which estimates the annual potential benefits from OB enabled services is £12billion for consumers and £6billion for businesses.  

July  

  • The CMA determines that the largest UK current account providers (CMA9) will be required to implement VRPs for sweeping to allow free access to third-party providers who are using VRPs to enable their customers to move money from their current accounts to other accounts.
  • Nook and Yapily join forces to create trade collaboration platform for SMEs.  

August  

  • Moneyhub makes open banking payments the default way to pay for customers   
  • Peer-to-peer property lending platform Kuflink introduces instant bank transfers using open banking. 

September  

  • HMRC hits £1 billion milestone worth of payments made using open banking. 
  • Open banking provider TrueLayer earned unicorn status after reaching $1 billion valuation. 
  • Credit card company Keebo announced strategic partnership with Yolt to improve business efficiencies, cost reduction, and the front-end user experience through open banking solutions.  
  • Vyne raises $15.5M seed round to grow its merchant-focused open banking solutions London-based.  

October 

  • Fintech veteran Charlotte Croswell is appointed Trustee and Chair of the OBIE 
  • The OBIE publishes a revised version 3.1.9 of the Open Banking Standard  
  • HM’s Treasury responds to Payments Landscape Review, setting out four priority areas. 
  • Equifax launches report showing 55% of UK credit provider’s plan to implement open banking by 2022.
  • The OBIE welcomes Jeremy Newman as an independent Non-Executive Director (NED) 

November  

  • The FCA removes 90-day reauthentication rule meaning consumers will no longer need to reauthenticate permissions with Account Servicing Payment Service Providers every 90 days. 
  • OBIE Chair and Trustee Charlotte Crosswell attends the All-Party Parliamentary Group on open banking and payments with Economic Secretary to HM Treasury, John Glen MP and delivers closing keynote at Open Banking Expo. 
  • OBIE appoints Barbara Ridpath as an independent Non-Executive Director (NED) 
  • The CMA publishes revised implementation timeline for implementing VRPs for Sweeping which extends the deadline to mid-2022. 
  • The OBIE publishes the second edition of its Consumer Evaluation Framework (CEF) report.  

December  

  • OBIE initiates search for a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  
  • Research by Tink finds that over half of the UK’s wealth manager, wholesale banks, credit providers, and challenger banks increased their open banking budgets in 2021.  
  • The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) publishes its regulatory framework following consultation.  

– – – ENDS – – –

For further information, please contact: press@openbanking.org.uk

About Us

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) is the entity set up by the CMA in 2016 to deliver open banking. Its trading name is Open Banking Limited.

The OBIE is governed by the CMA and funded by the CMA 9 (Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Danske, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, Natwest Group and Santander). It works with the CMA 9, as well as challenger banks, financial technology companies, third party providers and consumer groups. The OBIE’s role is to:

  • Enforce the obligations on the CMA 9 under the CMA Order
  • Design the specifications for the Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) that banks and building societies use to securely provide open banking
  • Support regulated third party providers and banks and building societies to use the OBIE’s Open Banking Standards
  • Create security and messaging standards
  • Manage the OBIE’s open banking Directory which allows regulated participants like banks, building societies and third-party providers to enrol in open banking
  • Produce guidelines for participants in the open banking ecosystem
  • Set out the process for managing disputes and complaints