CMA

The OBIE publishes the Extended Customer Attributes (ECA) standard

09 May 2021
CMA news

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) is pleased to announce the publication of the Extended Customer Attributes (ECA) standard. This optional extension to the Open Banking standard is a significant enhancement and supports a range of identity-related use cases such as customer onboarding, age verification and delivery address confirmation.

The ECA Standard enables data providers, such as banks, to share or verify customer data attributes, for example age and address, with businesses that act as relying parties, such as retailers. This will reduce the time and cost associated with validating this data manually, bringing benefits to consumers, businesses and data providers.

This OBIE-designed “Premium API” Standard is not related to a regulatory requirement.

The ECA Standard was funded by seven of the largest UK banks, and designed in an inclusive way, with a wide range of participation to reflects views of consumers, businesses and banks.

For firms looking to implement the ECA standard, please see the following link for further details:

https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/pages/2013888689/ECA+Standard+-+RC1

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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