Barclays has set about preparing its customers for the arrival of Open Banking at the beginning of 2018, providing educational material on the changing rules.
The Open Banking initiative was launched by the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK and it requires that the nine largest current account providers share their data with third party providers.
For instance, a fintech could become a third party provider of banking services to customers of the largest providers of current accounts.
In the educational post, the bank said: “Barclays will launch its Open Banking solution in 2018, allowing you to not only share data with other providers but importantly, to view your accounts from other providers conveniently and securely through your Barclays Mobile Banking app.”
Following a step by step format, the online post emphasises that the customer is in control of their own data, and that explicit permission will be required before sharing is possible.
“You’ll be able to give permission for your bank to share your account transaction data securely with other companies, known as third-party providers (TPPs). These might be other registered banks, building societies or price comparison websites,” Barclays said in the post.
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This requirement from the CMA runs in concurrence with the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), an EU regulation by which all payment account providers will be expected to share customer data with third parties, preventing the giants from maintaining full control.
Imran Gulamhuseinwala OBE, Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, said: “The first set of Open Banking APIs will go live to third-party providers on 13 January. This is the culmination of a huge amount of collaborative work done by the UK’s largest banks and building societies, the OBIE, and companies from across the technology and financial services sectors. It’s an extraordinary achievement which, in time, could fundamentally change how we manage our money.”
