Open Banking is now “universally and unequivocally regarded as a key part of a bank’s landscape”, according to new research.

In a survey by software company Finastra, 99 per cent of respondents considered Open Banking a ‘must have’ or ‘important’, up 94 per cent from last year.

In the UK, 47 per cent said Open Banking was a must have or important, up from 33 per cent in 2021.

The overall results suggest that the sector globally is actively investigating products and services that would benefit from an ecosystem model, Finastra said.

The survey, which was conducted among 758 respondents across multiple regions, also found that 85 per cent of professionals believe that Open Finance is already making the industry more collaborative and is having a positive impact on the industry.

The study suggests that Banking as a Service (BaaS) and Embedded Finance have become an industry norm, with 83 per cent of institutions agreeing that they are “already expected by customers”. More than a third of institutions said they have improved or deployed BaaS in the past year.

“Finastra has always championed Open Finance as the key to unlocking the potential of people, businesses and communities everywhere,” said Simon Paris, chief executive at Finastra.

Paris added: “Over the years that we have conducted this survey, we have seen Open Finance grow from an emerging idea to a clear priority for institutions across the world, enabling, as it does, business model shifts such as embedded banking, as well as financial inclusion and equality.”

Buy Now, Pay Later provider Klarna's FinTech platform Klarna Kosma has recently been active in developing Open Banking initiatives, having recently launched an 'autopilot' to speed up its development.

At the time, Wilko Klaassen, vice president of Open Banking at Klarna, said: “Open Banking was introduced to wrest control of consumer data away from the big banks and make it securely available to drive innovation."

He continued: “With that data accessible through simple APIs, with consumers’ permissions, a whole new vista of potential use cases has opened up. The initiative we are launching today aims to add rocket fuel to the innovation process.”

Share Story: