The number of third party providers offering account information and payment initiation services in Europe has grown by 300 per cent since 2019, according to a new report published by PwC Italy and payments consortium CBI.

The consulting and professional services firm and CBI, an Italian consortium company comprising around 400 payment service providers as shareholders, have jointly published the first edition of their joint global Open Banking report, which finds that the number of third party providers offering these services in Europe now stands at around 500.

The report highlights development in Open Banking initiatives, which are now underway in more than 60 countries are being driven by local regulators (as in the UK and the European Union) or market players, as in the USA.

In 2021, Open Banking acquisitions with a total value of approximately €2 billion were recorded in Europe, the report found.

Meanwhile, 63 per cent of API-based services in the EU are still reliant on PSD2 data, including account information services (AIS) and payment initiation services (PIS).

The report’s analysis stated that “at European level, the adoption of PSD2 has undoubtedly laid the foundations for the development of Open Banking, stimulating competition in the financial services market and opening the doors to new players, thus contributing to an enrichment of the banking offering for customers.”

According to CBI and PwC, the adoption of Open Banking services in Italy is still lower than in other European areas, for example the Nordics.

A survey conducted on the main Italian banks outlined the key services that make up the Open Banking offering: Account Aggregation (55 per cent), Check IBAN (45 per cent), Personal Financial Management (36 per cent), Instant Payment (27 per cent) and Identity & Digital Onboarding services (18 per cent).

Going forward, Digital ID & Onboarding services (64 per cent) and Check IBAN (55 per cent) are the areas that banks say they will focus on.

Liliana Fratini Passi, managing director of CBI, said: “Open Banking represents a great opportunity for the financial industry to create collaborative innovation for the benefit of corporate and retail customers, also thanks to the aggregative work of pre-competitive ecosystems such as CBI. Banks that continue to invest in technological innovation, digital skills and sustainability will be the leaders in the transformed international competitive arena. The report shows that we are still in an early stage of growth and that there is ample room for development for those banks that are able to look beyond compliance towards Open Finance.”

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