Rubix Basics: Open Banking, what is it?
Open Banking is a concept based on the view that your (financial) data is yours and it is your right to receive, access and use your data as you see fit.
At a use case level, it means that the banks must open up their infrastructure so that third parties (with permission granted by the customer) can perform many of the functions required in every day banking.
Generally this is separated into three areas:
- Passing Account Information: this can be used for verifying your name, date of birth, address details to a third party application.
- Passing Transaction Information: this can be used to give intelligence and value added services such as affordability scores, expense categorisation or budgeting advice.
- Payment Initiation: this can be used to make everyday payments (eCommerce, bills, top-ups, etc).
In most global markets, banks have closed systems. This makes sense if the sole reason for a bank is security, not utility.
Somewhere in the small print of your bank terms and conditions they will likely state that you will keep your login details secret, and they also will likely disclaim any liability in the event you give these out.
What this does, is create a 1:1 relationship where you are required to only interact with your financial data in a way that the bank deems safe, which means inside their own experiences.
It is however, an enemy of innovation and customer choice. Which is what Open Banking is trying to solve for.
Is this now or never (or somewhere in between)?
Like Web3 covered in a previous article here, Open Banking is a positive trend in regard to consumer choice. It is however completely contrary to how banks have been designed. Some markets (such as the UK) have been moved faster through regulation, but others (like Australia, NZ or the USA) are taking significantly longer for many reasons.
We at Rubix believe that customers should ultimately control where they put their money and how they choose to access it. That is why we are huge supporters of the Open Banking movement.
And that is why we are looking forward to the day when you don’t need to log into your banking apps. If that is how you want to live your life.
If you’d like to be first in line as we build solutions for the future of personal finance, register your interest at http://rubixlife.io
