Finance Monthly September 2019 Edition

21 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCE & BUSINESS - OPEN BANKING different. With no equivalent regulatory or policing body and no specific government drive, we are anticipating considerable variation of standards from bank to bank. Lack of consistency in how Open Banking is deployed will slow adoption as the development of new services becomes more complex and users do not receive a common experience. To address this there are groups such as STET in France and the Berlin Group working to define standards for implementing Open Banking. There is also pressure from various banking trade bodies such as DDK in Germany pushing for commonality in standards. The development of standards by such groups will help to create consistency, yet it still begs the question as to who will enforce regulation and uphold financial institutions to the specified due dates? Cooperation between the banks Naturally, the scale of this European go-live is not as straightforward as the UK’s due to the number of banks involved. Yet, it has the potential to unlock financial services and technological innovations that could position Europe as one of the leading financial regions when it comes to Open Banking. Indeed, PwC has estimated £7.2 billion in revenue will be created by Open Banking by 2022. European banks need to view this as an opportunity to enhance banking capabilities and deliver for increasingly tech- savvy consumers both within and cross country borders. Embracing Open Banking And what about the wider world? In Europe, there are two aspects of Open Banking, one covering access to data and the other dealing with payments. Adoption around the rest of the world is developing at a pace, with many countries either already living with viable applications or in the process of introducing legislation. Differing areas are focusing on specific aspects of Open Banking, for instance, Australia looks more to the data usage whereas India already has a successful payment infrastructure based on these principals. Despite the local and regional nuances affecting markets yet to go live with Open Banking, one lesson to be learnt from the UK is that embracing Open Banking allows banks and financial institutions to innovate and deliver exceptional services to their customers. Open Banking requires banks to cooperate with others to deliver the desired objectives of innovation to meet the ever- changing needs of customers. Then, and only then, will we witness an explosion of new products and services for consumers throughout Europe and realise the true benefits of Open Banking. PwC has estimated £7.2 billion in revenue will be created by Open Banking by 2022. www.nuapay.com