Innovate Finance comment on CMA’s response on future plans for an Open Banking entity

By Adam Jackson, Director of Policy, Innovate Finance

We welcome the CMA's response on future plans for an Open Banking entity, which we have been calling for to provide the industry with greater clarity on the evolution of Open Banking in the UK. This is an important step in maintaining the UK's position as a global leader in Open Banking.

We will be looking at this more closely with our members and look forward to engaging with the new Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee and the OBIE on this over the coming months.

We will particularly be looking for three outcomes.

1. Competition: fully independent governance and a programme to complete open banking.
   
2. Innovation: a basis for opening up further data applications in payments, credit and financial management that go beyond competition and create new benefits for consumers and businesses. 
3. Sustainability: a long-term funding model and an ability to extend to other forms of finance and to cross-economy open data that can create value from combining other data sources (such as energy, travel, goods) with financial data.

The CMA recommendations are steps in the right direction, in particular their recommendations that the future entity should:

• Have a clear purpose to drive the continued growth of open API propositions and support competition and innovation
• Be fully independent and have strong representation from consumers and small businesses
• Deliver positive consumer and SME outcomes, including for consumers in vulnerable circumstances.  

There are still many details, especially on the future funding model for the new entity, and we will be looking for clearer timelines for transition and set up.

We'll be discussing these issues on 4-5 April at IFGS, our global summit. Regulators, industry and government, will be joining sessions to discuss the future of Open Banking. Click here to see the full agenda.