It's been a great summer!
Trust all is well and have a had a great sunny summer. Now that we are all now back into the swing of things, I wanted to send out a quick note on some exciting things happening this month.
In the world of all things 'bank data', Open Banking and PSD2 - September's going to be a disruptive month! Not just because of current politics but as we look forward to the 14th of September, we will see the bittersweet implementation of PSD2 come into effect. I say bittersweet as we have already seen numerous delays, confusion and regulatory delays. Open Banking has many times been described to me as one of the most significant changes that financial services will see in our lifetime. I'm not the most unbiased when it comes to bank data, but I completely agree!
Just a couple of months ago, I was asked to speak at one of the UK's leading banks PSD2 annual team meeting and share some insights on use cases, benefits, etc. One of the questions asked before I was whether Open Banking was good for the bank, or not. It surprised me to see the vast majority of the 200+ strong audience say it was bad for the bank! That is until you start to understand the sheer effort with almost no reward the project has been. But that's it - it's just the start - now the real challenge begins. Now it's up to us, as the industry, to consume bank data and take advantage of this truly unique opportunity. We need to make all the effort the industry has put into it, not just in the UK but globally, all worthwhile!
Regardless of your role, involvement or interest - September is a big month, and as part of Scottish Fintech Festival (link) we wanted to take the opportunity to welcome in PSD2 and Scottland's role in Open Banking. This Friday we will be celebrating in style with whisky tasting, a couple of great talks and a chance for the industry to come together. If you are able to join us, please come along (link).
This month SIBOS also comes to London - the industries biggest annual conference and a fantastic event. SIBOS is very special for us as almost 10 years ago now we won the startup competition and were able to validate the idea of leveraging the bank identity and data we have with our banks to be able to signup and do things online quickly and easily. Now all these years later, with Open Banking is a global trend, we are taking the opportunity on evening of the 23rd to again welcome in Open Banking. We will be joined by some great speakers, including x, x and x. Just a few minutes walk from the event and in London for anyone that will be in town that day we will be celebrating in style so please join us for some great networking and a drink or two.
I also wanted to take the opportunity to share my own appreciation for all the great work that has been put into Open Banking. Lets first not forget about the banks and all the effort, sweat and the cost it has taken them to open up this data. For the regulators in supporting this and all the changes that have been happening in the industry. Industry groups like FDATA (link) campaigning for the industry, Innovate Finance (link) for building awareness and all the other event organisers like Open Banking Excellence (link) doing fantastic jobs in creating great opportunity to come together and share insights and learnings. Let's not forget about Fintech Scotland (link) actively pulling together the Scottish community and finally Trust in Digital Life (TDL) currently working on a number of EU projects around PSD2. Being involved in the original Open Banking Working Group was intense, to say the least, but the current level of activity is almost unmanageable (Follow our Frictonliess Finance (link) to try and stay up to speed).
With so much going on I could go on forever but let me leave you with on final though and an ask. We are at the cusp of a huge shift in the market and one of the most potentially disruptive times we will see in financial services with Open Banking being at the heart of this change. That said we have one big challenge left - to consume this data. As an industry, we need to find benefit, build use cases and validate the impact into everyday life. Open Banking at the end of the day is just data, and it is how you use it that counts! So that's the challenge we all have and the ask I have to you - let's find ways to use it! Let us together find ways to build value from it and lets work together in building the momentum to bring Open Banking to everyday lives. It's now up to use to make it happen!
