We've been working with the industry to deliver open finance, which will give people control over how they manage their money and plan their finances for the future.
In our letter to the PM[2] in January, we committed to completing a variety of work to help accelerate digital innovation. This included using our powers to develop open finance, potentially prioritising small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending.
To support this work, ahead of launching the open finance roadmap and strategy, we are announcing a major new partnership and launching 2 TechSprints.
Smart Data Accelerator
We asked KPMG and Europe Economics to carry out pieces of work[3] on the benefits open banking and open finance could bring for consumers and the financial services sector.
Open banking has laid important groundwork to make everyday banking and payments more diverse and accessible. Open finance has the potential to extend this to more financial services products and services.
The report acknowledges there would be trade-offs regulators will need to consider, to balance the benefits and risks. These include data sharing arrangements, having the right technology in place to do so, and systems and procedures that encourage innovation while ensuring consumers remain protected.
In September we launched our Smart Data Accelerator[4]. This is an extension of our sandbox which will allow us to test real uses of open finance in practice.
We are now collaborating with Raidiam[5] to use their testing environment. This will allow firms participating in the Smart Data Accelerator to simulate and test data sharing. With this, firms will be able to develop smart data solutions that are safe, secure, and designed to benefit people and communities.
Sprints
We are running 2 sprints between 17 November 2025 and 12 February 2026. One will focus on mortgages[6], and one on finance for SMEs[7].
The sprints are now open for registration, so firms, industry, policymakers and international partners can register by 2 November at the links above.
This follows on from the ‘Open Finance Sprint’, we ran in March, which brought together regulators, fintech companies, technology providers and consumer advocates. We developed ideas for how open finance could benefit consumers in everyday life and reported the outcomes[8] in July.
More information
Raidiam[5] has been behind significant sharing developments around the world, including enabling open finance and open insurance in Brazil. Through the partnership, Raidiam will provide our Smart Data Sprint participants with access to a stable testing environment that mirrors real-world conditions.
We support the government’s National Payments Vision (NPV) and ambition for the UK to be a world leader in open finance and open banking. We will continue to work with all the relevant stakeholders, including the government, and will set out a roadmap for open finance by March 2026.