FCA shares feedback on the new standard setting body for open banking

There has been significant progress in open banking over the past 6 months, and we want to build upon that momentum. This includes the industry-led work to establish a new organisation that will support the rollout of variable recurring payments for some types of household bills later this year.  

Open banking has the potential to support economic growth in the UK by making payments faster, cheaper and more efficient for people and businesses. It will also enable firms to develop products and services, which make it easier for consumers to manage their finances and pay for goods.  

The open banking standards provided by the Future Entity are expected to be used by commercial open banking schemes promoting innovation in the sector. 

The Future Entity is expected to monitor the quality and consistency of technologies used in open banking. This should help inform our supervision of firms.

We will be engaging with industry and other stakeholders to decide upon the best way forward to standing up the Future Entity, helping to create a more thriving and innovative open banking industry.

Matthew Long, director of payments and digital finance at the FCA, said:  

'This is the next step in realising our vision of a more innovative, safe and competitive payments sector, which embraces technological change to better serve people and businesses.

'We expect the Future Entity to play a central role in the next phase of open banking, setting and monitoring the standards that underpin the industry.

'However, we can't realise this future alone. Our engagement and support from industry continues to play a vital role in the future of open banking, as we build on the momentum we’ve seen in the past 6 months.' 

More information

1. Read the Feedback Statement 25/4: Design of the Future Entity for UK open banking[1].
2. The feedback statement follows a JROC policy paper[2] setting out proposals for the design of the future entity for UK open banking.
3. Open banking is a focus area for the us as set out in our recent strategy[3].
4. The Future Entity is expected to provide the core standards for open banking services – API standards and oversight. We expect this body to be not for profit, and to collect revenue on an equitable basis to recover costs and invest. We plan to discuss this with industry.  
5. Separately, there will be a competitive layer of open banking schemes, which operate commercially. We expect these schemes to utilise the common API standards developed and overseen by the Future Entity, but they may innovate above these standards to provide premium services.  
6. APIs allow different firms’ software applications to communicate and interact with each other, exchanging data quickly and securely. This allows for greater data sharing.
7. Underlying payments infrastructure provides the payments rails for open banking payments. The future of this infrastructure layer (including the governance and potential upgrades) is being led by the Payments Vision Delivery Committee and the Vision Engagement Group.