Establishing a “clear strategy” and “production line” for Open Finance have been identified as priorities by speakers at the Open Banking Limited (OBL) Strategy Summit.
During a panel debate, titled ‘Expanding Horizons: Driving adoption and innovation in Open Banking and beyond’, panellists were asked by moderator Luke Ryder, strategy and policy director at OBL, what the main questions are that require answers, potentially from the new government.
Adam Jackson, chief strategy officer at Innovate Finance
Adam Jackson, Innovate Finance’s chief strategy officer, identified building a Smart Data economy as one of several “missions” in the UK, as well as needing a “clear strategy” on Open Finance, which established priority datasets, differentiating between those that are “ready to go” and ones that need mandates.
He added it would be “helpful to have a production line for Open Finance” and cited the work conducted by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology specifically on Open Finance use cases.
Phillip Mind, director for digital technology and innovation at UK Finance, said one of the key questions he would like answered is, what the plan is for a UK digital identity.
Mind also called for clarity on the digital transformation underway in payments and how work on the digital pound, as well as the New Payments Architecture and other schemes, might come together.
“Can we not just crack on with the Future Entity?” Mind asked, in reference to the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s (JROC) proposals for the design of the Future Entity that will replace OBL.
For TrueLayer’s chief executive officer Francesco Simoneschi, one “barrier to growth” has been the “stop/start around variable recurring payments”, as a result of “anticipating what the regulator wants” in the future.
Simoneschi said there is a “need to build products that people want to use” and which “increase convenience and control for consumers” and suggested the industry focus on a particular use case every year in a “clear statement of intent”.
Phillip Mind, UK Finance
This week, OBL announced that active users of Open Banking in the UK reached 10 million in June and that one in five SMEs regularly use Open Banking technology.
OBL’s Strategy Summit followed the inclusion of the new Digital Information and Smart Data (DISD) Bill in the King’s Speech on 17 July, after the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill failed to make it through Parliament before the general election.
Anna Harvey, deputy director at HM Treasury, who also took part in the panel session at the Strategy Summit, said that Smart Data has been “prioritised to take forward in the first legislative session”, but that it “does still set us back” and she didn’t know “what the timing will look like”.
However, she suggested that the Bill’s “provisions should be broadly similar to those in the DPDI Bill”.
The King’s Speech stated that the new Bill will give “statutory footing to three innovative uses of data that people can choose to participate in”, one of which is Digital Verification Services.
Also taking part in the panel was Chris Pointon, product manager, data services at Icebreaker One, who discussed its Perseus project which is focused on the automation of SMEs’ emissions reporting to unlock finance for small businesses.
He explained how Bankers for Net Zero and Icebreaker One have convened a cross-sector coalition to build a consensus.
This year, Open Banking Expo UK & Europe features two co-located shows – the Open Finance Show and the Smart Data Show. Find out more about the speaker line-up and agenda, and register for a ticket here.
