September 14th was an important milestone in the march towards Open Banking. It marked the original deadline for implementation of PSD2 or ‘the second Payment Services Directive.’ If you don’t know what that is, and you are currently purchasing (or thinking of purchasing) European consumer transactional data – you may want to read on. In this report, we 1) introduce the ubiquitous, yet often poorly understood, FinTech phenomenon of Open Banking, 2) provide a rough timeline for implementation (with some caveats), and 3) consider the implications of these regulations on both buyers and sellers of alternative data.

WHAT IS OPENING BANKING?

Oh look, another article explaining Open Banking! I know, I know, it is not exactly riveting material, but it is useful to start from the beginning.

Open Banking is a broad descriptor for a series of reforms intended to encourage innovation within the consumer finance sector, whilst also giving consumers more control over their money and financial information.
For individual consumers, OB technology will be used to develop new online and mobile applications for personal finance and debt management, allowing users to have a consolidated view of accounts.

From a technical perspective, this involves: