I don't need much excuse to try new technology, so when my bank started to support Open Banking I jumped in, with low expectations, and not much idea of how useful it would be. Six months later, I am surprised to find that I am using Open Banking facilities on a daily basis, and am eagerly waiting its expansion.
Put simply, Open Banking is a way for customers to allow third-parties to securely access their bank transactions. This allows apps such as Yolt to process and present these transactions in useful ways, and to amalgamate transactions from different banks in a single place. This lets me see at a glance how much I spent on groceries or transport this month, and compare it to last month.It also looks at patterns to predict when upcoming bills we arrive.
I only have one bank account, and have no need for budgeting, so initially thought that I'd be uninstalling Yolt within a few days. However, the major feature it had that my bank's app did not was logging in using my fingerprint. Avoiding having to type in my long secure bank password made looking at my transactions a much more common occurence. The collation of transactions into different types is also somewhat interesting, but more for people who count every penny.
In the future, Open Banking will expand to cover more than just current accounts, into areas such as mortgage and credit card accounts. As well as these elements which will obviously be beneficial to consumers, it could also help in less visible ways. For mortgage applications, a lender could assess your credit worthiness by studying your account history directly, rather than relying on credit reference agencies. For situations where the UK goverment needs to assess your financial status, when applying for a visa, for example, your could simply give them access to your transactions via Open Banking, instead of providing dozens of certified pages of printouts of account statements.
Although Open Banking is not well known amongst the public at the moment, I'm sure that over time it'll be one more element of living in the UK that people expect, and would miss if it were taken away.