WTF? What is open about a system that only very few organisations can use? Imagine in the paper world, now you not only can ask the bank how much money you have, you can also authorize other companies to look at your account statements for you ... but noone got the idea that maybe you, the account holder, should be able to get a copy of the account statements?<p>It seems we are still at the "reading and writing is for monks" stage of digital technology? God forbid the laypeople themselves use pen and paper!
> Open Banking is a term that describes a secure set of technologies and standards that allow customers to give <i>companies</i> other than their bank or building society permission to securely access their accounts.<p>Does it have to be another company or will I be able to write my own software that has access to my bank account?
I think this is the UK's implementation of EU PSD2 directive (e.g.
[1]) so may not survive brexit. Looking forward to what'll come out of it though!<p>[1]
<a href="https://www.tsys.com/news-innovation/whats-new/Articles-and-Blogs/nGenuity-Journal/how-europes-psd2-regulation-could-spark-a-banking-revolution.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.tsys.com/news-innovation/whats-new/Articles-and-...</a>
Wow, the UK is really embracing technology. You can do so much electronically though the Gov.uk website already, and you can even access your NHS medical record via a phone app. Being able to consume banking data via an API will no doubt open up a suite of more useful apps, that can help with managing budgets and planning for the future etc.
Why would anyone ever want to let a 3rd party company manage their bank account? I barely trust my bank yo do that...<p>I'm afraid that some companies will try to force it upon customers as well. Starting with: "If you allow us to manage your purchase it will get even faster (oh and we get access to all of your financial info), and you also get a useless gadget!"
“Open Banking is a term that describes a secure set of technologies and standards that allow customers to give companies other than their bank or building society permission to securely access their accounts."<p>I can't tell if this is super-useful for the end consumer, or just another way for e.g. Google to mine your data in return for some superficial benefits.
I've read through their website a few times. Whilst it's easy to find the specs and a list of banks participating - you can even find some example code on GitHub - it's incredibly hard to find out what you actually have to do to be able to access the APIs. I appreciate that banking data is sensitive, but I think the on boarding process could be made a lot clearer.
UK government is certainly on a good path of improving technological side of it. Along with more and more OpenData initiatives and migrating to FOSS (e.g. LibreOffice) it leads the efforts of many countries.
I haven't seen a Marquee/Ticker on a website for quite a few years.<p>The "Background to Open Banking" page made the fans start running on my (fairly good) laptop.<p>If this is a sign of the technology behind it, it's not a good sign.