All parties involved in the transaction cycle, from the merchant to the customer, can directly profit from open banking and open finance. Still, there are several obstacles that prevent everyone from fully benefiting from it. More than 60 partners, led by CFIT, including Citizens Advice, Experian, EY, the FCA, FDATA, HSBC, IBM, Iwoca, KPMG, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, Monzo, Revolut, and numerous other trade associations, collaborated to create innovative approaches that removed the aforementioned obstacles to safe data-sharing in the financial services sector.

The CEO of CFIT, Ezechi Britton, stated: "There is a huge reward for doing open finance correctly. It offers simpler access to more cheap loans and greater financial management for consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises. The fintech industry presents a chance for the UK to lead the globe in growth and set global norms. Additionally, it neatly aligns with the government's larger goal of creating a smart data economy.


"We would want to express our gratitude to our coalition partners for their excellent effort thus far. We are now eager to collaborate with the government and business community to strengthen the case for releasing the required datasets, scale the Coalition's proofs of concept, investigate use cases outside of the credit sector, and identify the business model and future framework that will promote safe data-sharing across financial services as we embrace open finance, now that the business case for open finance has been conclusively demonstrated.

Realizing open finance's full potential
 

In addition to a plan for the future of open finance that enables consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises to access and exchange a larger variety of their financial data, CFIT releases two "proofs of concept" created by the coalition that demonstrate the whole capabilities of this technology.

• A dashboard created in collaboration with Citizens assistance demonstrates how improved data-sharing may help 40 PER CNET more people who are struggling financially by offering them individualized financial assistance. This might help an additional 150,000 people per year. Customers of Citizens Advice could opt to easily share financial information with the charity, according to the proof of concept. As a result, advisors would have more time to provide guidance instead of having to spend time gathering and analyzing large amounts of data.
• Greater financing to SMEs could be facilitated by open finance, according to a successful pilot study conducted with HSBC UK. It proved that lending choices can be much enhanced by having access to new datasets and having business loan applications automatically filled up. According to the exercise, if open finance had been available, more than 25% of the companies in a sample of SMEs whose loan applications had been sent for manual underwriting and who were at risk of losing out on credit could have been able to obtain financing. The study, which made use of fictitious data and SMEs' characteristics based on HSBC business clients, also demonstrated that adopting open finance may reduce the amount of companies quitting on applications before they finish.

The financial services and fintech sectors in the UK will have access to these proofs of concept. They will therefore be incorporated into finished prototypes. The new collaborations and Open Finance roadmap that were previously demanded by the UK Fintech Kalifa Review are also included in today's report.

Putting the Kalifa Review to use

A group called CFIT was established last year at the suggestion of the Kalifa Review. Its goals are to unlock the potential GDP growth of £30.5 billion that open finance and personal data mobility are thought to be capable of generating.
 

These include creating an open finance roadmap as part of a long-term regulatory framework and designating an implementation body empowered to carry out this work; this body might be modeled after Open Banking Ltd. (OBL, formerly OBIE), which has been successful in leading open banking in the UK. At the conclusion of Q1, the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee and OBL will lay out their plans, which include a proposal for a new implementation organization to handle work outside of the CMA Order and a vision for the delivery of open banking in the future.

Additional suggestions in the Coalition's report
 

• forming a taskforce to advance the Coalition's efforts to give priority to additional ways that open finance can benefit consumers and businesses in addition to financing. Cash flow management, digital ID, savings and investments, retirement and pensions, and other possible use cases were noted.
• the creation of a workable business plan to encourage companies to exchange financial data in a secure manner, building on the work done by JROC on future entity design principles and the newly released Future of Payments Review.

dedication to the endeavor
 

"I'm delighted to see the progress that CFIT has made in unlocking secure data-sharing across the financial services ecosystem, and excited by the transformational impact this could have over the coming years," stated Bim Afolami MP, economic secretary to the Treasury. It's also positive to see a wide range of businesses and nonprofits working together to influence the direction of open finance.

"This government's dedication to financial services innovation is evident in the creation of CFIT. In addition, I am excited to collaborate closely with them as they advance the following stage of their plan.


"As the world's leading financial innovation hub, the City of London Corporation recognises the transformative potential of Open Finance for the UK economy," stated Chris Hayward, chairman of the company's policy committee. CFIT is demonstrating the ability to use financial data to improve financial outcomes for SMEs and consumers through its first alliance.

"We are dedicated to supporting smart data efforts, like the one that CFIT has undertaken, in order to foster innovation, increase consumer choice, and fortify the financial ecosystem. The success of CFIT's Open Finance Coalition depends on cooperation between regulators, financial institutions, fintech businesses, and other stakeholders in order to remove barriers.