The program aims to serve as a precursor to the wider adoption of Open Finance across the financial services sector in the United Kingdom by building upon proofs of concept that have already been completed with Citizen Advice and HSBC.

Accessing fresh datasets and having company loan applications automatically filled out can significantly increase the number of SME lending approvals, as the first SME PoC with HSBC showed. According to CFIT, if open finance had been available, 25% of the companies in a sample of SMEs whose loan applications had been sent for manual underwriting might have received funding. They also discovered that fewer SMEs would give up on applications as a result.

The organization is urging other SME lenders, such as Barclays, to unite behind a project that it claims has the ability to address a £22 billion funding gap for UK SMEs in exchange for the functional prototype.

Additionally, Barclays Bank and the CFIT are collaborating on pilot projects to improve the support given to vulnerable customers by Citizens Advice client teams. These teams will be able to utilize publicly available financial data to provide more comprehensive guidance to individuals who are grappling with debt loads and money concerns.

This initiative expands on a dashboard that CFIT and Citizens Advice previously created to show how enabling CA clients to easily share their financial data could help 40% more consumers who are experiencing financial difficulties and distress by offering tailored financial advice, helping an additional 150,000 people annually.

Jason Turner, director of open banking at Barclays Bank, comments on the bank's participation in the CFIT Taskforce, saying that "cross-industry technology will play a vital role in meeting their evolving needs." The environment in which businesses and consumers operate is changing quickly.

"CFIT launched in 2023 with a mission to enhance the UK's fintech sector and deliver benefits for consumers and SMEs - and the entire economy," says Ezechi Britton, CEO of CFIT. With the creation of industry-led collaborations, we are successfully executing this purpose by transforming Open Finance proofs of concept into operational prototypes in specific regions of the United Kingdom.