Open Banking: Global Development and Regulation

Abstract

Open banking ends the proprietary control of customer information by banks and it allows customers to share their banking financial data with third parties as a matter of right. It can also permit customers to allow others to remove funds direct from their bank accounts in return for goods and services. All of this is done securely with standardised ‘application programming interfaces’ (APIs). Open banking has developed in different ways and with different objectives across the globe. This paper is based on a recently published book by Francesco De Pascalis and Alan Brener, Open Banking, Global Development and Regulation, (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxford, 2024).1 It examines the empowering and enabling regulations that have facilitated this. This includes the more competition focused EU and UK as well the more collaborative approaches in many East Asian jurisdictions. It also looks at the use of open banking for socio-economic purpose in Brazil and India. In these jurisdictions open banking forms part of a wider government programme to increase financial inclusion coupled with encouraging economic growth.