The UK’s open banking ecosystem has reached two landmark milestones, with more than one billion payments and 100 billion API calls recorded since the launch of open banking more than eight years ago.
Open banking has enabled millions of consumers and businesses to access financial services, make account-to-account payments, and manage their finances.
The latest figures demonstrate that adoption continues to strengthen. During June, the ecosystem recorded 2.81 billion API calls – an increase of 4.4% month-on-month and the highest monthly volume recorded to date. There were over 40 million open banking payments made in the same month.
While single domestic payments declined by 1.2%, continued growth of variable recurring payments (VRPs) – which increased by 6.7% month-on-month – helped maintain overall payment volumes and highlighted a growing area of innovation.
In March, analysis from EY found that a fully “unlocked” open banking regime could add £43bn a year to the British economy.
The report suggested that annual economic benefits of open banking could reach £7.4bn after five years, while a fully mature and adopted regime supported by the public and private sector could jump to £43bn.
“These milestones reinforce the UK’s position as a global leader in open banking and demonstrate an ecosystem that continues to scale in both volume and capability,” says Henk Van Hulle, CEO of Open Banking Limited.
“As adoption increases and new use cases emerge, open banking will play an increasingly vital role in supporting competition, innovation and growth across the UK’s financial services landscape.
“As we look ahead, our focus remains on building on these achievements. By continuing to strengthen resilience, performance and innovation, we can unlock even greater value for consumers, businesses and the wider economy, while supporting the next phase of the UK’s open banking and open finance journey.”
In December, UKTN reported that cases of fraud linked to open banking payments remained well below the wider industry average, despite the technology’s increased use and the rising rates of scams.
