United Kingdom: The Butterfly Effect

Abstract

In Chapter 9, “United Kingdom: The Butterfly Effect,” Gavin Littlejohn, Ghela Boskovich, and Richard Prior of the Financial Data and Technology Association chart the origins of the United Kingdom’s Open Banking regime beginning with the European Union’s plans to revise its Payment Services Directive almost a decade ago. The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority seized the opportunity to enhance the EU approach, and the UK approach has since served as an example for a number of other countries. The authors tell a detailed story of the UK Open Banking journey, including the establishment of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, which is responsible for coordinating the delivery of Open Banking in the UK market. The United Kingdom developed its own standards-based approach, rather than follow the European Union’s specification-oriented approach. The authors describe these divergent paths and detail how the market has been developing since the United Kingdom’s implementation, sharing lessons learned and examining expected future trends.