Britain’s Financial Regulators to Set Up New Body to Encourage Competition in Banking Services
Britain’s financial regulators announced on Monday plans to establish a new body over the course of the next two years that will promote competition in banking services by facilitating the use of third-party apps from fintech firms.
Open banking, which has already been adopted by 7 million consumers and businesses, allows customers to grant permission for outside companies to access their banking data in order to offer tailored services like lending and payments.
As the country’s fintech sector is currently the third largest in the world with 2,500 companies, the new body will work to expand open banking to other sectors of the economy and help London become a major global fintech hub after Brexit and provide more corporate listings to compete with New York and other European financial centres.
The Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator will work with open banking participants to further analyze the options for the structure, governance, and funding of the proposed entity in the coming months.
