Launched in 2018, open banking is a government-backed initiative which – along with the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – set out to change the way consumers can share their financial information among financial service providers, aimed at stimulating competition and encouraging innovation. However, despite the promise of delivering new products to help people manage their finances better, only one in four people was aware of open banking, one year after its launch.

What lies behind the promise of open banking? In the old world of personal finance, banks were of the view that the data they held on their customers was proprietary to them, enabling them to sell financial products exclusively through their own channels. This effectively created a banking monopoly and one which did not necessarily operate in the interests of the consumer. After all, no bank can claim to offer the best of all products at all times.