Open Banking Will Grow The Whole Economy Not Only Fintech

I went to Las Vegas for Money20/20, one of the lighthouse events for me and a great many other fintech fans. I’m not saying this to make you jealous — although you should be, because I had a lot of fun and I won a couple of hundred dollars at blackjack — but because I was thinking about how at the same time last year Cameron D’Ambrosi wrote in the Liminal newsletter that Money 20/20 “isn’t a digital identity conference, but payments are more anchored on digital identity than ever before”. I couldn’t agree more. I was therefore not surprised to see plenty more talk about digital identity there this year, which was great because I never get bored talking about digital identity. What surprised me though was that I spent even more time talking about open banking. It has arrived in America.

1033 And All That

This time last year I wrote that governments across the globe were embracing open finance and noted that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had committed to finalise open banking rules for the U.S. by the end of this year. The Director of the CFB Rohit Chopra said on stage at last year’s Money20/20 that the Bureau would propose requiring financial institutions offering deposit accounts, credit cards, digital wallets, prepaid cards, and other transaction accounts to set up secure methods (such as APIs) for data sharing. Well, they have.