Open banking is changing the structure of financial services by allowing customers to authorize regulated third-party providers to access and use financial information through secure application programming interfaces (APIs). Banks, fintechs, payment companies, and digital platforms are increasingly using these connections to develop account aggregation, payment initiation, financial management, credit assessment, and digital onboarding services. The shift is encouraging greater interoperability while creating new expectations around security, consent, and customer control.
A comprehensive analysis by MarkNtel Advisors examines the global open banking industry report, covering retail banking, corporate banking, capital markets, distribution channels, deployment models, and regional developments. The study identifies government support, digital transformation, payment innovation, cloud adoption, and simplified onboarding as important forces shaping adoption, while data-security risks associated with API-based financial-data sharing remain a significant challenge.
Government Support Strengthens Open Banking Adoption
Regulatory initiatives are providing a foundation for open banking by establishing frameworks for secure data access and third-party participation. Europe's PSD2 framework was an important step in developing account-information and payment-initiation services, while other countries are introducing their own approaches to financial-data sharing.
The European Central Bank has emphasized the importance of dedicated interfaces for third-party access, noting that API-based access can provide a secure and reliable method for connecting payment accounts with authorized providers.
These regulatory developments are encouraging financial institutions to modernize infrastructure while creating opportunities for fintech companies to build services around existing banking relationships.
Payments Become a Major Open Banking Application
Payment services are becoming an important application within open banking. Instead of relying exclusively on traditional card rails, customers can authorize payments directly from bank accounts through regulated third-party interfaces.
This model can simplify transactions for consumers and merchants while creating opportunities for fintech companies to integrate account-based payments into e-commerce, financial-management platforms, and other digital applications. The MarkNtel analysis identifies payments within both retail and corporate banking as a segment gaining momentum as technology-driven providers expand their financial-service offerings.
The European Central Bank's recent payments strategy also highlights the potential of payment-account access and third-party payment initiation to support new payment solutions beyond basic regulatory requirements.
Digital Onboarding Becomes More Efficient
Open banking is also changing customer onboarding by reducing the amount of information customers need to enter manually. Authorized providers can retrieve relevant account information and transaction history through secure connections, helping streamline applications for financial products.
This capability is particularly useful for lending, personal financial management, account opening, and credit assessment. Automated access to financial information can improve data consistency while reducing repetitive documentation.
The source analysis identifies the facelift of the onboarding process as a key trend. As financial institutions compete to provide simpler digital experiences, open banking can help connect customer data with automated verification and decision-making processes.
Cloud Deployment Supports Scalability
Cloud-based deployment is gaining importance as financial institutions seek scalable infrastructure for open-banking applications. Cloud environments can help organizations connect APIs, analytics platforms, payment systems, and customer-facing applications without relying entirely on traditional infrastructure.
Hybrid deployment is also gaining attention because it allows institutions to retain sensitive workloads within controlled environments while using cloud infrastructure for applications requiring greater flexibility.
This architecture can be particularly relevant for established banks that need to modernize legacy systems while maintaining control over sensitive financial information.
Europe Remains a Key Open Banking Hub
Europe continues to play an important role in open banking because of regulatory development, API standardization, and established digital-payment infrastructure. The source study identifies Europe as the leading regional market and highlights the UK and France for their progress in API standardization.
European payment infrastructure is also moving toward greater real-time connectivity. The ECB's Instant Payments framework requires payment service providers to progressively support instant euro transfers and verification of payees.
The combination of open banking and instant payments could support more integrated account-to-account payment experiences across European markets.
Cross-Border Payments Create New Opportunities
Open banking is increasingly relevant to cross-border financial activity. API-based connectivity can help payment providers verify customers, access authorized financial information, and initiate transactions without requiring extensive manual processes.
The development of interoperable instant-payment infrastructure is reinforcing this opportunity. The Bank for International Settlements' Project Nexus is designed to connect domestic instant-payment systems internationally, with the objective of making cross-border payments faster and more accessible.
Such infrastructure can complement open-banking services by connecting account-based payments with increasingly interoperable payment networks.
Security Remains a Critical Challenge
The sharing of financial information through APIs also introduces cybersecurity and privacy risks. Unauthorized access, weak authentication, API vulnerabilities, and data breaches can create financial and reputational consequences for banks and third-party providers.
The open-banking ecosystem therefore depends on strong customer authentication, secure communication, consent management, encryption, access controls, and continuous monitoring. Standardized interfaces can also help improve consistency across financial institutions.
The challenge is to create convenient data-sharing experiences without weakening customer control over sensitive financial information.
CBDCs Could Expand Open Banking Use Cases
Central bank digital currencies could create additional opportunities for open-banking providers. As central banks explore digital forms of sovereign money, financial institutions may need infrastructure capable of connecting digital currencies with existing banking, payment, identity, and data-sharing systems.
The MarkNtel study identifies CBDCs as an opportunity because banks and financial-service providers may need new APIs and technology capabilities to integrate emerging digital-currency infrastructure with existing financial ecosystems.
Competitive Landscape
The competitive environment includes Finleap, Revolut, Tink, Salesforce, Worldline, Tata Consultancy Services, Capgemini, Oracle, Finicity, Jack Henry & Associates, Finastra, Virtusa, and Plaid, among others, according to the source analysis.
Competition increasingly centers on API connectivity, payment initiation, account aggregation, cloud infrastructure, onboarding, data analytics, security, and integration capabilities.
Outlook for Open Banking
Open banking is moving beyond basic account-data access toward broader financial connectivity involving payments, digital onboarding, financial management, credit decisioning, cloud platforms, and real-time payment infrastructure. Increasing regulatory support and digital transformation are likely to encourage wider adoption across established banks and fintech ecosystems.
The next phase will depend heavily on secure APIs, standardized interfaces, customer-controlled data sharing, and interoperability between domestic and cross-border payment systems. As these components mature, open banking can increasingly function as a foundation for connected financial services rather than simply a mechanism for sharing account information.
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