Definition
Open banking enables third-party fintech providers to access and leverage bank data through regulated APIs, reducing friction in payments, lending, and financial services. Built on standards like PSD2 (EU), Australia’s consumer-data-right, OAuth, and open protocols enabling multi-provider financial ecosystems.
Agentic Finance on Open Banking Rails
- 2026-10-02: wemoney Connect Agentic Assess applies lender credit policies to CDR data via mastercard Open Finance — source-linked evidence trail for credit decisions (2026-10-02-wemoney-agentic-assess-finextra)
Key Components
- Pay by Bank: Direct bank-to-bank payment without card intermediaries; user authentication via bank credentials
- Account Aggregation: Consolidated view of accounts across multiple banks
- Payment Initiation: Third-party apps triggering bank transfers on behalf of users
- Data Sharing: Secure access to transaction history, balances, account details
Market Drivers
- Cost Reduction: Lower transaction fees vs. card networks
- Speed: Near-real-time settlement vs. ACH delays
- User Experience: Unified dashboard across multiple financial providers
- Regulatory Mandate: PSD2 (Europe) requires banks to open APIs
Recent M&A Context (2026)
- 2026-09-14: chift raises €10.5M Series A for financial-apis connecting AI agents to 120+ European financial systems (2026-09-14-chift-series-a-tech-eu-primary)
Mollie’s €1.1 billion acquisition of GoCardless (Sep 2026) combines:
- Mollie: Card acquiring + local payments
- GoCardless: Direct Debit + Pay by Bank across 38 countries
Combined entity positioning open banking as core offering across 350,000+ businesses.