Q1 2020 Open Banking tracker

Since Q3 2019, we’ve been providing a quarterly update on the progress of Open Banking across Europe and beyond. This quarter, we’re using data from Konsentus[1], a Software as a Service (SaaS) company. 

We continue to track the number of third parties that are registered with National Competent Authorities across the European Economic Area (cross-referenced with EBA registers), and the types of services they’re registered to provide. In order to allow for a slight variation in methodologies from previous quarters to this one (and going forward), we’re reporting Q1 2020 figures as a snapshot in time.

Headlines to 31 March 2020:

• 279 third-parties have registered with a European national competent authority
• The UK continues to lead Europe with 129 ‘home’ registrations
• Every European country has at least 44 registered third parties owing to European passporting arrangements
• 94 percent of third parties are registered to provide account information services

Read a full summary of growth and progress in Open Banking for Q1 2020 below.

Open Banking to Q1 2020

Number of registrations

At the end of Q4 2019, we reported that the rate of new third-party registrations had slowed. We attributed this to a maturation of the market after the flurry for banks to comply with the PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standard in the previous quarter.

Konsentus’s records show a 11.1 percent increase in third-party registrations from 13 November 2019 to 15 January 2020. From 15 January to 31 March 2020 the rate of increase slowed further to 7.3 percent. As of 31 March 2020, a total 279 third parties are registered with a National Competent Authority in Europe.

When it comes to location of these registrations, the UK remains out in front. 129 or 46 percent of third parties are registered at ‘home’ in the UK, and a total 169 are permitted to provide services in the UK under European passporting arrangements. Passporting allows a firm registered in the European Economic Area (EEA) to do business in any other EEA state without the need for further authorisation from each country.

Germany follows closest with 35 or 12.5 percent of home registrations, shortly ahead of Sweden with 24 or 8.6 percent of home registrations. Biggest growth over the period is in Italy, which now has two home registrations, whereas before it had none. Lithuania has also seen two new registrations at home. The spread of home registrations across Europe continues to grow.

Every European country has at least 44 registered third parties under passporting arrangements, including those that have no home registrations.

Types of solutions

Our latest data shows that 263 third-party providers, or 94 percent, are registered to provide account information services in Europe. This includes 128 (46 percent) that are registered to provide both account information and payment initiation services, and 135 (48 percent) that are registered to provide only account information services. Sixteen providers (6 percent) are solely registered as payment initiation service providers.

Taking liberty to draw a loose comparison between these numbers and those previously reported, it suggests third-party providers that had initially registered as payment service providers have since additionally registered to provide account information services. It’s likely, we assume, that third-party propositions relating to account information are easier to bring to market.

Nevertheless, its good to see the strides being made across the region to bring open banking-enabled services to people and businesses in Europe.

Information correct as of 11 May 2020
Konsentus analysis of NCA and EBA registers

[1] In June 2019, Mastercard led a multi-million-pound pre-Series A funding round in Konsentus