Open Banking opened the door to make data available to third parties to put better decision-making tools in front of consumers. Open Finance aims to go further, sharing not just current account information, but information on savings, lending, mortgages, insurance.

In a world of Open Finance, a consumer can permit access to all his or her data by third parties, allowing them to offer advice on financial wellbeing and create products and services in an informed way, whether it be car insurance, home insurance, loans, credit cards and mortgages.

Through PSD2, Open Banking may have become largely viewed as regulation that had to be complied with. Open Finance, however, might allow institutions to view the bigger picture and think differently about how it can harnessed to improve decision making and design and build products and services to add increased value to their customers.

Could it be Open Finance then that will allow institutions to create better products and services, powered by better decision making, that will drive future growth in financial services in Ireland?

Banks may have quite a narrow perspective about how they use data, so there needs to be an assessment about how data can be harnessed to a more practical outcome and what partnerships are required to help unlock the value of the data they hold.

This is somewhat further along where the industry currently finds itself. Where it is useful to provide consumers with an aggregated view of five accounts in one app, at what point can be used to offer a greater level of financial advice and insight and what would the commercial value of this be?

This could prove to be a powerful area of innovation in the years ahead. What form a post-Covid future will take will invite comparison with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Thereafter, much focus was paid to bad loans and bed debts, while ignoring the customer. In 2020 and beyond, the businesses likely to perform well will be those that look after their customers and provide value in helping them tackle difficult decisions.

Aside from the material impact this would have on helping the customer’s financial wellbeing, it would also provide positive optics for banks in demonstrating that they are finding their way through a difficult period and redefining their position in the market through a customer-focused offering.

To enable the potential of Open Finance, collaboration and partnerships between banks and Fintechs will be more important than ever as will the need to fully embrace hybrid/multi-cloud architectures and quickly learn how to scale and build resilience for business-critical applications.

Through harnessing data and AI, fully embracing digital transformation the right way, and looking for strategic partners to help accelerate time to market and reach, banks can help their customers in their hour of need and protect their own reputations in the very difficult times that lie ahead over the next 12 to 24 months.

This could further provide a key differentiator with the post-2008 environment, when financial services organisations’ reputations suffered collateral damage. The loss of trust from society that institutions suffered cast a long shadow that is still felt today.

This Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Equinix, focuses on:

• The behavioural changes required in digital transformation to embrace Open Finance
• The products and services that institutions should be considering to offer greater value to their customers
• How to architect your IT infrastructure to adapt to this collaborative hybrid-multi-cloud future
   

Speakers:

• Gary Wright - Head of Research, Finextra [Moderator]
• Majeed Suleiman - FinTech Lead, Digital Ecosystems, Allied Irish Banks (AIB)
• Ronan Hughes - Principal Architect, Core Banking and Group Manufacturing, Bank of Ireland
• Adrian Mountstephens - Senior Manager, Payments & Banking, Equinix

> Watch the webinar now