While PSD2 is driving open banking in Europe, BBVA is taking a proactive approach in the US. The Spanish giant has been operating its Open Platform in beta for six months, allowing third parties that pass security and compliance checks to access, through APIs, a range of the bank's services.

Companies simply plug into a core digital platform and then access APIs including Move Money, Identity Verification, Account Origination, and Card Issuance services.

With dozens of firms registering their interest, and the likes of BBVA-owned Simple already plugged in, the platform is now going live more widely.

Abhishek Gupta, CEO, BBVA Open Platform, says that the "potential it [the platform] will deliver in terms of opening up new lines of business and supporting innovation that can really change the way people and businesses bank is huge. It's a real gamechanger."

Unlike some of its contemporaries, BBVA has been an enthusiastic convert to the open banking era. It moved ahead of the PSD2 requirements in Europe last summer with the launch of an API Market in Spain and has also rolled out several APIs in Mexico.

Ian Ormerod, head, New Digital Business unit, BBVA, says: "BBVA firmly believes that the future of banking is about moving from closed to open systems, where putting customers first and supporting financial services ecosystems will be key to success.

"It's for that reason we moved first in Europe ahead of PSD2, by seeing the regulatory changes as an opportunity not a threat. And it's for this reason too, the opportunity open banking creates, that we are now going first in the United States as well."