The customer must always give consent before account information can actually be shared with service providers. Rabobank is also ready to include account information from other banks in the Rabo app. This will soon make it possible for consumers to check their finances at a glance in the Rabo app.

With PSD2, consumers remain fully in control of their bank details with Rabobank. Rabobank will never share account information without the customer's consent.

With PSD2, banks can share customers' account information with other (financial) service providers so that they can develop new services. It cannot yet be predicted what services will be developed based on this data. Once a consumer has given his or her explicit consent, it may be possible, for example, to add an account held with a different bank in the Rabo app. This makes it very easy to show all current payment transactions or account information together. We expect Rabobank to come up with a service based on PSD2 in due course, which will also make the loan application process simpler, faster and more convenient. Customers will also not need to provide so many details themselves with their application.

The next step towards an open bank

Together with around 750 developers, Rabobank has already spent more than six months in the Sandbox test environment using trial data. On 27 March this year Rabobank released the first PSD2 API for payment initiation services, making it the first Dutch bank to take this step. During the coming period Rabobank will gradually be opening various services for financial and other service providers with a PSD2 license. In doing so the bank will explicitly seek collaboration with other (financial) service providers to develop innovative apps and services. (Financial) service providers collaborating and linking information will benefit the service offered to customers, and customers will have a better overall picture of their finances at their fingertips.

Michiel Kwaaitaal, responsible for payment transactions on behalf of Rabobank: 'It is an important step now for Rabobank to share the link to account information. We would like to see other financial service providers taking this step too, so that we can offer our customers better information, simplicity and convenience should they so wish.'

Better information in the Rabo App

With the implementation of PSD2, Rabobank sees further possibilities for providing even more innovative services to customers. A specific example is the link that already exists with bunq, which allows bunq customers to conduct their banking through the Rabo app too. As soon as other banks make their APIs available in line with PSD2, Rabobank will create the new links and, with the customer's consent, show information from other accounts in the Rabo app.

People check their balances in the Rabo app almost 2 million times a day. Alexander Zwart, responsible for the Rabo app, says: 'If consumers so choose, in a few months the Rabo app will give customers an even better breakdown of their financial situation, from A to Z.'