What is Open Banking and how does it affect you?
Open Banking is a UK Government initiative to remove the barriers that stop your accounts from working better together when they’re held with different building societies, banks and other providers (fintechs). By safely sharing your account information, Open Banking makes it possible for financial technology providers, banks, online retailers and other companies to create innovative new apps, services and products that can help save you time and money. Open Banking is a series of reforms to how banks deal with your financial information, called for by competition watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It comes alongside a regulation with the snappy name ‘the second Payment Services Directive’ (PSD2), which also came into force on 13 January 2018.
Open Banking is very secure, essentially as secure as your online banking
The Open Banking API endpoints have been built by the banks themselves and have been put through extensive testing by both the banks and a number of authorised and regulated third parties
Not only does Open Banking exist within the banks established and highly secure technology platforms, the APIs themselves provide a highly secure way to transfer data. You, as the customer and owner of your data, are the only person who can authorise any connection between your bank and a regulated third party. It means you never have to share your bank login details with anyone, just use them to log in to your online banking as normal. From within your online banking, you can easily control what data you share, with who, for how long and for what reason.
Top tips to steer clear of fraudulent businesses
You should always be aware of fraudulent businesses that could use different techniques to gain access to bank accounts. Here are two things you should always check to ensure you’re using an authorised and regulated third party.
Always check that the third-party you’re sharing your data with is FCA authorised. This means that they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, who check that the business is working to a high financial security standard. You can do this by searching for their company in the FCA register.
When you transfer your data using an Open Banking API, you should always be redirected to your banks website to log in to your online banking. Take the time to check that the website you’ve landed on, is definitely your account providers website and is secure.
Keeping Open Banking secure
Every company that sends us a request gets checked against the Open Banking Directory. This lists companies approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or EU equivalent regulators.
Open Banking Directory – https://www.openbanking.org.uk/regulated-providers/
If a company isn’t listed, we cannot deal with them. This helps further protect your information and money. For additional security, all transfers of information or payment are always done using secure API (Application Programming Interface).
How you can help
Never share your details.
There’s no need to share your account login details, PIN or passwords with the authorised company you have chosen. As long as you keep your details secure, Open Banking is safe to use.
Always read the detail before agreeing to a service or product:
- read the terms and conditions;
- make sure you’re happy with the access you are giving;
- check how your information will be used and who it will be passed to.
What data can you share?
Current account data, your account balance and transactions
How often you can share your data?
You can choose how long you want to share your data with an approved third party. You can stop sharing your data at any time by logging to our internet banking platform or contacting us or the third party.
Managing your Open Banking
You can review or stop another company accessing your data through Open Banking using the FBN Internet Banking website. To review or cancel who you share your data with log into the FBN Internet Banking or You could also cancel sharing data with a company (Third Party Provider) using their cancellation process.
Making payments
If a third party gives you the option of paying for products or services using Open Banking, you’ll be able to allow them to request the payment from your account.
Only authorised third parties who have been given your consent can request a one-off, immediate payment from your current account.
Your security is our priority
Before you can set up Open Banking, you need to register for online banking and have logged in at least once.
Once registered, you can set up Open Banking by giving access to a company you want to share your data with. You could do this by agreeing to give an authorised third-party access on their website or mobile app. You’ll get redirected to us to enter your online banking security details for security purposes. Once they’re granted access, we’ll then redirect you back to the third party and they can start accessing your data. We only give access to information you have agreed to.
The company you want to share data with must be in the Open Banking Directory. For your security, if they’re not listed, we cannot let them access your account data.