BUILDING A DIGITAL EUROPE

TOGETHER

Open Banking Europe (OBE), a fully owned subsidiary of Konsentus Limited, brings market players together to turn regulatory requirements into operational reality. We champion innovation, competition and efficiency to increase consumer choice and enhance security for online payments in the EU. At the heart of our services are the OBE Community initiative and the Regulatory Directory.

The team, led by John Broxis, are experts in all aspects of open banking and regulatory compliance. They have a long and successful history in delivering regulatory change through collaboration and engagement with regulators and international standards bodies across Europe.

OUR FOUR PILLARS

TRUSTED IN OPEN BANKING

OBE and Konsentus have a long history of successfully delivering Open Banking solutions to financial institutions across Europe.

PAN-EU COVERAGE

OBE offers reach across Europe through a strong and trusted network of business relationships.

MARKET EXPERTS

OBE can rely on experts for interfaces, regulatory practices and on exchange with international standards bodies across Europe.

COMMUNITY LED

Design decisions are made by consensus and priority, so XS2A can follow an agreed and standardised approach.

Participants

OUR SCOPE

The term “Open Banking” generally refers to the way in which banks can make data and services available via interfaces (generally APIs) to authorised service providers or third parties who act on behalf of the customer who owns the account.

In Europe, Open Banking is promoted by the European Commission as part of a digital agenda to open up services, provide choice, and foster competition and innovation in the market.

PSD2 Access to Account (XS2A) is a mandatory regulatory component, under which all institutions that offer payment accounts, must offer access to regulated third party providers. Beyond regulatory compliance, Open Banking is also a strategic line of business.
Open Banking Europe focus is regulatory compliance, with a view to broadening the perspective of the initiative in the future.

Achieving regulatory compliance is not trivial: Institutions must be aware of the PSD2 itself, the technical standards and guidelines published by the European Banking Authority (EBA), technical concepts around APIs and certificates as well as related

regulations (eIDAS and GDPR), national transposition timelines, and national register formats.

The European Retail Payments Board (ERPB) has raised concerns regarding interoperability as well as the number of recommendations issued.

Open Banking Europe provides :

A central repository of information relating to XS2A.
A holistic overview of how the internal and external elements of an Open Banking project can fit together.
Expertise on how national regulatory data can be used between and across countries for XS2A.
Essential directory services needed to check regulatory information and to exchange operational information.

Open Banking Europe does not provide API standards or API software.